Episode 136B – Derrick – Authors: Reluctant Author

Overview Derrick didn't set out to be a writer, he started as just a GM. We discuss the fun reasons people start to write and what it can lead to. His Book https://www.amazon.com/Qetran-Odyssey-Derrick-Hall/dp/B0BLQYNC69?crid=1Z0TZ3107AWW4&keywords=qetran+odyssey&qid=1672167050&sprefix=qetran+odyssey%2Caps%2C85&sr=8-2&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=a8478f33b548a8c9dc12f67fd2161dd2&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il YouTube https://youtu.be/YpY8PnhgDy4 Transcript All right, so let's move on. Talk a little bit of author stuff, and we have an interesting topic, which I think some people may totally understand. Before we get to that though you've written several books at this point. So what are some things that you have learned on your journey that you're doing different now than you used to? Don't rush Derrick: it. Don't try to force it. If you get blocked up, go do something else and don't push through it. You're just gonna be beating your head against a wall. That's probably the most obvious thing I could say, but it's true cuz first go around my first book, catch an Odyssey I hit some pretty hard blocks and would just sit there and pound my head against the keyboard for hours trying to figure it out. it didn't work. And it got to a point where I pretty much gave up on the book and walked away for a couple of weeks, and yeah, it still bugged me. It's in the back of my head, like a b and a Mason jar trying to figure itself out. But I wasn't focused on it so hard, and when I came back to. I wrote eight chapters in two hours. , it's one of those things where you can't force it. Yeah. There's a certain point at where it's fine to sit and fight your way through a problem, but at some point you just gotta take a break. Stephen: Agreed. Yeah, I agreed. My, my first book, I still love the concept and the idea, but I really didn't know what I was doing, thought I did and it's still kinda sitting around. It's got a few good things in it, but there's a lot of stuff that my editor went through and I literally ripped half the book out. 35,000 words eh, okay, these are, but I kept them because the individual scenes could be reworked. At some point if I do that series, yeah, absolutely. But the general overall book, and I think the books I've gotten now are just way better. So people are like, oh, but haven't you gone back to it? No, I haven't, cuz it hasn't really called me back, the stuff I'm doing now is just it's so much better and it's drawn me in and it's good, yeah. I just not, don't have the impetus to go Derrick: back. I've even noticed that in my own work, like from the first draft, first attempt at Kere Odyssey. My work has evolved a ton to where I am now, still early in my author childhood, as it were, , but 300,000 words later, and it's barely recogniz. So I've learned a lot. I've grown a lot, I've figured out what not to do and quit doing it and , Stephen: right? Yeah. I'm new, pretty new also I don't, I'm not the experienced wise writer, but yeah, I've been doing it for a couple years now and I've realized a couple things. Whenever I get people on, whatever social media or Facebook or at a conference or something in there, they're like I'm working on my first book. I have got a couple chapters done, but tell me about publishing. Tell me about this. And it's No, forget all of that. Just sit and write. You need to just write and write a ton. Get a book done and don't even go, oh, now I can publish. Write another book. Because really, if you write a couple books and you write a couple short stories, you'll be so much better off when you finally do go into publishing them. Yes. Than trying to rush that first one. Yes. That's my advice I give people Derrick: now, and don't underestimate the power of flash fiction and writing prompt. because even in the middle of my projects, I have Facebook groups that I'm part of.