 I've spent a lot of time in the past few weeks working to get back in touch with my more serious writing side. By this, I mean returning to a handful of unfinished, epic writing projects. And I only say epic because the majority of what I write is (generally) 3-10 pages in script format. Piddly-popsicles compared to what I'm working on currently. And I'll tell you this: the whole reason that I ever "gave up" on the more substantial writing projects is solely because of motivation. See, I can spend the year or two that it'll take me to write a book and, well, write a book, but chances are good that this book will only be seen by a handful of people. Simply put, why put that much work into something if no one will ever see it? My videos. on the other hand .... those 3-10 page scripts will be produced and put in front of a built-in audience of nearly two thousand people (at present count). Hundreds more people will watch my videos than will ever read my books. Motivation. It's literally what drives us. So what's changed? A couple of things, actually. Grab a drink and then join me after the break for all the details. First and foremost (for those of you who don't know) I am gainfully unemployed. Because of this current lack of a job status, I feel particularly motivated to make the most of my time and pursue my dreams as forcefully as possible.
Secondly, remember the two thousand subscriber count I mentioned? Yeah, my audience is big and it's getting bigger. There's no reason why I shouldn't expect some of them to happily purchase a book or two. Thirdly, I recently started (and finished) reading my first book on my iPad. And despite how much writing I actually do (regardless of format) I really am not that big of a reader. Sure, I pore over the internet and spend hours in front of the computer, but books? Not so much. So when I downloaded my first ebook on the iPad, I was definitely curious as to whether or not I'd finish it. Well, I did--and fast, too. It probably helped that it was one of my most favorite authors: Tim Dorsey, who writes the most irreverent, mad-cap Florida crime capers. At any rate, having finished this book (and starting the next), I'm definitely rediscovering an appreciation for reading and discovering an even better appreciation for ebooks. Which brings us to "fourthly". Holy shit, have you read an ebook lately? Apple's iBooks library is available on all the "i" devices--sure, the iPad is the best ereader, but the iPod and iPhone are versatile and scalable as well. And EVERYBODY has these devices! So what's easier for my more enthusiastic fans? Dropping $16 and waiting for a printed copy of EotU: Vampires to arrive in the mail? Or clicking over to my iBooks page and downloading the same book for $3? I ALWAYS ask myself what I'd do, and in this case--there's no question. Ebooks are the future. It's not about a printed page the "feel" of paper or whatever bullshit you want to manufacture .... it's about accessibility, plain and simple. My iPad and iBooks makes reading an accessible thing for me and I love it. Fifthly, I started writing all this epic projects for a reason. Primarily because I liked the idea. I also the idea of making money off them, but mainly it was because I thought the ideas would make good books. The one I'm diligently working on now is about Zaphod Zombie. If you follow my Facebook page, you've already caught a couple of status updates on that one. Lined up is my "Peter & the Dark Wolf Story" (of which the opening chapters can be read under the "stories" link above) as well as the second official Explorers of the Unknown book ("Zombies") which I was about 15k words into before stalling. Also on tap is an almost-finished "easy reader" about a boy and his trash can. I hate that I had such a hard time finishing a fucking KIDS book. Sixthly, it's freaking Devilmas. And although I haven't done this before (Devilmas itself is only a few years old) it seems like a good tradition to start. This year I'm making some Devilmas resolutions. My first resolution was to produce the 100th episode of krumbinesBRAIN by the end of the year. In the spirit of resolutions in general, it already seems like this one won't be fulfilled. Not for the lack of trying: I got off to a good start and I will come damn close, but after a solid month of production, I can already see that three episodes of KB a week is just too damn much. Forget just taping and editing, but ideas for scripts and the writing itself. That's a lot of shit for one fella to do. So KB might not hit 100 episodes by the end of the year. It'll probably be closer to the end of January 2011. What I AM determined to finish by the end of the year (actually, much sooner as to have it AVAILABLE by the end of the year) will be the Zaphod novel. And like I said, I've been putting a lot of work into the past few weeks and it's a solid two-thirds completed. My "epic" writing resolution will only extend to Zaphod, although as soon as I finish that book, I do hope to put a serious dent in one of the other novels-in-waiting. Tonight, in between pages of Zaphod Zombie, I found myself scrolling through my blog archives. I love that I used to write so much and hate how "business-y" things have become for the past few months. Understandably, I am VERY busy with my video productions, but I wouldn't be where I am today (an unemployed, youtube collabing genius with published-writer aspirations) if I hadn't taken the opportunity to engage my peers and support our creative community through my blog, no matter how irrelevant or unappreciated the words were at the time. So this is my third Devilmas resolution (which is the first one to be made DURING Devilmas!). In an effort to continue to take advantage of my unemployed ass (wow, does that ever sound wrong) and to (hopefully) better stimulate the creative juices, I'm going to set aside an hour (or however long it takes) nightly to update this blog. I will have a drink (or two. Okay, or three) in hand and will write about whatever is on my mind and whatever you guys are doing that catches my eye. Merry Devilmas, fuckers. |
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