I’ve always loved writing.
When I was a teenager, I wrote a series of short stories about Mr. Padicla, a futuristic space traveler. My family loved it, but then, they’re supposed to support you.
My teachers and classmates loved it. One teacher allowed me to produce an play with classmates based on my stories.
I loved it. Not just the attention, but allowing my imagination to run wild.
Just write
In college, I wrote for the school paper and took writing classes. These helped refine my writing ability. I remember one writing teacher who said you have to just write. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or not, just write. He said you have to throw away the fist 10,000 words you write anyway, so just write.
Great advice.
He also illustrated bad writing. Or, at least 1 form of bad writing. He told us never to write like you’re describing a trip to the grocery store ie. On aisle 1 we have x, and on aisle 2 we have y. I never quite knew what he meant until I started reading more. I discovered a number of writers do this and it sucks. They fail to develop characters, fail to create subplots, and their plots are pretty bare.
Then, in grad school (I have a PhD in marketing and an MBA), I took a rhetoric course. The professor suggested setting aside a specific time each day and writing for at least 1/2 hour. I read something similar in a book called ‘On Writing‘ by Stephen King, who you might have heard of. He said don’t worry about grammar or spelling, just write. Much of what you write you’ll end up throwing away and the rest you can clean up when you go back and edit.
My career involved a lot of writing, mostly technical and academic, but a lot of writing.
I think my first step toward writing a novel, my first is ‘Buried Ladies‘, was writing a blog on marketing. That freed me from the restrictions imposed by academic writing.
I made several false starts, then ‘Buried Ladies‘ existed as a couple of pages for over a year. Then, a month or so ago, I decided to see what I could do — and I did great. I’ve now got almost 1/2 of the novel finished and I’m outlining the second in the series. I love writing it and can’t wait to see what my characters do next.
If you’d like to read it and provide feedback, you can get it free by subscribing. Each week or so I add a new chapter for subscribers.
Reading is as important as writing
I’ve always been a voracious reader, mostly crime, suspense, mystery, and thriller, although I’m not entirely sure how these genres differ.
You learn a lot by reading. You learn what’s good and what isn’t. By analyzing the failures of a book, you learn not to make the same mistakes.
Reading is also important because you need to write what you know. Despite many choices I made in ‘Buried Ladies‘ to set it within my own knowledge, I’ve done a ton of research.
‘Buried Ladies‘
‘Buried Ladies’ is a mystery set in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and Mexico. Here’s a synopsis of the chapters already released:
Sally calls 911 to report her friend, Estella, is missing. At first, police think she’s a kook, but their investigation turns up evidence supporting her claim, even though there’s no body.
This starts a string of events involving an international serial killer, hacking, Cartels, drugs, and a mystery that makes this book hard to put down.
Subscribe now to read more chapters as they’re released — for free.
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