The Case of the Missing Writer

Hello, there!

Miss me?

I know, I went from being pretty prolific in my social media to being a veritable ghost!  Unfortunately, I kind of expected that when I knew I had to go back to a day job.

I mean, I’ve balanced my work life, home life, and writing life before, but it was always a delicate balance, and being a neurodivergent person, a lot of my (limited) success in that arena depended on things being stable amongst all three.

Life has been anything but stable.  For a long time.  And now that I’ve started not just a new job, but a new career, one of those three things has obviously been upended.  Plus, my home life has been out of balance for a long time, due to having to move frequently (thank you Denver Metro for having a horrific housing/rental market…)

So what does that mean for the future?  Am I back on social media starting today?

No.  :(

The New Career

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I started a new career as a technical writer!  Well, it’s actually a bit more than just that.  Officially my title is “Business Process Analyst” which I’ve learned basically translates to “Technical Writer+”.

I generally keep my job separate from social media, but given that my job involves writing, I did want to touch on it just a bit, in a very general and vague sense.

Technical writing is a very different beast from creative writing, as you might imagine.  However, I was already semi-familiar with it, because as a computer sys admin, a big part of what I did was document processes and procedures for everything I did, quite meticulously.  And I was also a bit of an outsider in doing so – sys admins generally aren’t good writers.  They generally don’t like writing.  Every job I ever worked had a dearth of documentation, and I usually spent a considerable amount of time and effort fixing that.

My bosses loved me for that.  (In fact, my current manager hired me in this new career because he remembered how diligent I was with documentation!)  People who took over after I’ve left a job loved the documentation!  It is something that’s very much needed in the technical field, and yet is so very often ignored or overlooked.

But becoming a Technical Writer, let alone a Technical Writer+ (err, I mean, a BPA), it’s a whole other bag of worms!  Because I’m not just learning how to manage my system and then writing procedures as I figure it out for myself.  I’m not even just focusing on one system.

I’m focusing on an entire program!

Things that I previously ‘let other people deal with,’ like program management, suddenly is front-and-center for me.  Policies, processes, procedures, for all aspects of a technical program, are now my business.  I have to learn it all, so that I can write about it all.

So the past two months have been a bit of an information overload.  That, more than anything, is why I’ve not been on social media.  Why I haven’t been writing, or editing, or really doing much of anything creative-writing-related.  Because when I get home, I’m exhausted.

However, there is one good thing about all of this – I’m SO much happier where I’m at, doing what I’m doing!  Before now, I went from one toxic work environment to another.  But finally, I’m in what finally feels like a good-quality work environment with coworkers who actually care (about their work AND about their coworkers).  My manager is encouraging and helpful, and I’m not frustrated every single day!

And I’m not stressing out over keeping computers operational.  Instead, it’s now my job to help enable the people responsible for keeping systems operational.  Basically, I’m more of a support person now.  And my stress levels are ever-so-grateful for that!

When Is My Next Book Coming Out?

So with my writing life being impacted so heavily by my new career, when is my next novel coming out?

Believe it or not, that’s not being impacted by this at all, not yet (and hopefully not at all).  Project Sirius 2 is still coming out this year!

Unfortunately, there’s a move coming up for us soon.  We live in a really ratty, stressful apartment complex right now, and so we’re gonna move soon.

Once that move is done, I’m gonna give myself some time to unwind and relax and live life.

So, my current plan?  Project Sirius 2 should be out this Fall.  That’s my goal.

The Awakening came out in September, but I don’t think I’ll make the one-year mark on book 2.  Instead, I’m thinking closer to the end of October.

What comes after that?  I still have to write the Sword of Dragons 5.  2 chapters are written, and that’s all.  I fully intend to use NaNoWriMo this year to make a huge dent in it, but I’d be shocked if I finished the entire novel in that single month.  Then again, I’ve shocked myself before.  And if home life gets better (IE: our new apartment is less stressful to live in), who knows, I could find myself with another major creative outpouring :)

But for 2024, only a single novel is expected to be published.  My goal for Sword of Dragons 5 is sometime in 2025.

I wish I could write more.  I wish I could do what I did in 2020 and get 4 novels written!  But as long as I have a day job and don’t make enough on writing…that’s just not possible.

Speaking of my writing career and how it’s doing!

Surging Popularity of the Sword of Dragons!

I’m pleased to report that the Sword of Dragons saga is enjoying more attention than ever before!  For the first time ever, book, eBook, and Kindle reads are consistently happening!  I mean, as consistent as can be.

