It took me a while to get back onto my blog, I'm having a headache with this whole thing. Supposedly I'm supposed to be able to link my page, here, with my facebook account. It's not working. It is pissing me off to be perfectly honest. Technology frustrates me.
In the mean time, I'm working on something with facebook, trying to make the most of what I got, or something, I don't know. We'll see what happens, more on this later.
So I finished the book! That's my big news today. I finished the book.
In January of 2010, I decided to go do a wrestling show in CT, for Defiant Pro Wrestling. On somewhere within the 860 miles it takes to get to CT from Markham, IL, I came up with the idea for a story. I had my sister, who was in the car with me jot down the rough ideas.
In March of 2010, I began to write the story, after listening to a song by Kasabian:
Listening to the song, now, it doesn't really fit the book, but something about it sparked a mood, and I began to write a screenplay. About four lines of dialogue in, I stopped and thought to myself "Mike, why waste time writing a screenplay for something you'll never make?" At that, I decided to write it as a short story. I had just read a novel titled "Stupid and Contagious" by Caprice Crane, where she told the story in the first person from two different characters. I thought it was pretty cool, so I started with two characters, but then decided to throw in some more, and before I knew it I had a handful of characters I was juggling and trying to become in order to write for them. I got 12,000 words in, and felt like I had a pretty good story going, so I printed it out and showed it to my family and some friends. Big Mistake.
To any writers out there, this may not apply to you, but just listen to my advice, when writing, do not, DO NOT let friends and family see it, UNLESS it is someone you feel will give you honest feedback. Now, that's not to say my family doesn't do it. But, sometimes I doubt that they could really love everything I write.
Here's what happens to me, when I write part of a story, then share it with people who praise it. I get satisfaction out of the praise, and feel like I've accomplished something, which leads me to have no determination to finish the work. It's a terrible thing. Trust me, you're better off waiting to be done with the work, then show it, take criticism, and change as you see fit.
So I took a break. After getting positive feedback, I just shut myself off to the story. And wouldn't work on it again for almost seven months.
One day, I was sitting at the office I work at with my brother, I will get into details on that some other day, but as I sat there, something hit me, and I started to write an outline to the story. Now, I realize there is a two-party system in the writing community, much like there are in the political world. The two parties are as follows:
In the mean time, I'm working on something with facebook, trying to make the most of what I got, or something, I don't know. We'll see what happens, more on this later.
So I finished the book! That's my big news today. I finished the book.
In January of 2010, I decided to go do a wrestling show in CT, for Defiant Pro Wrestling. On somewhere within the 860 miles it takes to get to CT from Markham, IL, I came up with the idea for a story. I had my sister, who was in the car with me jot down the rough ideas.
In March of 2010, I began to write the story, after listening to a song by Kasabian:
Listening to the song, now, it doesn't really fit the book, but something about it sparked a mood, and I began to write a screenplay. About four lines of dialogue in, I stopped and thought to myself "Mike, why waste time writing a screenplay for something you'll never make?" At that, I decided to write it as a short story. I had just read a novel titled "Stupid and Contagious" by Caprice Crane, where she told the story in the first person from two different characters. I thought it was pretty cool, so I started with two characters, but then decided to throw in some more, and before I knew it I had a handful of characters I was juggling and trying to become in order to write for them. I got 12,000 words in, and felt like I had a pretty good story going, so I printed it out and showed it to my family and some friends. Big Mistake.
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| "Stupid and Contagious" by Caprice Crane |
Here's what happens to me, when I write part of a story, then share it with people who praise it. I get satisfaction out of the praise, and feel like I've accomplished something, which leads me to have no determination to finish the work. It's a terrible thing. Trust me, you're better off waiting to be done with the work, then show it, take criticism, and change as you see fit.
So I took a break. After getting positive feedback, I just shut myself off to the story. And wouldn't work on it again for almost seven months.
One day, I was sitting at the office I work at with my brother, I will get into details on that some other day, but as I sat there, something hit me, and I started to write an outline to the story. Now, I realize there is a two-party system in the writing community, much like there are in the political world. The two parties are as follows:
- Organic WritersOrganic Writers write "from the heart." That is to say, they don't really care about planning out the story, or figuring out how it will end, they just let it pour out of them, as if it takes on a life of it's own, and whatever happens, happens. They just write and write and write until they feel the story is done. Upon, completion, they have something special that wasn't anything like they had expected, but they love it nonetheless
- Outline Writers
While, I can't attest to this being the actual term to use, Outline Writers are the writers that sit down, form an outline of the story, figure out all of their scenes, then fluff it up to make the actual story come to life. They have a clear idea of what they want the story to be, how they want it to flow, and what they want to happen. They know how it ends, they know when it ends, and they know why it ends the way it does.
