Am I a Writer?

I consider myself a writer.  I'm even a published one if you count the articles I wrote for SQLServerCentral.com.  On their website they published twenty five articles I wrote.  They also compiled the best articles and published them in printed books.  Some of my articles appear in two of those books. Those articles are technical articles about SQL Server.

I count those articles.  From my point of view I am a writer and not just because I wrote those articles but because I write.  Other than that I don't have anything published.  I am working on a fantasy novel right now which is very different from those technical articles I wrote.

All the above doesn't mean what I write is any good.  I think it is.  But of course, I'm biased.  My children like portions of the novel I am writing; mostly the battle scenes and creative use of magic.  The real test will come once I self publish this novel.  I'll say more about the novel I am writing in an upcoming blog post.

The earliest story I can remember writing must have been when I was in elementary or middle school.  It was about four Jawas who had crystal swords.  I happen to still have those very four Jawa action figures from when the first Star Wars movie came out.  Their swords were plastic semi-transparent things used for party snacks or something and they fit just nicely in those action figure Jawa hands.  Those didn't survive and I have no idea what happened to them.  I know I had that story when I moved to Virginia in 1997 but I don't know where that story is right now.

I was actively writing short stories from 1994 to 1996.  I entered a story in a contest for a literary agent and it won first prize which meant they tried to find a magazine that would publish it.  After a year or so they sent the story back saying they couldn't place it.  I paid them for editing services.  As I recall they didn't change too much which made me feel like I wasn't too bad of a writer.

I let many things get in my way and only wrote sporadically from 1997 until about 2008.  And I wasn't doing anything to try and get anything published.  I should have done more but didn't.  One of my problems before 2008 was that I almost never could figure out how to turn a short story into a novel.  I feel I wrote some good short stories.  The one novel I started but never finished did not start out as a short story.  The idea came to me and enough came that I wrote a good amount.  It was never finished.  The ideas and concepts in that book are not as uncommon as they were when I wrote it.

In August of 2008 I finally figured out how to expand one of my short stories into a novel and I've been working towards completing that novel ever since.  Of course the specific events in that short story no longer appear in the novel.  A few of the basic concepts have survived and been expanded.  After writing this I just realized that about the only things that survived the original short story is the name of the main character and the concept of him being a forester and living on a mountain with lots of trees.  That short story was one of the first that I wrote in 1994 if not the first one and was always one of my favorites.

Too me, I am a writer; a writer with no works of fiction published - yet.  Time and the people who read my book once I publish it will tell if it is any good.  As for me, I know it will be when I am through with it and I know that many will enjoy reading it.

I've thought on and off about this blog I set up and that I need to post again.  Until today I never got around to it.

I've debated if I want to have a better focus for my blog, one that appeals to me is show casing books I like to read and don't have content I object to.  I often read about these kind of books referred to as clean reads.  I dislike books that have sex scenes in them and swearing of any kind.  I am fine with some violence in the books I read.  Of course the stories I write will qualify as clean reads as defined above.

None of my stories are published yet.  I take my time about deciding what to do unless I get a feeling of urgency that tells me I need to decide now.  And so it is that it took me a month or so just to decide to self publish once I have a story ready.  I am working on a fantasy novel right now.  The first draft is about half way done.  It is shaping up nicely with each passing week.

Two weeks ago I had the best week of writing in a long time.  From 20 to 26 February 2011 I typed 4,845 words.  I wish every week were like that.  Sadly every week is not.  Many things much more important require my time now, such as raising my four children as a single father with primary custody.  And then there are other distractions such as World of Warcraft, movies (I watched Star Wars 4 and Captains Courageous with some of my children recently), and chores to name a few.

I read and learn a lot on the kindle boards.  Among the most recent thing I have been trying to decide is how much to charge for my first novel and what kind of strategy to use.  Right now I am thinking the best pricing model/strategy to use is having my first novel be a loss leader and price it at 99 cents.  Later novels in the same series would then be priced higher at $2.99 or $3.99.  I still have time to decide and my decision could changed based on what I learn between now and when I publish my first novel.

Another thing I have been planning out is the sequence of events between now and when I publish.  I am planning to find an editor, beta readers, cover designer, and to have my book critiqued at www.critiquecircle.com.

To finish off today's post I want to let everyone who read this know that there will be a smaller interval between my second and third post than there was between my first one and this second one.