Let me put it to you this way – in years past, there were times where I’d only get a single sale in a month, and then a surge of four or five, then something more middling, then nothing at all.  KENP reads came in spurts.  A single person would apparently read book 1, then 2, maybe 3, and then possibly 4.  I could almost always track when a new person found the books because there was never any evidence that more than one person was reading at the same time.

Now?  Now I’m getting multiple orders of at least book one every month, often leading to sales of the other books in the series!  Usually it’s either book 1, and then a little while later, books 2, 3, and 4 all at once, or sometimes, all 4 books at once (and at least a handful of times, The Orc War Campaigns!)  And KENP reads?  I’m often seeing every single book being read a little bit at a time every single day!  Which means at least 4 people are reading at the same time!

“Oh woopey, 4 people at the same time!  That’s not impressive.”  Oh, yes it is.  For an author who, as I said before, saw maybe one person per month reading, a sudden uptick like this, that has lasted for months, is FREAKING AMAZING!

This is the biggest step forward I’ve ever seen in my writing career!

What’s the source?  Well, it started with a marketing boon.  I finally found a video (click here to see it) that explained the Amazon advertising algorithm, and how to navigate it, in a way that I could understand (previous videos or help documents just didn’t click in my ADHD brain).  So I changed how I managed my ads, and within the first month of that change, I started seeing surges in new readership!

Following that, only a month later, I drastically had to (once again) reduce my advertising budget, killing off all advertising for some titles (Project Sirius :( ) so that I could keep the momentum going for Sword of Dragons.  But it’s still paying off, and in fact I’m seeing momentum building for Sword of Dragons despite not changing how much I’m spending on ads!

Another part of it – with the surge of new readers has come more ratings, and largely good ratings!  (Plus a new, glowing review on Amazon for Rise of the Forgotten!)  I think as my ratings numbers increase, and RotF stays above the 4-stars mark (which it so far has easily done), I might continue to see this momentum building!

In short, it’s a really, really good sign :D  And once things settle with my new career, I intend to take what I learned for advertising with Sword of Dragons, and apply it to Project Sirius to try to get interest in that series going, especially after book 2 comes out!

How You Can Help

I am immensely grateful for each and every one of you who reads my novels!  I know there’s been a slight uptick in new readers to this blog, too, and I’m so glad you’re here!  I hope you’re willing to show me some patience over the coming months as my life undergoes various changes – that’s the first way you can help (showing patience with me) ;)

The other way?  The biggest way you can help?  Please leave ratings for any of my books that you’ve read on Amazon, as well as anywhere else you’re willing to leave a rating on!

Better still, on top of those ratings, please leave a written review!  Something as simple as “I liked it” or “I thought it was okay” is good, but if you have the time and want to go into a little bit more detail, you’d be helping not just me, but you’d be helping future readers decide if they want to give my book a chance!

In fact, that’s one of the best things about reviews – you’re not just helping the author, you’re helping your fellow readers find the right books for them (by steering those with similar taste in the right direction!)

Beyond that, you can like, comment on, and share my social media posts, like this one!

Thank you for reading! :)
-Jon Wasik

Life Update – Audiobook Finished, Back to the Grind

Hey everyone!

I know it’s been a while since I wrote a blog on here, and I’m so sorry for that.  I’ve been trying to ‘keep up with’ posting on Instagram and Facebook, and being the introvert that I am, that…pretty much is all the energy I have, when it comes to social media.

And I’m honestly not sure it’s worth it.

Instagram is no longer a photo app – it’s all about the videos.  Scratch that, it’s all about the reels, which are limited to a minute and a half.  Recording any meaningful content in that short amount of time?  Not easy.  And I had to take something like 30 to 60 takes each time, trying to get it right while compressing the topic to 90 seconds.

I think I might give up on that.  While my initial foray into reels proved promising, with new followers and a couple of comments, it quickly died out, and is stagnant.  Again.

I guess I just suck with social media.  *shrug*

Burning Skies Audiobook Coming Soon!

It’s…been a battle.  I intended to record one audiobook per month once I was furloughed from my day job.  I succeeded with Rise of the Forgotten!  Then I got sick for the month of November with a throat thing.  Started recording in December, made pretty good progress, buuuut….grew increasingly frustrated with the noise in my neighborhood getting worse and worse.

And, well, things just kept getting delayed.  I finally, finally finished recording Burning Skies in January, and started editing.  Editing took a lot longer, because the noise I mentioned in my neighborhood?  It meant that I had to re-record a bunch of sections.

