So, you want to write a book?

There’s an adage that “everyone has a book in them.” I believe that to be true. I get at least one email a month from people asking for advice on how to write a book. Nine times out of ten, when I ask what your book idea is about, they will say,

“It’s about my life. I’ve lived a crazy life.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. Many people have had remarkable lives, including me. But, unfortunately for most people, including myself, I’m not a famous actor or politician. I didn’t save someone from a burning building or take down a terrorist from a mile and a half away with a perfect sniper shot, so most folks don’t care how crazy my life is, and they’re not likely to read my memoir. 

That being said, if you want to write a book about your life, go ahead! It will be therapeutic for you. You might even sell a few copies, but don’t expect to write a memoir, upload it on Amazon, and get rich. It hardly ever works that way. But, it will always be there for your kids, your grandkids, and their kids—so basically forever.

If you want to write a book to make money, that isn’t the best approach, but go ahead and give it your best effort. Please do it. Someday, I’ll probably do the same. However, if your goal is to make money from selling books, I’d like to share what my mentor, Wayne Stinnett, shared with me.

I was working on my first novel, Blue Waters, and I asked Wayne what the best way to advertise my book would be to sell a lot of copies. He said, and I’ll never forget it,

“The best way to sell more copies of your first book is to write a second book.”

He was talking about a series. I planned to write a series, but I didn’t realize at first how true his statement was. He told me I wouldn’t make any money until my third book. I was a little different from him in that I already had a built-in fan base because of my music career. I already had fifteen albums and a nice following, so I started making money from my first book. It really took off, though, after my second book, because readers unfamiliar with my music or me often look for books in a series. The more, the better. I’ll get into that in another blog post.  

Sorry to burst your bubble; that wasn’t my intention. I just want to be honest with you. If you think writing books is a quick way to get rich, you should try something else. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme and requires a lot of work and persistence. It also has a significant learning curve, and the more you write, the better you will become.

So, where do you start? Well, you begin with something else, my mentor told me from the very start. You start by writing at least a thousand words a day, five days a week. My first book took over a year to finish. Why? Because I didn’t listen. I tried, but I was still working as a musician and performing seven days a week, with doubles on Saturday and Sunday. That kind of schedule motivated me to become an author. None of us is getting younger, and I didn’t want to keep up that schedule forever—I was burning out. Sometimes, I’d forget I was on stage and just go through the motions. That happens when you play too many shows. 

Another question I always get is, “How much does it cost to publish a book?”

That’s the sixty-four thousand dollar question. I spent over $6,000 and went through three editors. The first one was condescending, blunt, and quite mean in my opinion. The second one was from another country and couldn’t relate to my Southern dialect, or Southernese. The third one was precisely what I needed, and I worked with her on several books until I developed a new way to edit them, which I will share in another blog post. 

If I had the deepest pockets and didn’t care about the cost of writing and formatting a book, I’d hire the best editor, proofreader, and formatter money could buy. However, you must remember that if the book isn’t good and entertaining, none of those people can make it a great book. Does it tell a story, or is it just a bunch of words thrown on a page? Like Wayne also once told me, “If you can sit around a campfire, tell a story, and keep everyone’s attention, you can probably be a good writer. He calls himself a storyteller, not a writer. He said writers are all about literary greatness. I agree with him and consider myself a storyteller as well as a writer. I don’t have a degree in English or Philosophy. I’m a good ol’ boy from Texas who has lived a crazy life, and I use those experiences to help me write interesting stories. That’s where the original part of my blog comes in. All those folks who told me they wanted to write a book about their life should still do that, but why not use your life story as inspiration for more interesting novels?

For instance, in my eighteenth novel, Still Waters, the main character, Rick Waters, returns to his childhood haunts and goes catfishing on Taylor Bayou. I included real events that I was involved in while skipping a day in high school. I also included a real friend I had, who has since passed away. His name is Jimbo. He taught me the art of limb line fishing and cooking catfish on the bayou. From line to plate, the process could sometimes take less than ten minutes. You can take those real-life situations and expand on them to become crazy interesting stories.

My main character is based on a little of myself, as well as friends I’ve had, personalities from TV shows, and characters from books I’ve read or listened to. He’s not real, but he possesses all those characteristics. The reason is because of something my mentor told me when I first started.

I think Wayne’s ears are burning.

I had the idea to write a series featuring a character named Waters. His name is Rick Waters. The “Rick” part comes from “Eric,” which is part of my name but with a K. That way, I only had to change the word before “Waters” to create a new title. My first book was “Blue Waters,” then came “Vanishing Waters,” “Raging Waters,” “Back Waters,” “Muddy Waters,” and so on. They keep coming. 

