I’d love to say thank you to everyone for sticking around the site, wishing me luck, etc. I’ll be back in full form in no more than a month. In the meantime I’m still writing when I’m coherent enough, and waiting to hear back from Glimmer Train about my submissions to two of their writing contests. I’ve also started working on my passive income stream, as I mentioned in my last post about the business of writing, and that’s moving along slowly. I’ve created a website using my skills in search engine optimization (big words which basically mean helping websites rank in Google) and focusing it on helping small businesses compete in the global internet market. I’m moving forward with that, writing blog posts for it three times a week, and planning out an eBook for later this year.

Lots going on, but I haven’t forgotten you! You can find me all over the web, on Facebook, Twitter, at Dirigo SEO, and here.

One thing I’d like to know before I go, have any of you had surgery, and if so what? And how long did it take you to heal? This is the first surgery that I’ve gone through since I was 3 weeks old, so I’m new to this whole thing. Any tips would be appreciated!

The post Post Surgery Slightly Buzzed Blog Post appeared first on (Aspiring) Author, Travis Weston.

But, you say, I don’t want to write articles, I want to write the fiction, I want to make millions selling short stories to magazines and novels to publishers, and the women, good lord the women!

That’s fine, do that, but just know that, while you’re most likely insane, you’re also heading down a path that could (read: will) disappoint you. Writing isn’t the golden goose that you think it is. Writing can be lucrative, but it requires hard work. (Read: Doing shit you don’t want to do.)

For me, it’s all about finding a topic or two that interests me, then finding the many ways I can soak that topic. Just today I’ve written an article, outlined 3 other articles, and came up with numerous other ideas that will eventually form into articles. All of these were formed by using XMind to build a “mind map” of article topics. These were formed from a single topic: Passive Income. Why passive income? I find the old idiom “Make your money work for you” very interesting, and that’s exactly what passive income is.

I post these online, at sites like Constant Content, which allow my articles to be purchased numerous times for small fees, or a single time for a larger fee. The money is in the residual purchases. I learned that working as a freelance computer programmer, and doing the exact same thing with code snippets. You don’t make money with one purchase for a lot of money, you make money from a lot of purchases for a little money. This may sound familiar to you, mainly because it’s exactly how you will make your millions as a novelist. When your book sells, to start earning the royalties, you’ll have to make a lot of sales for the price of a single book.

So why not start now? Why not take that step, and start making that residual income? Even if you do a marathon of writing articles for just a month, but make sure they are timeless and high quality, there are many ways to make those articles bring you money in every month. Once you have a nice form of passive income coming in, you’re able to sit, focusing on your true passion.

Staring at a blank screen, drinking alcohol, and calling yourself a novelist.

At least, that’s my plan!

And now, a comic for your benefit. (Original VIA MindCircusComics.com)

The post The Business of Writing appeared first on (Aspiring) Author, Travis Weston.

I was born in the spring. The air was warm, the ground moist. The year was 1970. I was raised on a farm in Maine, watching the crops get planted, grow, and harvested. Each and every one of them happy to do so, knowing their time had come, and they had been deemed worthy of the harvest. That’s all they want in life, to be worthy. Just like the animals, just like everything. We just want to be worthy, of whatever our job in life is.

Read the full text here.

The post FREE STORY: Every Tree Must Fall appeared first on (Aspiring) Author, Travis Weston.

I may be over reacting a bit…

That said, I do have two stories currently in contests, one a story from the eyes of a serial killer, attempting to earn your sympathy for his actions, the other is the prologue for my historical fiction. I actually wrote the story, and got the idea for the novel afterwards.

I should know if the first was a winner May 1st, and the other June 1st. It’s entirely too nerve racking to watch your babies sitting out there, naked for the world to see, waiting to find out if they are good enough, knowing very well that the odds are against you. Just the sheer number of entries to these contests are against you.

But that’s why we write. It isn’t for the odds. It’s for the love of writing.

And should that earn us awards, so be it. But, even if it doesn’t, we’ll still write.

The post Contest Entries and Utter Insanity appeared first on (Aspiring) Author, Travis Weston.

This has me wondering if I will be able to focus without coffee. Granted, this is the same wondering I had two years ago when I quit smoking. That nasty devil hops onto your shoulder, whispers into your ear, “You’re not good enough, it was always the [insert object of your addiction here].” But, as I learned then, I will learn now, it’s not the cigarettes, coffee or the Coca-Cola.

It’s the murder. (See, I knew I’d tie back into it.) I write mysteries. Generally they involve a murder. Even when I’m not writing a mystery, generally I write about a death. Why? Because it has always been curious to me, the psychology of a person who willfully commits murder. Also, the reaction to such murders, or deaths, by people who may not have ever intended it. One of my stories involves a woman abused from childhood being brought back to that emotion one night, and in a rage and hallucination, accidentally killing her business partner. She has all the motive in the world, to the police, but it was a true accident. How does she handle it? Do the police consider it a motive? It’s never a question of whodunit, or even whydunit, it’s more a “What’s going to happen?”

Granted, there are other twists and turns (you’ll have to wait for the book to 1. be finished, and 2. get published, to find out what they are) but one of the sub-plot lines is this woman’s struggle. And I enjoy writing these types of plot lines. I feel, after reading one of my stories, you should feel both entertained, and have a deeper connection with not only my characters, but humanity as a whole. And I should be better for writing them.