But finally, as of last week, editing is finished!  And I spent the first half of this week listening to Burning Skies “in the wild” to see how an average listener might listen to it.  I found some minor things, about 6 chapters needed breaths removed throughout that somehow wasn’t audible during my editing phase, and a couple of lines needed re-recording, but all in all, I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Especially Nuuldan, the dark dragon?  Oooh.  I channeled Sam Witwer’s version of Darth Maul when I recorded those lines, and they came out sooooo good!  I can’t wait for you all to hear it!

Yesterday, I uploaded all of the files to ACX, and submitted for approval!  So, assuming no quality issues are detected by the ACX techs, Burning Skies should show up on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes in the next 2 weeks!

So despite the setbacks, I battled through, and completed my second Audiobook!

Now…what’s next?

Wellllllllllll….

Assessing The Situation and Adapting

So after all of the delays with Burning Skies, I knew I was running up against a wall, time-wise.  My furlough only allowed me 3 months of paid-for insurance by my employer, and unemployment only allowed a little more than that.  My plan had been to record Rise, then Burning, then start auditioning for jobs to actually get paid for my voice work.

That last part was originally supposed to start in December.

When I hadn’t finished recording Burning Skies until January, I knew my original plan was in big, big trouble.

Then I started looking into how much I could expect to get paid as a voice actor going through ACX, without an agent, without a director or producer or editor, with me doing all of it.

So here’s the thing.  Audiobook narrators, and voice actors in general, don’t get paid for however long it takes them to do the job.  We get paid for a product.  We get paid Per Finished Hour of audio, or PFH.

Let’s say it takes me an hour to record a segment.  That’s an hour of audio, right?  Not necessarily, and especially not as a beginner.  I make mistakes.  I have to re-record.  I’ve learned that, in order to keep my flow on a story, when I mess up, I just immediately re-do that line or wherever a good break is to edit later.  Sometimes that’s only a little bit, and sometimes I mess up a lot.

Then, later, I have to go back and listen to and edit that hour.  Editing involves cutting, adjusting, and generally takes 1.5x as long to do, at least for me (dunno if I’m missing some trick of the trade…)  So that hour recording actually took 2.5 hours of my time to polish, and I may end up actually only having 50 minutes of a final product.  Maybe more, maybe less.

As a beginner, as a nobody on the ACX platform, I could probably expect the lower end of pay for jobs, which is a range of $50 to $100 PFH.

Now, let’s do some math, yeah?  I know, I hate math, too.

Rise of the Forgotten came out to about 10 hours finished.  At the low end, that would mean $500, at the high end, $1000.

In theory, that should have taken me 25 hours to finish, with the 2.5x math, right?  Less than a week, in theory.

It took me longer.  A lot longer.  It basically took me a month from beginning to end.  Now granted, throughout that month, my voice started weak and I couldn’t record for 8 hours a day, so that’s probably why.  Some days I could only do one or two chapters at most, my voice was still recovering from previous days of recording for 6 or more hours.  That’s part of it, your vocal chords are a muscle that need to be strengthened over time.  By the time I finished recording RotF, I was doing pretty good!

But it basically took me a month to finish.

Sooooo…if this was for someone else’s project?  That’s $500-$1000/month.  Before taxes, not  counting medical insurance or anything.  That’s it.

That is not enough to live off of, even in a dual-income home.  Not even close.

So that has led to a…difficult decision.

Back to the Grind – Day Job

After figuring all of that out in January, and knowing that my medical and unemployment benefits were about to run out, I knew I had no choice – I had to go back to a day job.

I really, really didn’t want to.

And I’m so, so incredibly frustrated!!!!  Of course my body decided to get a new illness in the middle of all of this!  Of course I then had to re-build up my vocal chords afterwards and take longer than I should have to record Burning Skies!  Of course everything had to fight me every single step of the way!

At least, that’s been my thoughts lately.  I’m not happy about how it all played out.  This…this was supposed to be my chance.  This was supposed to be how I was able to become a full-time creative.  I didn’t expect to get rich, I didn’t want to get rich, I just wanted a sustainable income!

Maybe, someday, I still can.  It’ll be easier with ‘professional’ gigs, where I have an agent and a producer and I record my work, send it off for someone else to edit, and then move on to the next project.  Maybe, but that’ll mean trying to get an agent to represent me, just for starters.  That’s a big if.

But for now, I have to take care of myself and my family.  I have to make sure we don’t end up on the streets.  And let’s face it, with practically zero social safety nets in the U.S., that’d be a scary prospect.

So I started applying for jobs on indeed.  Sys Admin jobs.  It literally made me nauseous when I first started looking – I not only didn’t want to go back to a 9-5 job, I really didn’t want to go back to the immensely stressful Sys Admin career, where employers increasingly take advantage of employees, adding more and more work and hours without any added pay.

