How?

I’ve been to enough writer’s conferences, read enough books about writing, and been part of enough conversations about writing, to know the question, “How do I write a book?” comes up more than frequently.

It’s a question with a simple answer, one that seems almost rude to say to someone: you just have to sit down and do it.

I can’t tell you how to write a book. I can only tell you what I’ve done. Which will probably not help you much because you and I are not the same person. But like I said in the intro to this writing blog, maybe there’s a nugget of truth or wisdom in this somewhere that makes sense to you as you’re putting it all together.

What’s changed my writing is routine. I work on a computer all day long and have for decades, and the last thing I want to do is spend more time in the evening starting at an empty Word document. For the first several books i wrote, the unpublished ones, I actually wrote them in notebooks. Longhand. Yes, it took longer, and I had to eventually transcibe the notebooks into an electronic document. It worked for me at the time, though. A notebook was portable and didn’t require two minutes to boot up.I’m a fast typist and naturally the move to writing on a laptop eventually became my preferred method.

One thing that’s really helped is the flexibility of writing on a computer. By that, I mean if I need to move around chapters or sections, I can do it easily. If I need to refer to a scene earlier in the book, I can search easily. I can keep multiple drafts and history for later reference. And when I go down a rabbit trail or decide that the book is going in the wrong direction, I can easily delete a block of text and pick up where I want to. There’s nothing quite like highlighting 10,000 words and hitting the ‘Delete’ button. Trust me: it happens.

What about the routine part I mentioned above? That’s for the next post.

WHAT?

So, what have I written?

Thus far a handful of books, some short stories, and columns for a writer’s group newsletter.

Let’s go back about 25 years to when I was part of a writer’s group of probably 60-70 members, maybe more. Over the course of a few years I became the president (or whatever it was called) of the group, which was actually pretty cool. And then I moved to a different state. Oh, well. During the time I was in the group I wrote several front-page columns for our monthly publication. If you think you can phone it in for a newsletter, especially content consumed by other writers, well…

Also during that time I wrote several short stories, mostly SF, and had a few picked up by a very, very small-press publication. Even though they didn’t get much exposure, it was still gratifying to see my stories in print.

I wrote several books, I think 2 1/2 out of a series I was working on, but those have never seen the light of day. I think to myself occasionally that I should go back and see if they’re publishable. I suspect they need a lot of editing and I’m too busy with new stuff right now.

I grew up in southern New Mexico in the U.S. and always thought the scenery would make a perfect backdrop to a story, almost like becoming a character of its own. And then along came Breaking Bad, which did exactly that to perfection. The desert and mountains as well as the city of Albuquerque itself all became integral to the show. I can’t claim the same level of award-winning goodness, but I was still determined to tell a story in and around my hometown. Hence, the three-book series (let’s not call them a trilogy) of Sunset, Sundown, and Sunburst.

As of this writing, I’ve finished writing three books in the past 18 months. First, which is ready to publish; Assignment Day, which needs quite a bit of editing before it’s ready; and Next Time, which I finished less than a week ago and is sitting in a virtual drawer for a couple of months before I go back and do a first editing pass.

The next one I write, unless I get a different idea, will be First Step, the sequel to First. 2023 is going to be a busy year.

WHY?

Does the world really need another author’s blog where some hack tells you how to write and be successful?

Probably not. So I’ll try to not give advice.

What I will try is to tell my own story. If it serves as a warning to others, then maybe that’s the best I can hope for. If it gives you a different perspective on something you already know, even better.

I don’t think we can learn everything about writing from one person. We have to take bits and pieces from different people and roll them all into our own approach.

Think about it like this: in my professional career I’ve learned more from bad managers than from the good ones. Not that I haven’t learned from my good managers, but I learned a ton of what to avoid from the bad ones, and applied all those lessons to my own style.

Same with writing - I’m not a bestselling author and the odds are extremely long that I ever will be. But maybe, just maybe, there will be moments where I serve the same purpose as one of those bad managers and you will remember what to avoid. And if things go right, maybe you’ll learn a little bit from the “good manager” part of my writing journey as well.

What to Expect

2023 will be the year of publishing for me. Please join me as I journey through the ins and outs of getting my books to market.

I’ve already done some work trying to find an agent. I’ll have more thoughts about that in another post.

It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that I’ll be going through an independent publisher or self-publishing. Maybe my mistakes along the way will provide lessons for others, and hopefully the eventual success will show it can be done.

I have one book in the can, ready to go after some proofreading, formatting, and cover art. I had an editor review it earlier this year and I’ll write about that experience as well. I have another book that needs some extensive editing and rewriting, and another I just finished the day before Christmas. That will probably be the second book I publish in 2023 since it doesn’t need as much work as the second one.

This author website is my first step in gearing up for what’s going to be an exciting year. I probably also need some social media exposure and I’ll cover that along the way as well.

I’m not an expert, and I doubt I’ll get rich from writing and publishing. Regardless, I’m going to do what I can to be successful and share that with you, Anonymous Reader. Let’s get started.