Getting Started

In case it isn’t extremely obvious, I love words. 

I love to read them, I love to write them, I love to speak and hear them spoken. (To be fair, much more of the former than the latter.) But I was very slow in embarking on a journey to regular writing with a goal in mind. It took me until I was in my late thirties truly, although I have dabbled with writing in various forms for most of my life.

My first attempt was a book of poetry. I was invited to be a part of AIG as a youngster, and for my year-long project I compiled a small collection of my own poetry. That was the plan anyway; in actuality I wrote three poems and the instructor asked me very pointedly if I’d truly written them. The idea of plagiarism or ghost writing for such an inconsequential project hadn’t occurred to me, and I took the insinuation to heart. A few weeks later, I dropped out of the AIG program and stopped pursuing poetry.

A handful of years later, after the loss of my father at fourteen, I began writing down my prayers and thoughts of grief in the back of his old bible. (It was the KJV, thank ya very much) The bible was one of the huge, heavy, synthetic-leather tomes with far too many colorful maps in the back. Its redeeming quality was that it came equipped with several dozen blank pages for the filling. So fill I did. It turned out to be immensely therapeutic, something of a prayer journal mixed with written mindfulness. Unfortunately, said bible was ruined when Hurricane Helene squatted over my corner of Western NC and flooded out downstairs. 

Throughout my late twenties and into my thirties I wrote almost exclusively in journals, but never for very long. I’d write a page or two every once in a while when the mood struck me, but a dedicated and consistent habit was elusive. A more successful practice was that of a ‘brain dump’ journal. I’d simply get a nice notebook with nice paper, (I like Moleskine) then fill it up with random thoughts, grocery lists, bits of poetry, quotes, and anything else that I wanted. It turned out to be a no pressure way to write regularly. This small habit turned out to be the beginning of a larger one.

In spring of 2026, I finally sat down to begin work on my first novel. I began with a prologue on the 8th of March, and by the 8th of April I had written 100k words consisting of thirty four chapters and an epilogue. To say that the process was intense would be an understatement. To say that the manuscript was an idiocy-filled train wreck would be an even larger understatement. 

But I’d done it. I’d written a book, completing one of the life goals that I worried I’d never get to. Sure, the thing needed some Ozempic, plastic surgery, a triple by-pass and a crash cart to become something worth reading, but still…

I’d written my first book, and the story wasn’t bad.

So, following the sage advice of a small indie author that we’ll call Keven Sting, I put the document away for a few weeks and did the one thing that the entire online writing community tells you not to do: I got started on book two in the series, cementing that first book as the beginning of a series rather than a strictly stand-alone project. I powered through book two with the same manic intensity and finished it in about three and half weeks. It, like the first, had good bones but needed to be knocked into shape. 

Those first two books cemented my process. I’d write a book, take a week off to do an editing pass on the one I’d written prior, then move on to the next one. This allowed me to finish out the series in four months, from March to July. When I finally laid my proverbial pen down, I’d clocked just over 400k words and a fully formed young-adult fantasy series with potential to revisit. 

I could talk at length about the effect of all of this writing on my life and marriage, or I could list the things that I had to give up to enable a guy who works sixty to seventy hours most weeks to pull such a thing off. But that is another topic; one that I plan on going into great detail on my youtube channel. (It’s linked on the site if you like video format) 

So, I’ll leave off with this thought: If a man with no long-term experience other than reading can pump out four manuscripts in as many months, you can write your book. Don’t be a moron like me and try to brute force your way through it, or you will learn the joys of dozens of editing passes to educate yourself and fix your mess. 

But do start. Seriously. 

Do it. It’s worth it. Start plotting today, set a date, and write.

The waters of creation are plentiful and will change you in all the best ways.