Happy New Year!, as I Reflect on My First Year as a Published Storyteller
...and do I have some resolutions? Probably.
First of all, Happy New Year!
Second of all, I’m just four days shy of the one year anniversary of my first post on Substack, which announced the release of my first fiction book Dan the Destructor. With that book, I kicked off the Barbarians of the Storm series and a pretty exciting year for myself and those I met in 2022 with similar goals to my own.
What are those goals?
Well, they’re simply to create great, badass stories without modern political and societal bullshit taking a big shit on the stories themselves. I want to surround myself with those who embody the spirit of great storytelling and the importance of escapism within that. Frankly, it doesn’t matter if these stories are told through books, comics, film, or any other medium. The world is simply lacking in the stories that generate wonder and inspire. The world needs stories that allow people to forget about their problems for a little while and to remind them about heroism, adventure, and love pushing darkness back into the shadows.
If you’ve been with me on my journey for a little while, you already know how I feel about all that, so I won’t harp on it too hard.
I just wanted to acknowledge how far I’ve come in just a year, and I don’t mean that to gloat. I have always been my biggest critic, my biggest enemy, and the one who has sabotaged my own potential for success. Going into 2022, I really, really wanted to make this creative endeavor happen for me. I needed it to happen for me, and without realizing I was sort of making a resolution about the new year then, as well as setting goals for myself, I certainly achieved something worthwhile and reached a level of success that I didn’t think would be possible within my first year of doing this.
Along the way, there was something that I learned, that I wish I had learned a long time ago. That something is that you truly have to put yourself out there and push forward, through the challenges, through the bullshit, through the naysayers and critics, and through your own fears, insecurities, and desire to quit. I now know that all the other times I was passionate about a creative endeavor but threw in the towel, I probably did so just before a real breakthrough. I robbed myself of success in spite of my hard work and my passion.
With this book series, and writing fiction in general, a part of me knew that this was something I was always supposed to do. Talk to my friends who have known me for a really long time, I have always been incredibly passionate about telling stories. So, there was just something different about me on the day when I published Dan the Destructor. There was a passion and a drive that I hadn’t felt before. Frankly, I didn’t even care if I fell flat on my face, I knew that even if the book was not well-received that I wanted to do these stories for myself.
When I got doubts and felt like things weren’t happening, where I usually would’ve tapped out, I pushed on through. Every time that I just pushed through for one more day (or a few days), something shifted. While I don’t really believe in God, it’s as if the cosmos rewarded me for not throwing in the towel. It’s as if I began to pass tests that I always failed. When I did have successes, they began to push me further than I had expected in the short time I had been doing this.
With that came confidence and a sort of gratitude I hadn’t felt before. With an almost enlightened outlook, I wanted to use my platform that started growing quickly to help other writers and creatives, because I knew how defeating it could feel to work hard but for whatever reason, you just can’t get to that next phase. And sure, I want to sell as many of my own books as possible, but building something solid with other people started to become bigger than my own personal quest. In fact, it became my biggest motivator.
I get that my stories are not for everyone and that’s cool. However, if I come across someone that needs what I feel everyone needs, an escape from a fucked up modern world and just some simple fun in their life, I want to help that person find that thing that is special to them. I want to point them towards something that might have real meaning for them and might also inspire them.
That being said, I am not solely responsible for this success. A lot of people this year have taken a shot on me and many of them, in such a short time, I consider to be legitimate, real friends, even if we haven’t met in the real world (yet). If I can get this book game on point and start traveling because if it, I want to meet as many of you as I can because I think real human connection is something we all need and it’s something that a lot of shitheads with a lot of power don’t want us to do.
I didn’t really intend for this post to be a sappy ass session for my readers, here, however there are a lot of you who motivate me to keep doing this. I only hope that I can return that favor in some way and keep you pushing ahead when things look bleak or you just don’t feel like that breakthrough is coming.
Additionally, I worked fucking hard this year. Hard work is absolutely key. People have told all of us that our entire lives, but it’s probably the best advice any of us has ever received. Sure, some assholes get success in some bizarre way, but usually those people are flashes in the pan and quickly forgotten about. Those who win the fame lottery are often times like those who win the actual lottery, they blow through their winnings incredibly fast and end up back where they started.
If you don’t build that strong foundation and take the necessary steps to build a strong house that can expand into your fortress, you’re going to have a really tough time getting where you want to be. Life isn’t easy, but working hard towards achieving real success makes you appreciate it and cherish it that much more.
Going into the new year, I do want to do some things better.
To start, I want to chronicle my process better on Substack. I want to talk about what has worked for me. I also want to talk about how I’ve marketed my books with pretty good success, and not spent a dime on it.
For those who don’t know, I’ve worked in marketing for two decades, I’m self-taught, but I am the senior creative director of a company that was small when I started but has grown into one of the biggest brands in its industry. I’ve also had the benefit of working under a CEO, who I sometimes have a rocky relationship with, but who also stands strong in my life as a mentor and a friend. And along the way, I’ve learned to be humble and to see every hardship and challenge as a lesson.
Life throws curveballs for a reason, but you can’t learn how to knock them out of the park if you never take a swing. People seem to come into your life for a reason. Even the worst of them have something to teach you about yourself.
Additionally, I want to be more engaged with others on Substack. It’s been a challenge for me, as I have such an overloaded schedule between the real job and writing as much as I do. However, I want to continue to forge something meaningful with other creatives, so that we can flourish and grow together.
Other things I want to improve on is to not wallow in the shit of social media. I want to be better at not engaging with ugliness and those driven by their own negative emotions and insecurities. I want to continue to build and find ways to bring people together, not contribute to divisiveness and ultimately, destruction. I want who I am as a person to reflect what I want my work to be in contrast to what is now mainstream. That might take me some time to master, but I guess I’ll have to see where I’m at with it a year from now. Frankly, we would all benefit from being constructive instead of destructive. And honestly, I am so over cynicism and those with a black-pilled outlook.
In an effort to not engage with ugliness, I want to surround myself with beauty. I want to put more emphasis on the quality of things I engage with be it entertainment or people. I can’t waste time on those who divert me away from my goals, whether they mean to or not.
Anyway, this post is long as fuck. So, I’m probably going to let you go about your day, if you made it this far. Sorry to be a sappy fuck for some of it. Also, toning down on my language probably isn’t in the cards as far as resolutions go. But don’t worry, I’m not going to drop an f-bomb in front of your mom or kids… not intentionally, anyway.
It's funny how, no matter which station of life you're in, the creative journey always winds up the same. You got a dream, you go to hell and back for it, and you wind up doing things you never thought possible. Might not all go to plan, you'll kick yourself for the things that went wrong, and maybe it doesn't work out, but at the end of the day, you wind up with a product you believe in and you've made to the best of your ability. I went from a budding artist with 50 ideas and nowhere to put 'em to a five-alarm multimedia maverick, with filmmaking, music, and writing all in the toolbelt. To bum a line, "Anything can happen in the next half-hour." Godspeed into '23 my man, let's knock 'em dead!