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It's not easy being an indy writer

3/21/2015

6 Comments

 
Writing, just like anything you want to be good at, takes hard work. Don’t get me wrong, just because something takes a lot of work doesn’t mean it’s not fun. When I was in my twenties I found computer gaming when I was working sixty plus hours a week as a waiter and taking a full time class schedule in college. There was no time in my life to add something more onto my plate, so I nixed out sleep. I’d sleep four to six hours every two or three days a week. I did that for a year and a half to two years. Yea I had a full-fledged addiction going at the time, but even though I was addicted, I was a functional addict. I always took extra shifts at work to make the money I needed to live and pay my bills and kept my grades at a solid 3.8 GPA. Heh, what could I have done if I weren’t working so hard to live? At the time I’m sure many people would have questioned the sanity of choosing to nix out sleep, deeming it an unwise decision on my part. While that might have been true for many different reasons, life has an interesting way of changing your life.

At the time computer gaming and participating in a LAN party took a lot of work. If you were supporting a LAN party you had to learn networking, computer support and the foundations of IPX/SPX and TCP/IP networking, how to setup your own DHCP or STATIC network and even how to lay cable for a network. To play online was even tougher in many ways. There wasn’t any automatic gaming servers and playing over the internet took some skills to get things to work out, even with an amazing program named KALI that came out a few years after I started. Mostly if you weren’t playing at a LAN party, you were playing via modem. You’d think a direct modem connection would be pretty straightforward, but with Windows 95 and peoples issues with computers and compatibility between games and hardware, modems were a nightmare too. Lastly, to play any FPS, your hardware had to be bleeding edge or as close to that higher end gaming system as possible. This need taught you hardware, building your own systems, installing software from scratch and even building servers to host the games so that your own system wasn’t being slowed down hosting the game for so many people.  

Remember, this was my hobby and although it was incredibly fun, it was also a lot of work. At some point in this process I learned that I knew enough to be a system administrator. The funny thing is that I’d started a COTA AS program because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but the job was decent money. When I ended up getting my first corporate job it was as a system administrator. When I think back to this now and compare it to what I’m doing to become a writer, it lets me know that I’m on the right track. I might have ended up working over a seventy hour work week, but I did get some good time in writing on Destiny to finish it up. While every time I think I’m closing to finishing up, I suddenly realize that more detail is needed for this last part I’m finishing up. The changes I believe will make the difference between a good story and a great story, and is needed for it to tell the story I want. Even though I want to get it out sooner rather than later, I can’t let it bother me that it’s taking longer than I’d initially planned.  

I was looking up Elliot Kay yesterday to see if he’d released anything about having a new book for his Good Intentions Series and saw he’d been picked up by a professional Publishing company. I sent him a quick congrats. His Rich Man / Poor Man series is rocking. I’m going to have to check it out since he’s not going to have another Good Intention’s book anytime soon. Reading Elliot’s blog and hearing about his hard work and life learning to write reminds me a lot about myself. I have such huge respect for him after he was kind enough to just talk to me about writing and was just a real person. Seeing success like that happen to an Indie Writer is awesome. It’s all about being willing to work hard for your dreams.

Anyway, for those of you who are aspiring writers or are looking to make a change in your life for the better. Hard work goes a long way to making those dreams a reality. Have a great weekend!      

6 Comments
Deanna Mitchell
3/21/2015 02:52:32 pm

Awesomely inspirational!
Still.....I am having a difficult time waiting for the next book. It's soo hard to be patient, when the first one was soo good!

Reply
Jason Cheek link
6/29/2015 04:40:20 am

Thanks Deanna. I think it's important to remember where we come from. Also I think a lot of times people look at the work needed to do something and think, "OMG, that's not possible." Hopefully this helps anyone who's reading this to say, "I can do this."

I'm trying to hurry and get Destiny out, but I want it to be right :)

Reply
school apps link
6/27/2015 03:06:51 pm

I appreciated your professional way of writing this post thanks; you have made such a nice blog. I found in your website perfect for my needs it contains wonderful and helpful posts.

Reply
Jason Cheek link
6/29/2015 05:05:10 am

I'm glad you're enjoying the blog and finding it helpful. One of the things I discovered when I initially started this process was that many writers blogging about their experiences left out some of the money sinks that made the whole initial cost of publishing so much more. I found it extremely frustrating at times when I was getting Flight out.

I also try to write about non-traditional career paths. While it gives me topics to write about, I also hope that sharing my own experiences helps to motivate others to follow their dreams.

It's always good to hear my previous blog posts are helpful to people starting out with the complex process of getting their first book self-published. Though, I must admit to being somewhat embarrassed at the grammatical quality of my posts in general. Typically I write on the fly with little time given to correcting grammar due to my lack of time. If I can, I go back over posts a day later to see if there are any glaring mistakes and correct them, but not much more than that. I'm just too busy trying to work, write, blog and be a good husband/father.

Again, thank you for the comment.

Reply
Hard Drive Destroyer link
7/2/2015 03:18:28 pm

I am so much excited after reading your blog. Your blog is very much innovative and much helpful for any industry as well as for person.

Reply
Jason A. Cheek link
8/20/2015 07:45:02 pm

Hey Destroyer, thanks for the kind words and sorry I didn't reply sooner, I missed the email notification of your post and just ran across it now when I was catching up on my email.

Glad you're finding some good nuggets for getting your own book self-published. One of the most annoying things I ran into was when I was looking for help on what to watch out for during the self-publishing process and not finding it and then getting nailed with extra dumb costs that could have been avoided. None of us are in the financial position when self-publishing to get juiced by Amazon or anyone else.

On the personal stuff, coming from severe poverty and a shattered home life, I know how hard life can be to live one day at a time. I just hope that my experiences can help people in similar situations know there is a way out of that hole, if you know what I mean.

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