A Week in the Writing Life, 22 July 2023

A BIG announcement for The Yank Striker as I await my author's appearance next week.

My backyard which won’t be habitable next week because it will be too darn hot.

Welcome, everybody. A lot has been happening this week and the week to come.

Home Front Stuff

Late last week, I learned of the death of my brother-in-law, Rick. I never had brothers or sisters growing up, but when I first started dating my future wife Laura, I immediately came into a family of four sisters, of whom my wife was the youngest. Rick was married to Laura’s sister Kelly.

It seems so strange thinking I knew him for such a short time, but when I check the calendar I realize we knew each other for more than 30 years. Time is starting to play tricks on me.

He was actually more of my father’s generation, serving in Vietnam before returning home to work as a millwright. I’m not going to get into a full obituary here, but he was a good guy who loved his wife and kids and was always generous with me and especially my own kids. He will be missed and cancer is a stupid disease.

What I’ve Been Writing

I’ve actually been busy with several items this past week. Earlier in the week, I was finishing up a short story called “Into the Cave,” which I plan to post tomorrow as a paid subscriber exclusive piece. I consider it to be a prologue, test story, whatever you want to call it, regarding this new idea I have for a fiction series. I’ve been thinking of the idea to start putting the story together online and later publishing all of it or some of it in book format later. The whole idea of trying to build a series and showing off the creative process on Substack in real time is something very intriguing to me. It’s an opportunity for you the reader, to see the creative process as not something sacred and mysterious, but something that takes work, thought, and can evolve greatly over time.

So, that will be forthcoming tomorrow. I just want to remind any readers who sign up for a paid subscription get an automatic 7-day free trial. Sunday would be a good day to give it a try.

As for other projects, I need to get back into the groove with The Yank Striker 2, still in the rough draft mode. There are two scenes I have to get through and complete. Afterward, I think I might have some more freedom to hit and run. By this, I mean start writing scenes out of order to better speed along the writing process. When I have used this in the past, eventually it has had the good effect of prompting me not to write several scenes I thought were necessary to the story but I reconsidered when I realized I was too bored to write them, then it would make sense those passages would be too boring to read. It also helps to keep the story moving along.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

BIG NEWS ALERT - My book The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning is now on Kindle! If you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, you can just hoover that bad boy up into your library at no cost - otherwise, it’s just $4.95. Go to the link in this paragraph or in the links on my front page or author’s page to get to it. I’m super psyched.

There might be some more opportunities to see me out and about, perhaps later in the summer or beyond, but there is one event coming up very soon… I’ve already plugged it here on the past couple of newsletters, but if you’ll indulge me, I wanted to plug it just one more time.

I’ll be having my first “Meet the Author” event at 6:30 p.m. next Wednesday at Beaverdale Books, one of three Iowa bookstores where you can find The Yank Striker in stock. We’ll talk about the book and series, as well as writing in general.

Also, that same day I’ll be having my first ever radio interview with John Busbee and his show The Culture Buzz on KMFG 98.9. The interview should air the day of the event during his regular slot (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.). Hope you can give it a listen.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

Earlier this week I listed several different recommendations for stuff to read on Substack over in my Substack Notes feed. I try to list most of them there because otherwise it’s really going to clog up the newsletter. (Don’t even get me started at trying to keep up with my ever-churning Substack inbox.)

One thing I do want to was recommend

Brian Reindel 👾⚔️

as a pretty good writer who, like me, is trying to get things going here on this platform. I noticed this note he recently posted announcing a link group of fellow writers he created on his homepage. It’s a cool thing to see writers here trying to create their own communities and cooperative groups together.

Sadly, I have not yet had the chance to create or join such a group yet, although I certainly am open to it. If and when that happens, I will have to recreate the old Andre the Giant meme (“Andre the Giant has a Posse,” etc.).

Writing Advice for This Week

While I like to consider myself a relatively creative fiction writer, I have to say I don’t consider myself to be creative when giving writing advice. I’ve been thinking about why that’s the case, when I suddenly had the realization coming up with writing advice is a lot like trying to come up with creating your own teaching materials for a class, and that’s something I struggle with all the time. Take it from me when I say the type of creativity needed to write fiction and the type of creativity needed to write lesson plans are two totally different things. Just because you are good at one form of creativity does not mean you are as skilled or practiced at another.

So, while I do think there’s value in trying to offer a quick bit of advice on here, I believe I’m going to try and change tactics. Starting next week, I’m going to be taking a look at pieces of writing advice I’ve found in various places and evaluate them. As I mentioned during my last newsletter, I’m more of a mind of keeping to general, broad principles rather than a long checklist of rules. So, I’m going to take a look at some of these checklists and give you my opinions on them.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

Let’s go for two this week. First, there’s Dorothy Parker admitting writing is work:

I hate writing, I love having written.

• Dorothy Parker

And then, our old pal and writing icon Steve with the real reason for writing:

Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.

• Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Final Thoughts

That’s it for this week. Again, check out this post regarding a new sale I’m having for paid subscriptions on this site. Also, check back here at noon Central Time tomorrow for my latest paid subscriber exclusive fiction, based on my most recent possible fiction project and series.

As always, check the links in the sidebar and on my author page if you’re looking to buy one of my books. If you buy one, I’d absolutely love it if you could leave a review on Amazon or wherever you get it, because that would be very helpful.

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