I was worried that readers wouldn’t connect with my character as they did with Wayne’s main character, Jesse McDermitt. He was an ex-military man, having served in special ops and similar roles. My other mentor, Cap Daniels, also has an ex-military man as a main character, Chase Fulton. I was afraid that since I had never been in the military like they had, my character wouldn’t be as exciting. But Wayne said another thing that I’ll never forget,

“Write what you know.”

I was raised in a rice field in Southeast Texas, spending a lot of time running up and down the bayous, hunting, and fishing. That’s what I knew, so I wrote about it. Then I read a book while I was still learning to become an author, and it helped me develop my character even more. It’s called “Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need” by Blake Snider. I’m going to tell you right now: it is a must-read if you want to be a writer, or, more specifically, a storyteller. Why? Mainly, in my opinion, because of the one big thing I took from that book. Make Your Character Likeable!

In that book, Snyder discussed two main characters from two different movies; one likable and one unlikable. Here are excerpts from the book that bring home the importance of likable main characters.

In the very first scene of Sea of Love (written by Richard Price), Al Pacino, a crusty 20-year detective with the NYPD, lets a man with outstanding warrants go rather than arrest him. The man is with his young son and is trying to do the fatherly thing.

Neither father nor son ever appears in the movie again. They’re gratuitous. But according to screenwriter Snyder, they’ve served a vital task: In movie-land, the audience must like and root for the hero or heroes and want them to succeed. Having Pacino’s character, who has a dark or troubled side, do something endearing right away is what Snyder calls “saving the cat.” If you must, he explains, you can have your hero climb a tree and save a neighbor’s cat very early in the picture to build that bond with the audience.

In the thriller, Sea of Love, Al Pacino is a cop. Scene One finds him in the middle of a sting operation. Parole violators have been lured by the promise of meeting the Yankees, but when they arrive, it’s Al and his cop buddies waiting to bust them. So Al’s “cool.” (He’s got a cool idea for a sting anyway.) But on his way out, he also does something nice. Al spots another lawbreaker, who’s brought his son, coming late to the sting. Seeing the Dad with his kid, Al flashes his badge at the man, who nods in understanding and exits quick. Al lets this guy off the hook because he has his young son with him. And just so you know, Al hasn’t gone totally soft; he also gets to say a cool line to the crook: “Catch you later…” Well, I don’t know about you, but I like Al. I’ll go anywhere he takes me now, and you know what else? I’ll be rooting for him to win. All based on a two-second interaction between Al and a Dad with his baseball-fan kid.”

This is an example from the book about an unlikeable character:

Take a hip, slick movie like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, for example. They spent a fortune on that film. And everyone is still wondering what happened. They can’t figure out why they didn’t attract the target audience of men. It’s not surprising to me. What’s wrong with this picture? Where did the filmmakers go awry? To me, it’s really very simple: I don’t like the Lara Croft character. Why would I? She’s cold and humorless.

And while that’s fine in the solitary world of video games and comics, it doesn’t make me want to leave my home to go see the movie. The people who produced this film think they can get you to like her by making her “cool.” This is what amounts to “character development” in au currant movies: “She drives a cool car.” That’s someone’s idea of how to create a winning hero. Well, folks, I don’t care about how “cool” it is; this isn’t going to work.

Why?

Because liking the person we go on a journey with is the single most important element in drawing us into the story.

I added a relatable element to my first book, Blue Waters. In a scene where Rick had just sold some catfish at a local restaurant he often visits, he saw a waitress on her cell phone crying and overheard her say she couldn’t pay her rent. Rick approached her, comforted her, and gave her all but a hundred dollars—more than enough to cover her rent and buy some groceries. He kept a hundred for himself to use for pool sharking. He knew he’d be able to get that money back because he’s a skilled pool player. That’s where the main character and I differ. I suck at pool!

That’s an example of how I blended real life and fiction to craft a story based on my experiences. Yes, I used to catch catfish in Taylor Bayou, but unlike Rick Waters, I never sold them. Yes, I hung out at a restaurant in the area where the catfish might have been sold. It was called The Boondocks, which is now sadly closed. I never met a waitress who needed money, and I suck at pool, as I mentioned, but I made that fiction up — it made for a great “Save The Cat” scene. 

When you begin your book-writing journey, whether it be a book about your life, a novel, or a combination of the two, remember my first three tips:

1. Write a minimum of a thousand words a day.
2. Write what you know!
3. Make your main character, also known as the protagonist, likable.

If you begin that way, you will be off to a great start. Remember, if you ever have any questions, I’m just an email away. The one I check the most often is islandericstone@gmail.com

 

Happy Storytelling!