This is the first time I will have fully ghostwritten a novel and I am learning a lot about not just the process, but about my own writing as well.  So for those of you that have ever wondered if ghostwriting a novel might be a fun endeavor as a side project, here are some things I have learned about the process over the last couple of weeks.

• It’s fun. I purposefully took on a genre that I am not a big fan of and am completely unfamiliar with writing (no, not erotica). It’s helping me stretch my writing muscles and is actually one of the better exercises for thinking outside of the box I have ever gone through.

• It sucks. I could be working on my own writing. But until my own writing pays the bills, this is what I have to do.

• The pay is confusing.  In terms of hours put in, the pay looks awesome from the outside. But then when you get into actual creative output and energy behind it, it makes you feel almost like a prostitute.

• You meet new personalities within yourself. I have tried writing this book from the perspective of a totally different writer. If I write a phrase for it that resembles Barry Napier at all, I trash it and writing something else. There are a few personalities competing for ownership of this project; one is downright mean and really likes to use short sentences.

Anyone else out there ever ghostwritten? Are these feelings just me or are they pretty universal?

The inner conversation in my head was very much like a point/counterpoint write-up in your local paper. Taking it outside of my head and back onto the internet, it goes something like this:

Point: Amazon and Self publishing are making it easier than ever for more people to make a living off of writing. All writers should rejoice from this. More than that, this new evolution within the book industry has made books less expensive. There’s more competition now; consumers aren’t being forced to buy titles from the same 20-30 authors that have been deemed “successful” by New York. Furthermore, in a time when everyone wants to go green, what better way to contribute that printing on the digital page rather than a paper one? Reading in a digital format takes nothing away from the reading experience other than a means to fill your pretentious bookshelf.

Counterpoint: It is easier than ever before to get your work out there. But a good portion of that work is crap. It is making it hard to find the great writing. Who wants to dig through a crap-ton of manure to find the one flower buried beneath it all? And yes, while most digital titles are cheaper than their physical counterparts, what are we sacrificing? The competition is too much for some–just as Borders. don’t get me started on how digital reading takes nothing away from the reading experience.  There’s nothing sadder than watching a young child become zoned out in front of a screen where everything responds to touch. Then when they see an actual computer, they get confused when nothing happens when they touch the screen. Children’s books in particular provide a more engaging experience when the book is a physical one.

As for the pretentious library comment, I’m insulted. What’s wrong with placing books on a shelf for others to see? Have you seen pictures of Neil Gaiman’s personal library? Let’s see a Kindle offer up that kind of beauty.

Notice that the counterpoint is longer than the point. That’s usually the case with the online discussions. This, I think, is partly because supporters of the traditional book are beginning to become defensive. Part of this is fear but I do think another part of it is pure passion.

By the way, I agree with everything in both the point and the counterpoint. Here’s the thing, folks…when I do read on a Kindle, it’s on a 2nd generation one. No real bells or whistles. I am not making thousands of dollars a month (not even hundreds) on my titles. I am freelancing for a living, trying to put food on the table. Now, if I had, say, a Kindle Fire HD, I might be a bit more inclined to read on an electronic device. (Hear my tin cup clanging)?

So yes, I read in both worlds. And as far as reading experience, I still prefer the physical thing. Although I will admit that in the past year or so, I have enjoyed the Kindle much more.

The difference in the two forms is odd. Thanks to Johann Thorsson, I read Daniel Woodrell’s Wintersbone on my Kindle. I loved the book immensely but there was something about the use of language in the book (flawed southern dialect) that felt alien on a digital screen. It almost felt like it didn’t belong there (a stupid gripe, I know but it is what it is). On the other hand, I am currently reading Mr. Konrath’s Origin on my Kindle and it’s not bothering me at all.

As for the writer in me, I still stand by my previous beliefs: unless you’ve been offered a lucrative contract by either side, it seems silly to me to not pursue both avenues. I know that there are some writers who have agency representation, yet their agents are fine with the author self publishing titles.  I think this is a pretty accurate picture of where the industry stands today. There are some elements of working together, yet I also think that month by month, digital publishing and Amazon are slowly winning the day.

• It – Stephen King
• Misery – Stephen King
• Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
• The Great and Secret Show – Clive Barker
• The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

Of course, there are multiple movies that I have seen numerous times. I can safely say without exaggeration that I have seen Ghostbusters at least 50 times, The Crow and Aliens at least 25 times, and Misery (yeah, I liked the movie, too) about the same.