Just like in political parties these two sides do not like each other, they don't see how the other can write the way they do. Organic Writers believe that you can't have any spontaneity in stories if you have the story plotted out from beginning to end. Outline Writers believe that you can't have a strong plot that has foreshadowing which takes the character through an adventure and ultimately ends in a way that is true to how the story has been developing, if, you don't plan it all out beforehand.
Also, just like in political parties, you have the writers that kind of sit on the fence, and use both elements. I am one of those. I had been unable to write for months, then, out of no where, I had all these ideas. and I wrote out an outline about six pages long. I used that outline as a guide for where the story should go, but a lot of unique moments came from out of thin air. There are plenty of chapters in the final version of the book that were never planned or even thought of until right there in the moment. I found this to be the most enjoyable way to write. You have an idea of how you want the book to go, but then you come up with these amazing things to kind of fill in some of the gaps. It was really fun to experience.
After writing the outline, I struggled with turning it into the story. I think it was the same voice in the back of my head that told me not to write a screenplay that was now telling me not to bother writing the book. I was telling myself why put all the effort into writing a book if it's never going to go anywhere, and only seven people will read it.
I thought that for a while, then out of the blue, I had a conversation with a really talented Professional Wrestler on the East Coast who also has his foot in the entertainment industry such as film and television. He informed me about CreateSpace which is an amazing self-publishing service. I went on there and was checking everything out. I was excited to see that my work could be published. But, as I started to look at some previews of people's books that were doing it, I saw stuff that made me feel like I wouldn't do it.
I'm a perfectionist, I don't want to do stuff if it's not going to be perfect. I wouldn't self-publish if I couldn't fool myself into thinking that the book I wrote, when in my hands, was published by a major publisher. The books I was seeing on the site looked well done, as far as the binding and such, and the cover creator does make some nice quality covers, but the insides of the books, the way they were formatted was awful. A book's paragraphs are justified in a way that it's like a clean box. Each line is the same length from left to right. It isn't like you see on here where depending on the lengths of the words per line, the length of the lines are different. Most books I've read have it done the better looking way, and after seeing that, I tried doing it in Microsoft Word, well, their version of that stretches out the spacing which is horrific.
It literallly looks like this in some parts.
It is absolutely horrible. So, I did some research and found out about some programs that are perfect for formatting the design of a book, and that's what I'm doing. So when I found out that I could make it look just as legit as a book that was actually published with a little added effort, I knew it was time to finish the book.
At this point I knew that the story I thought up in January, started to work on in March, and put on hold for close to seven months, was no longer a short story. I knew from the outline I wrote, that it had the potential to be a decent length, which ultimately could make it a novel. So on October 8th, after reading up on CreateSpace, I began to write, and from October 8th, 2010 until October 27th, 2010, I made the 12,000 words into 60,000 words and had myself a novel.
I am extremely proud of myself and look forward to releasing it, in hopes that all of you will buy it, and read it, and enjoy it, and send me feedback.
Before I go, I just want to make note of something.
As I've stated I got the idea for this book when travelling to a DPW show in Connecticut. DPW was my favorite promotion, and the work I did there is amongst my best. I was excited to return. DPW was run by Mike Miele who to fans, was better known as Mike E. Milano. I won't go into detail about how much Mike meant to me, and how important he was to my career as a pro wrestler, that's for a different place, what I will say is that if it wasn't for Mike, being the guy he was, I wouldn't have loved DPW so much, to the point where I'd want to travel 860 Miles there, then 860 Miles back, spending my own money on gas, and putting those miles on my car, I wouldn't have done it knowing I wouldn't get paid. If I wouldn't have gone on this trip, I wouldn't have came up with the concept of this book.
On October 27th, 2010, Mike Miele passed away due to suffering a stroke several days earlier. He held on as long as he could but in the end, he was unable to recover. This book is dedicated to Mike. If it wasn't for him, it wouldn't exist. He died just as I finished it, and so with that said, I would like to take this opportunity to state that, I am working my ass off to get the book out by December 18th, which is a show in CT that is paying tribute to Mike. My hopes are that I can get out there, with the books, and sell them at the show, with all proceeds going towards Milano's family. I'm still working out the details to see if his family will be okay with it, as such I feel I might be making a mistake in posting this so early. But I love Mike, I love his family, and feel confidant that they know I mean no harm.
I was supposed to be at his services which are taking place tomorrow, I was unable to afford to do so, as such, I plan on doing everything I can to get there for December, and to give whatever I can to his family.
On that note I'd like to thank you for reading, and ask that you follow me on twitter: @MMartinWrites
You can actually view my twitter to the right of the screen, as it updates live on this site as well.
ROCK BEATS PAPER - My first novel, will be available soon. Sign the guestbook and what not to be notified on any updates. Thank you.
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