At one point, I started wondering about trying to find other jobs.  Maybe as a proofreader or copy editor.  I started looking at those jobs, and felt like I had a leg up on those, since my Bachelor’s degree was in English.  But a lot of it was ‘gig’ work or temporary contracts, not a reliable source of income at all.

Then I thought…what about technical writing?  I started looking into that.  It looked…promising.  I’d take a definite pay cut, tech writers aren’t paid nearly as much as sys admins, but it was more than I was getting from unemployment by a significant amount, and we’d already proven that, if we had to, we could make that work!  So, why not go for it?

I posted on my private Facebook about thinking about going tech writing as a career, not really thinking anything about it.  But then, that same day, an old co-worker called me up and said he was a manager on a program in dire need of a proper documentation program, and he knew and liked my work in that regard (I’ve always built up the documentation programs for any job I was a sys admin at), and he wanted to hire me!

A few weeks later, and here I am, about to start not just a new day job, but a new career!

I’m excited.  I’m terrified.  I’m anxious.  I’m all over the board about it!  But one thing is for sure – I’ll be glad to have a steady paycheck again.

For more than one reason.

What’s Next?

Remember how I was saying that my neighborhood was getting worse and worse with noise?  Well, honestly, worse and worse in general.  This apartment complex is utter shit, the management company that took over after we moved in is horrible (Seriously, second time Greystar has taken over an apartment while we lived there and turned it to shit!  How are they surviving as a company??)

So with a steady paycheck again, we’re gonna move to a better apartment/neighborhood.  One that doesn’t stress us out, and one that won’t interfere with my ability to record audio.

Until then?  No more recording.  It’s too frustrating.

But once I’m settled into my day job and get a new daily routine going, I will continue writing and publishing novels.  The Sword of Dragons needs book 5, and Project Sirius book 2 needs to come out this year!

I don’t plan on publishing Sirius 2 until after we move, though.

I’m going to probably pull back from Instagram – it’s just not worth the effort I put into my videos, I get no engagement.

I’m probably going to delete my Patreon.  Absolutely no one seems to give a shit about it or has any interest in supporting me through that platform, so no sense keeping it online.

But overall, for the next few months, I’m going to focus on two things – moving, and mental/emotional health.

I’ve worked for employers who don’t give two shits about me for too long.  I’m hopeful that this new job won’t be like that (the manager’s a pretty cool guy!), but either way, I’m going to focus more on taking care of me, and being healthy and better.

I have no doubt that this new year is going to be full of even more change.

I’ll try to be better about keeping you all in the loop here.  After all, this blog is a better avenue for that – I’m a writer!  Writing is what I do best :)

Assuming anyone is still around reading this, and assuming anyone has read all the way to the bottom of this rather long post, thank you for your support and patience!

Until next time!
-Jon Wasik

Musings of the Week – New Book’s Performance, Reading Old Works

Hello, there!

Today’s post will be a bit of a different format – I didn’t have any one topic long enough to count as its own post, and no real conclusions to make, just some musings.  So without further ado…

The Awakening’s Performance

It’s been almost a week since The Awakening debuted, so how has it measured up?

Strangely enough, kinda good, but also not terribly great.

The amount of pre-orders for The Awakening was about half of the pre-orders I’d received for Legacy, but considering what happened post-release with Legacy, I wasn’t surprised, and didn’t look at that as an indicator.

Legacy kicked off a new series just like The Awakening, and I heavily marketed Legacy pre-release.  Between beta reader feedback and the pre-order numbers, I was flying high on release day!

Unfortunately, that high lasted mere days.  The very first rating that came in for it was a 2-star.  Followed  by another 2-star.  It was…a depressing time.

But what about The Awakening?  Well I’m happy to say that on Amazon, there’s a 4-star and a 5-star rating, with a glowing 5-star review!  On Goodreads, it’s also received a 4-star rating and review!  So that’s a good start!  Better still, for a short time, The Awakening jumped up to be in the top 100,000 kindle books in the entire Kindle store!  That might not sound good, but considering it had already backpedaled to 3,000,000 pre-release (Only one person pre-ordered the Kindle edition, compared to the numerous print pre-orders), that jump from 3,000,000 to under 100,000 was significant!  It also hit under the top 100 for Teen and Young Adult LGBTQ+ Fiction for a short time!

All in all, compared to anything I’ve written and published before, a very strong start!

Unfortunately, I had hoped for more reviews.  That was explicitly why I’d sent out Advanced Reader Copies, to have numerous reviews up-front and get the ball rolling on positive marketing.  Unfortunately, one of two things is happening – either almost none of those readers are leaving reviews, or Amazon is blocking them.  So far, only two Advanced Readers actually have reviews posted.

