my writing journey so far 🧙♂️
2013 -2025 of continuous writing broken down into 3 ERAS
O. Pre History:
When i was a kid, like 10 years old, i had this black FIVE STAR notebook that said “TOON WORLD” on the cover.
And several different comic story lines in it involving:
1-Martial Art Monkeys (i really liked Donkey Kong Country)
2-Ness and Einstein (Knock off of Calvin and Hobbs)
3-This one with a Cow as an elite sniper. (Not sure about that influence lol)
And my singular goal in life, in some sense, for years, was to fill up this FIVE STAR Notebook with stories.
I believed if i did that, i would be great. A simple and noble mission.
I couldn’t let anyone see it though, not until it was complete.
I lived in that notebook. At school. At home. On trips to family vacation in the car.
I cannot for the life of me find that thing. Believe me i looked. It’s lost somewhere to childhood. Maybe i am not supposed to find it. Maybe if i would have found it or completed it, i would have stopped.
So I guess i’m still on the same mission 20 years later.
ERA.1 - JOURNALS
2013 to 2018
That brown one in the middle with “CREATIVE MINDS ARE RARE” started it all.
Some of you know the story. In 2013 at the beautiful Shawnee State University i take this class called:
CREATIVE PROCESS
It was as fun and artistic as it sounds.
Lane Raiser changed my life.
As part of his class grade, we had to fill up a journal (the one that says C.M.A.R.) with musings from the class, or in our spare time.
This is when me and my housemates discovered train of consciousness writing, and the governor on our creative output was BROKEN OFF. We PRODUCED an enormous amount of work.
It was unfair to the other students. We did not self sensor.
We sat down in front of the page and let it rip any spare moment we had.
We needed that.
When the class ended. I kept journaling. Drawing everything, taking note of things, this is how i coped.
But then.
ERA.2 - LONG FORM
2018 - 2024
I wanted to share stories.
Stories are mutual maps.
They show you who you could be and what you could do.
Additionally around 2018, id actually started to read for real. I was trying. Sometimes with success sometimes not.
I told my friend Bo i had difficulty reading,
HE SAID: You’re not reading good enough books.
He gave me an 800 page book. A door stop.
And He was right. That book changed my life.
It fundamentally reframed how i looked at the world and acted in it.
I started reading John Steinbeck. It was exactly my life at the time.
I read Lord of Rings 4 Times in 4 years.
I read Cormac McCarthy’s harrowing tales like: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, and BLOOD MERIDIAN.
e.2b - I was so inspired, I had to write my own.
The First thing I attempted to write was called RED LORD RISE
about the second coming of The Indian Moses: Tecumseh (Starting off with a light and easy one of course XD)
In 2 years, I wrote 6 drafts of a 130,000 word doc, before i gave up on it. 🫠
It had actually been suggested to me, that i start somewhere else…
In good faith, i think.
And for some reason,
I did.
e.2c - BEHOLD “DEAD END JOB” was born.
Ultimately it was a good decision.
I wrote it, proofed it with my friend NOAH, and self-pubbed in like 2 months.
With a vengeance.
I learned a lot about structure, and wrote something much cleaner and personal and digestible.
I sold over 50! Not bad for underground indie work, people wanted to talk about it, it made a little buzz.
Then i wrote 5 more books, in 4 years.
📚BOOKS 1-5: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09CMW71JC?binding=paperback&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tpbk
📓POV WHITE BELT: https://www.amazon.com/POV-JIU-JITSU-WHITE-BELT/dp/B0D8XLDJPQ/ref
ERA.3 - SHORT FORM
2025…
The Stack.
My cute office from yesterday ^
My Substack was once originally a Mail Chimp. For like 77 articles or something, then i switched to
.When I got to 100 articles, someone literally emailed me with the sub-title: “Isn’t that enough? “😆
they are no longer a subscriber.
This was never about a completed work for me.
This is part of how i be in the world.
Writing and Learning.
The First way i approached writing, was existentially.
Not as a business.
Not that i would have been apposed to it!!!
I think business is cool. And im learning.
But if the strategy was to make a living, the writing was not it.
Don’t let that discourage you.
Follow the thread in your life that defeats the dread, and it will return. If what you’re doing is in good faith, it will return. If you cant help but do it. Do it. And it will return. There’s probably a reason you have to do it.
I just made my first $1000 in annual yearly revenue on Substack thanks to you guys.
People are still buying books.
Thanks to you subscribers and Paid Subscribers. This makes my life better, and continues work i already love to do.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
What’s Next:
1.) Weekly stacks following the thread, as i always have 🧵
2.) Talking with my Friends and Running. Talking by myself 🎙️
- ive loved the immediacy of one take audio for off the cuff processing, so glad Substack has that feature. Expect those.
3.) More Books, yes, but im letting this next one cook. 🧑🍳
Maybe this next one, will be something of a manual. Not that i have the guide to life, but something maybe that helps you make your own.
Something that helps you CHANGE. ☸️
4.) The BIG ONE. 🐳
When i read Lord of the Rings, i want to live there. And i must admit. I want to write something that people can live in, and come back to explore again and again.
That was TOON WORLD when i was a kid.
I lost it.
But im going to get it back,
God Willing.
"But if the strategy was to make a living, the writing was not it." - word.
Have you read The Road by McCarthy?