It’s hard to believe I looked up one day and hadn’t posted here in almost a decade.
So, why am I posting now? Well, I’ve learned a lot and thought I’d share what I’d learned with everyone in case any of you find value in it.
So, since 2014 I’ve only completed two manuscripts. I’m working on my third one now. I’ve also had a couple of false starts in there and several years where I didn’t write at all. I did complete my bachelor’s degree. So, it wasn’t time wasted and I’ve gone a long way in my day job. So, again, not time wasted.
I’ve decided to start self-publishing, but I’m still a few years out from that. My goal is to have 5-7 books ready when I start. I want to be able to drop the first two back to back and then drop the rest at a rate of one every 4 months. My research has told me that’s a good way to do it. People are more likely to take a chance on a new writer if there are already multiple goods out.
Now, what have I been writing? Back in the 90s, I wrote a d&d story about a group of adventurers and I always wanted to work with them in a series of novels. Around 2015 I first tried my hand at it, but it didn’t go well. I was trying to write an overly complicated prequel and while everything I saw indicated I was writing the kind of book people were reading, it didn’t do anything for me. It wasn’t until the next summer when I was working 12-hour shifts seven days a week and not playing any d&d or any other TTRPGs either (which have always been one of my passions) that I started writing a more straightforward adventure about those characters. I had a blast and was soon over a hundred pages in, but because of some career changes and school, I put it down and didn’t return to it for almost five years. I really picked up in late 2020 and started killing it. I got the first book almost finished and ended up finishing it in early 2022. My brother read it and immediately asked for the next one. From about March 2022 to December 2022 I wrote and edited the sequel. It was an incredible feeling. I finished writing it in late August or early September and then began editing. In December, on the 27th or 28th I had about 100 pages left to edit and I challenged myself to finish it by new years. I made it. This feeling was incredible. And I hope all of you get to experience it.
I started part three on the first of January and I’m currently north of 380 pages, a rate of about five pages per day.
So, this is the part some of you are most likely to find interesting. I think in terms of lines. A standard word doc page with one in margins, double spaced, with no space after paragraphs, using a 12-pt times new roman font is approximately 23 lines per page. I try to write 115 lines (or five pages) per day. This is just the way it works best for me and it’s how I recommend people who don’t have their own method track their output. I literally use a piece of notebook paper. I write the last couple of words from the previous day at the top to remind myself where I started and every time I count my lines, next to the number I put the last few words of that line so I can find it with no trouble. The most important part is if I end a chapter and I put in a page break, I don’t give myself credit for the rest of the page. So, if the last page of the chapter only has five lines on it, then it counts as five lines, not 23. That means over time I start to pull ahead with each chapter.
I use Grammarly for punctuation and grammar. It works pretty well and I’m planning to upgrade to the pay version later this year.
I also bought Scrivener for Christmas last year. So, I’ve been able to see what my manuscripts will look like as books. I still have to do some work to figure out the formatting, but it’s an incredible feeling to see.
These days, I’m also spending a lot of time trying to study entrepreneurship and branding to try and figure out how to best market myself as an author. I recommend Crushing It by Gary V. I listened to it on audiobook and he has a lot of advice on how to use social media to grow a brand. I also listened to the Steal Like an Artist trilogy by Austin Kleon which has a lot of inspiration for how to get better at your craft and how to stick with it.
The final thing I want to say is, I wrote my first manuscript around 2008 or so. I recently looked at it and while I feel like it has good bones I recognize that it’s not great. I’m sure I still have a ways to go, but I’ve definitely leveled up over the last 15 years. I’ve gotten a lot of sets and reps in as a writer and I really believe I have the capacity to be successful when I launch in a few years. I hope that if any of you are feeling discouraged you can stick with it and I hope that you get that experience too, that opportunity to look back and see how much you’ve grown.
So, why am I posting now? Well, I’ve learned a lot and thought I’d share what I’d learned with everyone in case any of you find value in it.
So, since 2014 I’ve only completed two manuscripts. I’m working on my third one now. I’ve also had a couple of false starts in there and several years where I didn’t write at all. I did complete my bachelor’s degree. So, it wasn’t time wasted and I’ve gone a long way in my day job. So, again, not time wasted.
I’ve decided to start self-publishing, but I’m still a few years out from that. My goal is to have 5-7 books ready when I start. I want to be able to drop the first two back to back and then drop the rest at a rate of one every 4 months. My research has told me that’s a good way to do it. People are more likely to take a chance on a new writer if there are already multiple goods out.
Now, what have I been writing? Back in the 90s, I wrote a d&d story about a group of adventurers and I always wanted to work with them in a series of novels. Around 2015 I first tried my hand at it, but it didn’t go well. I was trying to write an overly complicated prequel and while everything I saw indicated I was writing the kind of book people were reading, it didn’t do anything for me. It wasn’t until the next summer when I was working 12-hour shifts seven days a week and not playing any d&d or any other TTRPGs either (which have always been one of my passions) that I started writing a more straightforward adventure about those characters. I had a blast and was soon over a hundred pages in, but because of some career changes and school, I put it down and didn’t return to it for almost five years. I really picked up in late 2020 and started killing it. I got the first book almost finished and ended up finishing it in early 2022. My brother read it and immediately asked for the next one. From about March 2022 to December 2022 I wrote and edited the sequel. It was an incredible feeling. I finished writing it in late August or early September and then began editing. In December, on the 27th or 28th I had about 100 pages left to edit and I challenged myself to finish it by new years. I made it. This feeling was incredible. And I hope all of you get to experience it.
I started part three on the first of January and I’m currently north of 380 pages, a rate of about five pages per day.
So, this is the part some of you are most likely to find interesting. I think in terms of lines. A standard word doc page with one in margins, double spaced, with no space after paragraphs, using a 12-pt times new roman font is approximately 23 lines per page. I try to write 115 lines (or five pages) per day. This is just the way it works best for me and it’s how I recommend people who don’t have their own method track their output. I literally use a piece of notebook paper. I write the last couple of words from the previous day at the top to remind myself where I started and every time I count my lines, next to the number I put the last few words of that line so I can find it with no trouble. The most important part is if I end a chapter and I put in a page break, I don’t give myself credit for the rest of the page. So, if the last page of the chapter only has five lines on it, then it counts as five lines, not 23. That means over time I start to pull ahead with each chapter.
I use Grammarly for punctuation and grammar. It works pretty well and I’m planning to upgrade to the pay version later this year.
I also bought Scrivener for Christmas last year. So, I’ve been able to see what my manuscripts will look like as books. I still have to do some work to figure out the formatting, but it’s an incredible feeling to see.
These days, I’m also spending a lot of time trying to study entrepreneurship and branding to try and figure out how to best market myself as an author. I recommend Crushing It by Gary V. I listened to it on audiobook and he has a lot of advice on how to use social media to grow a brand. I also listened to the Steal Like an Artist trilogy by Austin Kleon which has a lot of inspiration for how to get better at your craft and how to stick with it.
The final thing I want to say is, I wrote my first manuscript around 2008 or so. I recently looked at it and while I feel like it has good bones I recognize that it’s not great. I’m sure I still have a ways to go, but I’ve definitely leveled up over the last 15 years. I’ve gotten a lot of sets and reps in as a writer and I really believe I have the capacity to be successful when I launch in a few years. I hope that if any of you are feeling discouraged you can stick with it and I hope that you get that experience too, that opportunity to look back and see how much you’ve grown.