But that is apparently one of the greatest struggles for independently published authors.

And let me tell you, I have noticed a definite difference.  When Rise of the Forgotten hit 30 ratings, mostly 5-star, suddenly more readers were coming to the table, and within a month, it went from 30 to 33 ratings, after years and years of barely getting any.

So yes, dear readers, ratings, and especially reviews, make a huge difference.  If you want to support your favorite author beyond just buying their books, the easiest and best thing you can do is write a review :)

The Pain Of Reading Old Works

I think I’ve already mentioned it, but whenever I get ready to write another book in a series, I go back and re-read all of the previous books.  That way I’m in the right mindset, and I’m more familiar with what came before.

Artwork by Vuk Kostic

The time has come to write the next Sword of Dragons novel!  That means going back and re-reading Rise of the Forgotten.

Except something has changed, in me….

The last time I read Rise, I still liked it.  I still felt like it was a strong story, fairly well-written, if a little rough around the edges.  And given the ongoing positive ratings it receives, there’s definitely other readers out there who feel the same way.

But this time…I’m struggling with it.  I feel like there’s way too much exposition, and sometimes that exposition is a little repetitive.  I have to force myself to read thoroughly, to not skip parts.

What’s changed?

For starters, this happens to every writer.  I read or heard once about someone meeting Jim Butcher and telling him they’d just read his first Dresden Files novel, and he lamented them having to read his early works, and encouraged that reader to get to more recent Dresden Files novels.  (I still very much enjoy Storm Front, but Butcher’s writing definitely gets better with each novel!)

Seriously, it happens to us all.  Or at least…it should.  Because like all art, hell, like all careers, you can always get better.  The moment you stop believing that, the moment you stop trying to learn more, or grow, or ‘get better,’ is the moment you doom yourself.

With all of that in mind, I’m actually encouraged by this feeling of distaste towards my first published novel.  It means I’ve grown as a writer, and am still growing.  I haven’t become stagnant.

There’s another bonus to this effort: I can see what I did wrong, and ensure I don’t repeat those mistakes in my next novel.

In any case, that’s all I have for you today, dear readers!

Wait, you’re eager for updates on my next novel?

Let’s just say I’m in the process of getting Project Sirius book 2 out to first-round beta readers ;)

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

The Creative Urge To Be And Do More

Hello, there!

I honestly am not sure how to start this post…it’s just something that’s been on my mind a lot lately, and I felt the need to write about it.  As you might imagine from that opening, this is going to be a little bit more personal than my usual blog posts ;)

I find myself perpetually frustrated with life, and that frustration grows day-by-day, month-by-month, year-by-year, and it feels like it’s reaching a crescendo.

You see…I want to do more.  More creative work.

But the most frustrating aspect isn’t that I want to do more of one thing – I mean, I DO want to write, more than anything else – but I want to do more of so many different creative things!

I’ve started and then had to stop so many creative endeavors outside of writing, not because I’ve lost interest, but because I’ve had to prioritize my endeavors.  I hate that I have to prioritize them.  I loath that I can’t be creative all the time.

Those are some strong words.  I don’t use them lightly.  Like I said, I feel like the frustration is reaching a crescendo right now.

What I’d Do With $10 Million Dollars

Most everyone dreams of winning the lottery jackpot, and in this day and age, with skyrocketing inflation, that desire is probably stronger than ever for everyone.

There’s a part of me that wishes we lived in an era of patrons again.  I don’t know if I could actually merit a patron or not, but I’d like to think my creative endeavors have attracted some fans (there’s at least a handful of you who regularly like my blog posts here, and I am ever so grateful for that!)  I wish an interested (and, obviously, rich) patron would just be like, “I like all the things you do, so here, live off of my dime and do what you do best!”  But I’m not sure what’s more wishful thinking, that desire or the desire to win the jackpot ;)

And I know that Patreon would net me very little – I don’t know how to market myself, so getting enough people to subscribe when I’m not actually constantly delivering stuff on a month-to-month basis?  Not at all likely to ever happen.

But what would I do if money were no object, or less of an issue?  What have I done in the past, what have I been forced to give up just to make ends meet?

You all know the first answer to that question – I’d write, more.  I’d write more stories more often, much faster.  Instead of having one or two novels in the pipeline at any given time, I’d have many.  I’d finish the Sword of Dragons saga in a matter of maybe two years.  I’d write more Project Sirius.  I’d write that Cyberpunk/Dystopian series I’ve been building in my head.  I’d even go back and try to salvage Chronicles of the Sentinels with new novels!