Otherwise, what am I doing this for? If all I wanted to do was tell stories, there’s a stool at the bar, and plenty of beer on tap.

The post Coffee, Writing and Murder appeared first on (Aspiring) Author, Travis Weston.

Thank God for snow storms. One hit today, and forces my darling wife to stay home from work. I’ve never liked snow–ironic, since it’s nearly a year-round fixture in Maine–but today it was my best friend. Not only was the weather relatively nice, despite the strong wind and snow, so I was still able to do my short walk down the road and back, but I was able to focus on my writing, without the pressures of the normal day, as my wife was here to run interference for me.

I decided to make the best of it. I’ve been sat at my computer for nearly 12 hours now, I’ve had two pots of coffee, listened to Green Day’s American Idiot album four times, and Miranda Lambert’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend album about 10 times. Oh, and I wrote nearly 4 and a half times my daily goal. My ending word count for today was 5,344 words. For just today. Doubling my entire work’s word count to over 10,000 words now. 11,159 to be exact.

It’s days like today that I love being a writer. I’ve sat at my table, with the big bay window in front of me, wind whipping the snow across, treeline obscuring all the road, all the headaches of civilization, all day long I’ve sat here. It’s been perfectly relaxing. And because of that, I was able to pump out a large portion of my book. I still have a long way to go, but I’m now closer to on target for my April 29th first draft finishing goal. According to my tracking program I need to write 2,000 words a day every day until then to meet that goal.

I may not make it. But after today, I’m okay with that.

The post Marathon Writing appeared first on (Aspiring) Author, Travis Weston.

It was difficult writing his scenes, luckily there are only two that reference it directly, and only one that is somewhat detailed. It’s a scene where my antagonist rapes my protagonist. I decided to do the “band-aid” method, and write the two scenes in a marathon session tonight, to get them out of the way so I can move on and enjoy writing the other scenes, without having those two scenes looming over head.

To battle my hatred of this character, I’ve forced myself to flesh him out. He is more than his perversion. He is also a loving brother, and an ambitious employee. I give my reader something to attach themselves to directly after bring forth the perversion. It’s an escape hatch, you understand the guy, you understand what he is, but then you get to focus on other things, focus on his love for his sister, a platonic love, focus on his desire to be the best employee the company has ever seen, hell, you can focus on his love of short, concise sentences, and commanding way of phrasing everything.

How do you handle your antagonists? Have you ever had an antagonist, or even a protagonist, that you absolutely despised?

The post Writing a Character you hate appeared first on (Aspiring) Author, Travis Weston.

With that, I’ve also been graced with a very difficult choice: How to write my story. This story could be written a few ways, switching points of view with each scene, with each chapter, but I realized that this story has three very distinct plot lines. To get the full effect of the story, I need to amplify those. So, I’ve started this story with a single plot, and once it reaches a point I am calling the “merger point,” where the two main plot lines combine and all four of my main characters come together, I will rewind the timeline and the reader will start down the second plot line, up to that same merger point, from the second set of protag and antagonists points of view. It’s a unique way of handling things, for sure, but I think if I pull it off, it could be the best thing I’ve ever written.

Have you ever written anything with a unique timeline? Have you ever read anything with one? Do you think it worked, or could it work?

The post Inventive Ideas and Thoughts appeared first on (Aspiring) Author, Travis Weston.

I don’t know what today is, but I’m betting it’s a happy one. I don’t know how old you are, but if you’re doing this, I’m sure you’re old enough. What I do know is that you might be thinking of me today. If you are, know that I’m standing beside you, hand on your shoulder, hoping for you to be happy. This is your day, and I want you to make the best of it, because if you are my son this will be the only time you ever do this.

Weddings aren’t for the woman, we just let them think that. You’ll look back on your wedding down the road, and you’ll remember how beautiful she looked in her dress, how much you wanted to run and kiss her right there in the aisle, how difficult it was to stand your ground and watch the most beautiful woman in the world coming towards you. And you’ll tear up every single time you do, because that’s what is supposed to happen. You’re supposed to get those emotions built up, you’re supposed to have those feelings of love, tenderness, and excitement whenever you think of your wife.

Make the most of this, my son, you’ve had a hard life, you have done many things that I never thought you would when we watched you in the hospital fighting cancer. But there you are, the answer to the prayers I made for God to take me instead. Just know that I am happy for you, and if it rains today, it is only because I cannot hold back my tears of joy to see my baby boy grown into such a man.

I love you.

Love,

Dad

The post To You – The Last Letter (Letter #7) appeared first on (Aspiring) Author, Travis Weston.

            When he asked me why his friend had two dads, I’ll admit I was stumped. The way children talk, the way they present themselves, it’s very disarming to an adult; especially when it’s your own child. When I look at him, I don’t see the 7 year old boy he is today, I see the 7 second old new born, still covered in various undiscussables, crying, but looking so beautiful. He’s my boy, and I get that pride of a father every time I look at him.

Read the full story on it’s story page.

The post FREE STORY: Daddy and Daddy appeared first on (Aspiring) Author, Travis Weston.