Monday, January 30, 2012

Living as a Writer for Dummies

Is there a manual for that?
While I may sneer at the work of some writers, saying its too pulpy or poorly written, the truth of it is they are swimming in the money while I am clutching the caboose of the money train by my fingernails. My life long dream has always been to make a living as a writer, but that is easier said than done. You see the success of those writers on the bestseller list and it boggles the mind, BOGGLES. How did they get there, did they live in near poverty and slum housing trying to make ends meet? How many of them stared at 20 bucks in the bank account to get them through week even though they worked a full time job and supported two kids? Some writers are complete rags to riches stories, but some never rise out of the trenches.

We can't all be Kings and Rowlings.

I'd be happy to make enough off my writing to quit my day job, I don't need a castle.
Which brings up point number two. Until I am successful, if ever, writing the material I want to, is there any avenue of writing I can pursue to help garner funds?
I've thought about going into business with a cohort to do a biographies business.
I've also though about the very lucrative enterprise of smut. All I need to do is teach myself to write a decent sex scene.
Exercise for this week: come up with some outlines and characters for a smut novel! Go!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I did it, Adrian!!!!

After an intensely paced final inning, today I officially completed the first draft of The Blue Zone.
This book has been three years in the making, from its humble whimsical beginnings on Three Knaves, transforming under the eyes of writing peers in a graduate studies program, to being the only solace I had in a hellish year.
And the best part of it is I have already started the outline for book two.

For now, I'm giving the book some space, letting it breath like a glass of wine. I need to come back to it with some fresh perspective and rested eyes.
I'm looking to tackle it sometime in the next week or two, and begin the grueling process of editing.

And then I'll need readers....