But what about endeavors outside of writing?

Let’s start with the most recent, the thing that has disheartened me the most to give up (for now).  Voice acting.

I had a plan to transition from my I.T. career to that, slowly, carefully.  I’m not one to dive into new things and hope I land on my feet, I don’t have the courage and I couldn’t forgive myself if I failed and sent my wife and I into destitution.

But that plan was thwarted, by a major shakeup at work that has left me burned out and with no visible way forward with the voice acting, not yet anyway.  I’ve had to postpone it, and I’ve no idea for how long.  There’s too much uncertainty now, too much chaos.

I want to narrate my books.  I want to narrate other books.  I love doing voices, and the more classes I took, the more I fell in love with voice acting!  So I’ll come back to this someday.  Once I reconfigure my plans again and figure out a path forward.  As soon as I can find a path forward.

Yes, I made this, using Unreal Engine 5!

But that’s not all I want to do more of.  Last year, I became obsessed with Unreal Engine 5, as a way to fulfill so many aspects of my creativeness!  It helped fulfill my itch to make art, for one, while engaging my technical and engineering side.  I’d spent years learning 3D Graphic Design and Animation as a hobby during my college days, but hadn’t exercised that muscle much until UE5.  I loved it, I obsessed over it, and followed so many tutorials to create an incredible scene!

On top of that, my desire to build a shareable environment of my own creation grew, and I had dreams to use UE5 to build out the world of the Sword of Dragons, for starters.  Something I’d once done before using Minecraft, but the limitations of which frustrated me and, for now, I have paused.  UE5 could have and still could be a way to build that world out.  I even had the idea of using UE5 to make new covers for the Sword of Dragons novels.

Except…when my frustrations with my career and inability to work on creative stuff more frequently reached a certain level, I had to find a way out, a way forward.  That’s when I decided to pursue voice acting, and that meant setting UE5 aside for a time.  I’ve forgotten so much about how to use UE5 that I’d have to go through all of the tutorials all over again (though probably a lot faster, as muscle memory kicked in).

Another creative endeavor?  Once upon a time, I started learning how to do leather working.  I even made a belt and a few rudimentary bracers.  But a combination of time, money, medical issues, and living situation made it impossible to follow that dream.  And my leather tools sit mostly unused for now (Beck has used them more than I have!)

I Love To Build.  I Need To Build.

It all boils down to a need in my soul to build worlds.  Fictional worlds.  I write them.  I design them before I write them.  I draw them on paper.  I build them in video games.  I build them in 3D art.  And even my interest in leather working came from a desire to cosplay as my own characters.

I need to see my worlds built, and I need to share them with others!  It isn’t a want, it is an absolute need.

So every setback, every instance of being held back and being denied the time, money, and energy to create drives me nuts!

And today, more than any other day so far, I feel like I’m being held down and forced to endure torture, leaving all of my needs unfulfilled, juuuust out of reach.  If only there was more time.  More money.  More freedom.

I am a creative who isn’t allowed to create.

10 Year Anniversary – Completing the First Sword of Dragons Novel

Hello, there!

Cover by Christian Michael

This month marks the 10 year anniversary for when I finished writing what would become my first published novel, The Sword of Dragons (later rebranded as Rise of the Forgotten, The Sword of Dragons book 1)!

While the novel wouldn’t see publication for a further 2 years, it still was a remarkable accomplishment!  Since then, a lot has happened, and a lot has changed.  One of the more notable changes is how I write novels today compared to how I wrote them back then.

I once wrote about my method for developing and writing novels, but I think the time has come to revisit that, and discuss how that has changed.

Back Then – Planning Every Chapter

Ask any novelist about plotters vs pansters, and they’ll probably probably state which they are, why, and maybe what they think about the other type of writer.

Back in 2013, I was through-and-through a plotter.  I developed chapter-by-chapter outlines for every novel I wrote, starting with the Sword of Dragons book 1.

I’d start with an idea for a story, write those ideas down, and start to develop a plot.  Once I felt I had enough ideas and themes figured out, I’d write down what I called the “general plot progression,” telling a basic version of the story from beginning to end.

Once that was done, I’d then go back, and start writing the basics of what would happen in each and every chapter, going into as much or as little detail as I felt was necessary to remind myself what should happen in each chapter.

After that, I’d begin writing the actual manuscript.  I’d usually have two word documents up on my screen, the chapter I was writing, and the chapter-by-chapter outline, so I could constantly refer back to my notes.  I generally tried to stick with my notes, and was really just ‘filling in the details’ as I wrote.  Sometimes new ideas would come to me, and I’d go a little off course, but I didn’t want to stray too far.  I didn’t want to have to re-develop the rest of the story.

