The stack of blank paper is yelling. Write ME! If that M. Clifford guy can do it, so can you!
What is this? Let's check the cover art. Advice on writing. Projects I'm working on and what's to come, updates, and all that jazz. Practices, like my proc...
Okay, are you listening? Did I grab your attention? Here we go.
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When my wife and I moved to Los Angeles in 2011, my writing life took on new forms of exploration. I went on long walks through Venice Beach, attempting to discover who I was as a writer. One of my main obsessions was vintage books and classic novels. I couldn't stop developing new ideas and ways that authors could re-invent old stories. And not just through fan fiction. My most significant endeavor was to "re-vamp" Dracula by combining that story with many others in the public domain, some of which had nothing to do with vampires. Then mixing those with a post-apocalyptic future where Dracula held sway and humans lived in encampments surrounded by crosses.
I loved this concept. I loved it so much that the outline went from one book to three. From three books to five. From five to eight. And so on. I started writing. In fact, my first book in the series called THE DRACULA INDEX was featured here on Wattpad and you can read it right now.
I stopped working on that series. Even though it still excites me. Even though I had put in years of effort. I may go back to it. We'll see. As you can imagine, this was not an easy decision. But I felt like I had to for a number of reasons. The first is that I am not an author simply for fun. This is a job and I need to earn a living with my writing. Modern readers aren't so interested in the writing styles or language of classic literature. Not everyone likes vampire stories. My series would be made up of material that caters to a very specific reader group and I would basically need everyone in that group to buy all my books in order for the time spent to be worth it. Were I to write and complete the series (now stretching to twenty-three books), it would take years of my life. That's a lot of time to commit to something that is not financially viable.
What I didn't realize at the time, was that I was up against one of the greater dilemmas of modern creatives, that of the SUNK COST FALLACY.
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What is the Sunk Cost Fallacy?
Let's start with time. Time is one of our greatest commodities. As you know, books take time to write. A lot of time. You will also spend some money along the way. Together, these are the costs of writing a book.
