Diligence....

I used to do kung fu about 15 years ago, when I was in college. It taught me a number of lessons that I fought against. one of the most important was about diligence.

My Shih Fu told me the simple truth about getting good at kung fu: practice a technique ten thousand times, and practice it consistently for ten years, and you will have mastered it. Don't, and you won't.

The same thing goes for just about anything. Want to be a master electrician? Do it for ten years. Want to be able to cook like Julia Childs? Ten years. Want to play guitar like Alex Lifeson? Yup--ten years.

Writing is the same way. If you want to master the craft of writing, your writing kung fu must be strong. Train like you would train for a fight. If you are diligent you will thrive. There are so many techniques in writing--outlining, pacing, editing, dialogue, character development--and you have to practice each one diligently.

Every day.

Ten thousand times.

Ten years.

Popcorn is amazing.

Just ask my girlfriend. ;)

Publishing Schedule:

For those of you who have been following the less-than-dramatic exploits of Jason Scott Gleason, Writer Extraordinaire, I've decided to publish my book through Kindle. Finding an agent and publisher could take a year or more, and I'm sure you all know that I am not that patient of a person. Besides, online publishing has been successful for a LOT of people now, and has led to agents and publishers for future books, so I think it might be the right route to follow.

My plan is to publish the book in the beginning of September. I'm working on editing now, and have two maps and a cover to work out. In the mid to late August, I'll format it for Kindle, and once it's just about ready I'll set a date. Then I'll blitz everyone I know to buy a copy (I'm doing the 99 cent special), read it, and write a review.

If anyone has a copy and wants to give me feedback, please do so ASAP, so I can have the chance to work with it. Furthermore, if anyone would like a copy of the current draft, I'm always accepting critiques!

Erosan's Tears: Draft 3

I'm in the middle of Draft 3 of Erosan's Tears, and I'm tinkering with a few ideas. One is taking out the profanity. Right now there are a lot of F-bombs in the book, which fit the feel that I'm going for, but I'm concerned that it might be off-putting to some readers.

Another thing I've done is develop the backstory between Raelyn and Callais. I was accused of writing Callais as a two dimensional character, and I've tried to give her a soul.

I also have to mystify the main antagonist a bit. I've gotten called out on making it too easy to figure out who the primary bad guy is, and that SUCKS for a mystery novel. One person figuring it out is one too many, IMHO. I think I have plenty of red herrings, so I'll have to scale back some of the details about him. I just have to do it in a way that doesn't make the reader say, "how was I supposed to figure THAT out?!?" Too easy is bad; impossible is worse.

Those of you who have read it--thoughts?

Day One:

At some point in my life, I decided that I wanted to write. It was probably in grade school. Like most people who have a passion for something, I fell in love with the written word at a young age, and with fantasy in particular. I devoured stories by authors like Melanie Rawn, Anne McCaffery, Wendy and Richard Pini, R A Salvatore, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, C S Lewis, Michael Moorcock, and the inestimable J R R Tolkein. They were the demigods of my youth, the Perseus and Hercules and Prometheus of my childhood. They opened the worlds where I spent countless hours, happy to return to again and again, like Lucy stepping through the wardrobe doors.

I'm serious. All I did was read.

My grandparents had a house in Fenwick Island, Delaware, right on the Little Assawoman bay and just a few short blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. We spent our summers catching fiddler crabs and paddling around the lagoons in canoes, rubbing meat tenderizer on jellyfish stings and hunting for flint-napped arrowheads. And wherever I went, a book was always close at hand. Going to the beach? My cousins would all grab bodyboards--I'd grab a book.

When I was sixteen I wrote a short story for my school's literary magazine. It wasn't very long (nor was it very good), but it was the first time I had written for an audience. When I showed it to my grandmother, she loved it. She told me that I had a talent for writing, and that I had better do something with it or she'd kick my butt. And I think she meant it. For years after, my grandmother would ask if I'd written anything lately. The answer was always, "Not yet."

But now I have. For the past few months I've been working on something I always wanted to write--an honest-to-goodness novel. And it's finally done. I'm not finished with the editing process yet--that's going to take some time--but I suspect I'll be ready to publish it on Kindle by September. It's been a long, hard, messy road, and I'm still navigating it, but it's been worth it. I've finally done something that I've told myself a thousand times I'd get around to doing.

And now I can live without the fear that my grandmother will kick my butt....