How had I come up with this method?  In a way, it stemmed from how I developed my old fan fiction, Star Trek Dragon.  Starting around season 3, I had a general idea for the entire series, and a more specific idea for the season.  To help ensure there were no plot holes or ‘wasteful’ filler episodes, I plotted each episode out, ensuring that every episode contributed to the overall story.

This served my very well for developing a series.  When the first iteration of the Sword of Dragons failed to impress anyone, and I decided to rewrite it from scratch, I adopted this process.  Aside from a horrific 4-year writer’s block about 1/3rd of the way into book 1, it kept me on-task, and helped me write the story you all know today.

Because of how successful I perceived that method to be, I kept it up.  I developed Burning Skies with the same method, kept the momentum going, and then continued with Secrets of the Cronal.  Back when I wrote the first version of Legacy, Chronicles of the Sentinels book 1, I likewise wrote a chapter-by-chapter outline.

I felt like this method worked very well for me.  There were only a few times where it didn’t, like in Burning Skies when I added about 4 new chapters that I hadn’t originally planned while I wrote it, but all in all, it worked!

Except…

There was one problem.  And the first time it ever reared its ugly head was when I wrote Secrets of the Cronal.  I had a very solid plan for how things would go in it, including at the end when Reis was meant to betray Cardin and the others and steal the Sword of Dragons.

If you’ve read Secrets of the Cronal, you’ll know that didn’t actually happen.

It was the first time where a character so viscerally refused my plans for them.  This wasn’t who Reis was.  The actions I planned for him were so against his character that it broke the story.  And because so much of the plot I’d developed, chapter-by-chapter, depended on this happening, when I got to that point and realized it couldn’t happen…writing came to a full-on stop.  I not only had to re-write that chapter, but I had to figure out how the rest of the novel would play out, not to mention the rest of the series.

I felt shackled by the plan I had come up with.  So, finally, I said, “Hell with it,” and I threw the rest of the plan out the window, and I just ‘went with it.’  I wrote whatever came out.

Later, going through revisions and proofreads, I had a lot of cleanup and adjustment to do.  Secrets of the Cronal had one of the longest production and post-production times for any of my novels back then.

And it got me thinking – maybe plotting every single chapter wasn’t the best way to go.  It kept me from letting the story evolve in the direction it needed to.

Then, in 2019, everything changed.

Neither Plotter nor Pantser – The Hybrid Approach

In 2019, I had an idea to revive Legacy, and it involved a complete re-write.  At the time, I’d been reading the Dresden Files, and I liked the approach Jim Butcher used – a single character’s point of view, rather than a myriad.  I had been thinking of how to make Chris Tatsu a more interesting character, and the story overall more interesting, and then it came to me – it needed to be a more personal story for Chris, and the single POV would facilitate that.

I also knew that some of my original plot ideas wouldn’t work with this new, limited POV, plus some of the plot elements just…didn’t make sense or weren’t interesting.

Fresh off of writing Secrets of the Cronal, I decided that instead of going back to the drawing board, so-to-speak, and writing down a new chapter-by-chapter outline, I’d just…wing it.  And Let the story go in whatever direction it needed.  Sure, this might introduce inconsistencies and errors, but those could be cleaned up and corrected in editing and revision.

With that freedom, I flew through the first draft!  I was so enthusiastic about it that I couldn’t stop writing!  When pandemic hit and my day job came to a virtual stand-still, this only made it easier, and before I knew it, Legacy was completed.

I capitalized on that, and after developing the basic plot for book 2, I wrote Retribution, and then once again, after spending some time developing the plot for book 3, I wrote Champions without a chapter outline.

I’d never written so much, so quickly, and I was proud of the work I’d created!  I was so happy with this new method of half-plotting (IE developing the general story) and then half-pantsing (writing the story without outlines, letting it take me wherever it needed to go) that I adopted the exact same method for writing Advent Darkness.

Now, those of you who don’t like Chronicles of the Sentinels might point to that series as an example of why this new, hybrid method is a mistake.  However, Advent Darkness has been lauded as my best-written work so far, and kicked off a resurgence in popularity for the Sword of Dragons saga!  So, while I still don’t really understand the relative failure of Sentinels, clearly Advent Darkness is proof that this method works, and works damn well.

It’s how I wrote The Awakening, as well.  I’ve shared The Awakening with more beta readers than any previous novel, and responses to it have been highly encouraging!

