Let’s take a brief excursion into the Wrong Writer’s inner workings. Don’t worry, you won’t need a drink (or a lobotomy) after this. It’s relatively tame for me. I want to share a little about my motivations.
While I appreciate the readers, the feedback, and the nice reviews on my books, I am not as-yet able to quit the ol’ 9-to-5 to focus on writing. That’s okay though, because money isn’t the primary reason for me writing.
Now, mind you, money’s nice! Never going to say no to selling books. But I’m a ways from making a living with fiction. It may happen; it may not.
Either way, I’ll keep on writing these wonderfully Wrong stories for your enjoyment/involuntary snorting/questioning-of-sanity.
Through the code-magic of the Inter-tubes, I can see your brain formulating the question…why?
The Terrifying Truth of Fun in Wrongness
I write because it’s fun. Because it’s the only way I know these stories will come into being. And because my warped brain enjoys sowing this particular chaos into the world.
Eventually, would I like to get to a point where my books sell well enough to function as stable income? Sure! Then I could write even MORE every day (mwa-ha-ha-ha…).
I have included this lemur to encapsulate your collective shock at this statement.
Photo by Bradley Howington on Unsplash.
Ooh, I know. Let’s take a journey down Possibility Lane! What would I do with a schedule fully open to writing?
- Add more books to the “Stymph Sequence” series. Right now I have Book 2 in progress, but Book 3 is already conceptualized. There’s a potential Book 4, serving as a prequel (“The Stymph War”).
- Could I add a Book 5? Sure could. Plenty of – if you’ll forgive the pun – ground to explore.
- Write more horror novels. I have DOZENS (no exaggeration) of horror stories conceptualized. Some would work as short stories; others will need a full novel to dissect and explore. Many of them interconnect into a vast web of existential terror…
- Start a novella series. I have two potential ideas for novellas, crossing the horror and sci-fi genres.
- Add a few more books to the Inspector Locke mysteries. “The Man with the Silver Cane” is currently with beta readers, by the way. I anticipate publication by the end of the year. Keep an eye out; I’ll give you a heads-up beforehand!
- Maybe create some incredible cross-platform experience, with clues buried in my books and snippets of text seeded across the Web. Then again, I could already have started that…
In the end, I must agree with the eminent W. Somerset Maugham, author of “Of Human Bondage” and “The Moon and Sixpence”:
“We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.”
The Wrongness must continue!
A final note: Some indie authors do try to support themselves on book sales. When you come across one whose work you like, sign up for their newsletter and look through their catalog. It costs us very little – a moment of time, a couple dollars – but it really does help them stay afloat.
Do you follow other indie authors who deserve more attention? Please share their links over on my Facebook Page so we can all enjoy!