Who here's gotten into writing fiction? Screenplay, novel? How far did you get?

With daily news reporting, I never had excess energy for shit. With working sports, I was often off kilter schedule wise with people so I had time. Again, ya gotta steal it, man. Be working while others sleep. That might sound like pie in the sky, but it's true. No one -- and I mean, no one -- gives a shit about your fiction except you. So make the time. Wake up early. Don't do it late at night bc you're tired and uninspired. But if you go to bed thinking about the next day's fiction puzzles, your subconscious will surprise you. Reward you.

For me, that's only on the days I don't drink, which aren't numerous. I drink. But lunch hours, Sunday mornings, whatever. As with anything, if ya really wanna do it, you will steal the time, largely from yourself. I watch jack shit for TV. These days I work my comms 9-5 and try to hump the fiction muse when I'm free. But mainly mornings. Nothing better than getting in an hour or so before everyone else is awake. Shit, if fiction is your goal, ya feel like you've already done a day's worth of edifying stuff before anyone else is even stirring

 

At the time I was a sports anchor. Didn't really have a lot of time to fill.

Wrote all my novels when my kids were napping babies. Seriously. 9-11 am each day. Later novels i wrote 11-1 am. Never wrote when I wasn't inspired.

 

While unemployed, I wrote a 68,000-word novel that I finished. A sports book, that was kinda targeted for teens, with some cuss words in it. Sent it to 3 or 4 book agents. Most were ignored, although one rejection was a nice one where she said that rejections don't mean that writers should stop writing.

While employed, started a second novel, made it through to about 30,000 words, then just stopped getting motivated to write it.

Finished a novella that's around 35,000 words with the thought that I could just publish it online. Never really got around to it. Began writing a second novella, made it through to about 20,000 words, then lost the motivation again.

Wrote a couple of short stories, entered them in some contests, didn't win.

For me, it's about motivation. When I'm motivated, I can crank out 1,000 words in an hour (thank you, journalism experience). When I'm not motivated, well ...

 

I'm in the very preliminary stages of writing my first book, but it's nonfiction -- the story of my high school's first state championship, won by a team that produced eventual big-league catcher Dan Wilson. The plan is to limit sales to my hometown and the high school's alums, with any profits going to a local charity. With my job taking up about 50 hours a week between office and commuting time, I mostly do book work on days off. Aside from my work schedule, the other thing that complicates matters is that I live far from my Chicago-area high school, so I'm limited to interviewing sources by phone or email at this point (although I hope to schedule a number of interviews during a trip up north this summer). A finished product -- if it ever materializes -- probably is a few years away. If this works out, I have a few other nonfiction projects in mind.

The idea of writing a novel has always intrigued me, and maybe this is a baby step toward one. Everybody's got to start somewhere.

 

That's awesome. It must be super satisfying to watch words you wrote spoken by actors right in front of you. Congrats to your wife.

 

Getting them up on their feet is a lot of fun.

 

I don't know if this was the case with you, but my subs were stricken by journalese for many years. Too straight forward; not enough style. Or so I was told. Got to writing conversationally and it made a difference. Other changes too. Hemingway ruined many an aspiring fiction writer

 

Yeah, I'm not really sure what my writing style is, or even if it is a writing style.

Mostly, I just see something like it's in a movie and write it down.

 

I never have but a friend of mine, God love him, has been pounding out scripts and books to disinterested producers and publishers for years. He used to pass on his screenplays - usually accompanied by a note saying "a guy who has been to Sundance" liked this one or "a guy who has worked with Paramount" loved this one. He has never had a film made, aside from producing one on his own, a horrific psycho thriller that I turned off 20 minutes in. I am no movie guy but I thought they were all derivative, thin plots, one-dimensional characters, lousy dialogue.

I have lost touch with him over the years but it appears he is now writing horror/zombie/psycho thriller books, that I guess he is self-publishing as I have seen them on Amazon. His wife designs some cool overs, I can say that.

 

I'm about 80 percent finished with a novel I started working on in 2013. It's been a very slow process. I've taken a break because I got engaged in January and married three weeks ago and just haven't had time. I got back to writing recently when I was consumed by an idea for a short story, and I feel like I need to finish it before I get back to the novel.

 

I have a novel about 130 pages done that I keep wanting to come back to but haven't. I started it in 2008ish when I was still working at a paper. I likely will in the fall when I take a fiction workshop class. I just finished a screenplay for that workshop class. We needed to have 30 pages (roughly the first act plus a few scenes) and I ended up finishing it. I'm starting to flesh out ideas for a second. Not *having* to write has made me want to write more after a year out of newspapers.