However, as of late, something terrible has started happening. I have revisited movies and books  that I loved years ago but now, when I come back to them, I have no idea why I liked them so much. About two years ago, I picked up 2001: A Space Odyssey in a bargain bin somewhere. In college, this movie rocked my world. I wouldn’t shut up about it for a pretty long period of time and its why I became such a Stanley Kubrick fanboy (I even defended Eyes Wide Shut).

Not as cool the 100th time around

But when I popped it in to revisit my college love of the movie, I got my heart broken.  After the monolith was discovered, I got tired. I got bored. I made it all the way through it in the end, just to get reacquainted with Hal. When it was over, I took the disc out with a bit of anger, shoved the DVD back in its case and crammed into a drawer somewhere. Right now, it sits in a box of DVDs we’ll be selling in a yard sale in May.

I have had similar feelings with other movies that basically defined me. They include The Neverending Story, Pulp Fiction, and Cloverfield.

But the most recent episode struck me hard. It made me wonder if I’ve just become too disenchanted with certain styles of writing or if I am just the cynical turd I always feared I’d become.

I cracked open one of my favorite books two weeks ago, not having read it in nearly fifteen years. I was excited. I was very happy to be revisiting this story. The first two pages still awed me (as a writer, these first 2-3 pages are simply magical to me). In it, are the following lines:

First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys.

Then,

And if its around October twentieth and everything smoky-smelling and the sky orange and ash gray at twilight, it seems Halloween will never come in a fall of broomsticks and a soft flap of bedsheets around corners…and that was the October week when they grew up overnight, and were never so young anymore.

This is from Ray Bradbury’s  Something Wicked This Way Comes.  I discovered it sometime in high school and enjoyed it. Then in my early 20s I read it again and found everything about it poetic. But two weeks ago…I’m going to be honest. I got 80 pages in and just couldn’t get into it. It made me sad. I almost wanted to try finishing it just out of spite but didn’t.

Maybe I’ll try again in a year or so. For now,I am nurturing the broken heart of it all.

How about you folks? Any books or movies you once loved that have turned sour on you in an older age?

First, Lee Goldberg and co. were very kind about pointing out a few of my flaws…flaws that have plagued me since writing my first short story at the age of 14. Among them…I’m too wordy. I tend to wax poetic when it’s not called for. I try to create back story that serves as a story in and of itself (this one, I will argue to my last breath, is often necessary and pivotal for longer works). When I try to write about someone collecting information or being smacked by insight, I tend to come off as too passive.

The great thing is that I have had these things pointed out by editors in the past. But with Dead Man: Streets of Blood, these things were not only pointed out, but highlighted with blood and gore. Writing this book was perhaps my biggest lesson in reigning myself in when I wanted to get too wordy or experimental when it wasn’t called for.

This book was equally odd to write because of its content. It’s one of the bloodier things I have written in a while. When you consider the fact that I was writing a faith-based suspense novel at the same time, it was a very challenging and eye-opening few months. So, while researching parts of scripture for the faith-based novel, I was also having to research old morbid nursery rhymes for my Dead Man book.

I’m not going to lie…it was sort of fun.

So again, a big thanks to Lee Goldberg for helping me through the process. It was an intensive course in writing short novels while helping me to further cripple some of the mistakes that I still wrestle with in my writing.

Dead Man: Streets of Blood will be released sometime in May.

It’s been crazy busy with the new baby and a hectic freelance schedule, but I have managed to draw some motivations and inspirations from a few places. Some of them have been pretty monumental, so I thought I’d share some of them here.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Yes, I am one of those readers that will purposefully stay away from something if it seems to explode in popularity. This is why I waited so long to read anything by Gillian Flynn. And when I did, I steered away from the super-popular Gone Girl and opted instead for Dark Places.  It’s an amazing book and inspired me not only for the exceptional character development as a result of the flow, but also of how it was pieced so intricately together through various narrators–a tool I usually can’t stand but was hooked on throughout this entire book.

The Story So Far – Vortex Rikers

Always a sucker for dark cinematic music to write to, this album hooked me immediately. What gives it more flair than some of the other artists I’ve recently discovered are the synth-pop leanings to most of the songs. These tunes wouldn’t necessarily be the background music to the scarier parts of a horror movie…but it would be perfect for the parts where the stars are formulating a plan to escape their horrors.

Arboreal - The Flashbulb

Glitch, new-classical, piano melodies and some pretty intense beats…it adds up to one of the most impressive artists I have discovered in quite some time. This album has been on heavy rotation as of late as I try to flesh out the building blocks to the above-mentioned novel.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

I won’t lie and say this movie floored me. It didn’t. I even have issues with the massive amounts of praise it got. As far as I’m concerned, it was just an okay movie. What did impress me about it, though, is how the biggest part of the story is based around a little traumatized (but well put-together, surprisingly) girl and how she sees the world. Her flawed perceptions of it, coupled with her strained relationship with her father, make it hard to resist. Only, for me, it was not the movie that was so great, but the fact that the world portrayed in the movie is indeed our own but, somehow, very different. Those that have seen it know what I mean…

Share your own recent inspirations and motivations in the comments.

One thing of note…see how the header reads “Fiction and Freelance?” That is, of course, because freelance writing (which is essentially my 9-5 these days) has allowed me very little time to write any fiction in the last 2 weeks or so. Also, it is my extreme hope that by the end of 2013, the “Freelance” portion of that subtitle will be gone.

My contracted Dead Man book is now done. Final title: Streets of Blood. I think I may be able to reveal the cover here in the next few days, but I need to get certain permissions.

There are also behind-the-scenes movement on another book, but that’s going to remain quiet for now.

Which is just as well…I really am going to try to stop posting me-me-me stuff here and keep it all about the writing.

So let’s start with freelancing grumbles.

While freelance writing is, basically, me getting paid to write, there is still that emptiness inside that wants to be writing novels, not ghostwriting blog content about SEO marketing and animals.  But hey, the schedule is great and the free time with the wife and kids is awesome…considering that Napier Offspring #3 (also being referred to as the End All, Be All because she will be our last) was born on February 3rd.

And that’s life right now. That’s why my online self has been dead for a few weeks.

That is why, I suppose, why the blog got redone again (that and I love making headers).

So yeah, I’ve been away for a while but I feel/hope that there are big things on the horizon. In the meantime, it’s more blogging and ghosting. A fun lesson learned these last few weeks: when you do it enough professionally, the term “ghostwriting” quickly stops sounding cool.

What are folks saying about the Everything Theory series?

Reading the Everything Theory series is like discovering a secret code that connects every Twilight Zone episode. Napier doles out hints at just the right pace. You believe that the huge mystery has a solution, and that it will be mind-blowing. Napier is either a madman or a prophet.

Alan Ryker – author of The Hoard and Burden, Kansas

this brings together the right dose of our government covering up unknowns and unexplained. perfectly balanced with fear factor, sense of humor, and conspiracy theory storytelling. vivid characters tell the reader just enough to hook us without being predictable or giving it away. well done and recommended. cant wait to get my hands on the next one…I am certain Mr. Napier will be getting phone calls from Hollywood on this series. must read, definitely.

Amazon Customer Review

I think writers need to do that. It’s important to sample everything the craft has to offer.

My latest foray into unfamiliarity with certain styles of writing was prompted by a book that my wife and I are reading to my 5 year-old daughter. As you might imagine, I love story time–a nightly 20 minute window of time in the Napier household. I particularly enjoy the Pigeon books by Mo Willems.

But as of late, my daughter has gotten into what she refers to as “chapter books.” These are books like Judy Moody, Superfudge, and so on. However, ever the one to be unique, she picked out a book in Target one day called Clementine.  I had never heard of Clementine and, therefore, assumed it was another Judy Moody rip-off.

To my surprise, my wife and I enjoy the Clementine books just as much as my daughter. They’re almost like a Pixar film; the content and story caters to children, but there are jokes scattered here and there that only an adult can truly appreciate. Being that I love these books so much, my mind kept wandering back to an idea I scraped last year…my first attempt at a Young Reader story for ages 5-10 or so. Based loosely on the Hardy Boys (and, of course, given some slight supernatural content), I could never slip into the mindset of writing for that audience.

But now Clementine has me trying it again. These books also reminded me that I have not really stepped out of my comfort zone in quite some time. (With the exception of my children’s picture book I am currently shopping around).

How about you? Are there any genres or arenas you’ve always wanted to try but never dares step into the water in fear that you might drown? If so, explain.

And, if you’re a parent with young kids, check out the Clementine books by Sara Pennypacker.