Of course, how a story is written obviously isn’t the only reason for a story’s success or failure.  But I do feel like this method helps me develop and write better stories.

The Future – Will I Change What I’m Doing?

As a writer, I’m going to continue to evolve and change.  Any writer worth their salt should.  To say, “I’ve found my method, I’m never changing it,” makes you unable to adapt to a changing world and to changing stories.

For now, this method very much suits me, and at this point, I’ve written more novels in this method than the plotter method.  But who knows what might happen tomorrow.

All I can promise is that I won’t stop writing.  :)

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

Print Titles Will Not Be Going Up In Price

Good morning!

I wanted to put a note here – many of you have no doubt heard from other authors that printed books across the board, but especially for self-published authors who use KDP Print, will be going up in price soon.

This is a result of Amazon increasing the price of printing (due to the ongoing trend of increased costs of printing).

However, for all of my current titles, that is all five Sword of Dragons titles and all three Chronicles of the Sentinels titles, those price changes in printing costs will have a negligible impact on what royalties I earn with each title – approximately 15 cents each.

Maybe it’s just because I’m a bad business person, but I don’t see a need to pass those ‘expenses’ onto the readers at this time.  The only markets that MIGHT see an increase are some overseas markets, because of how little I already make from those markets (thanks, Amazon…)

But for U.S. customers, prices will remain the same!

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

The Importance of Characters You Can Connect With

Hello, there!

Last week, in a quick side discussion about Project Sirius book 1, one of my beta readers relayed something her fiance (who is also beta reading it) said to her: that the protagonist, Mika, sounded just like her.

It was a quick, in-passing kind of remark, but it made me smile.  It also reminded me of the importance of writing characters that people can relate to, characters your readers can connect with.

And if you’ve ever wondered why representation matters in artistic endeavors such as novels, movies, or TV shows, then this article is for you.

Connecting With Characters

Think about some of your favorite stories.  Think about some of your favorite characters.  What is it you like about them?  Is it their courage?  Is it their sarcasm or wit?  Maybe the way they defuse every situation with humor, or the way they roll their eyes at every Dad joke they hear (or, maybe like Ellie in The Last of Us, they love Dad jokes!)

Chances are good that at least some, if not all of your favorites, are characters you connect with on some level.  And before you say, “this favorite character of mine is nothing like me!”, that’s not what I mean.  Connection doesn’t necessarily mean, “I see myself in them,” although those are powerful connections in themselves, perhaps the most powerful.  But also characters who remind you of others, in some way.

After all, you probably aren’t going to see yourself in every character in a single story – that would make for a very narrow-cast set of characters, and probably would be boring.  Diversity is important not just because it broadens who can relate to the story, but it also makes it more interesting.  It makes it more real and believable.  Because we live in a diverse world.

But while you might see yourself in one or two characters, and you might see parts of yourself in others, you might also see a parent in another, and a best friend in another, and your significant other in yet another character.  When that happens, those characters can come alive on the page far easier than if you didn’t connect to them on some level.  It helps fill in the gaps, the details and histories that aren’t written on the page.  You see them as people, not as arbitrarily crafted entities.

The best fiction stories are those that you forget are fiction, at least in the moment.

Us and Them, or All Of Us

So why is diversity and representation important?  Why, for instance, is it a good thing that the Motion Picture Academy is requiring diversity to be considered for Best Picture?

Because if you’re in an industry like writing novels, movies, or TV episodes, you’re in a position of influence on society.  Maybe your influence is extremely minimal.  Or maybe you’re writing for a big TV show or a summer blockbuster.  Either way, you help shape the vision of where society was, is, and will be.

Not a good enough reason?  Then don’t forget the financial aspect.  When you leave out under-represented groups of people, you’re basically saying, “I don’t want them to buy and read my material,” which basically equates to, “I don’t want their money.”  And yes, it really does make a difference.  If you don’t believe that, then check out how well the MCU movie Black Panther did in the box office.

But let’s say for a moment that money isn’t your only motivator.  And let’s face it, if you’re a novelist, chances are you aren’t doing it for the money.  (Really.  This profession doesn’t pay well, unless you’re one of the lucky very few.)  Let’s say you write stories because you are truly passionate about your art and the affect it has on readers.  So why does it matter?

For one, people who are used to never seeing themselves or their friends and family in stories suddenly find one in which they do.  In my experience, that creates a wellspring of giddy, happy feelings in a person, and they’re way more likely to fall in love with your novels.

Plus, in the larger picture, it helps demolish the “Us and Them” syndrome that pervades our society.  If you’re a writer or a reader, chances are you have a powerful imagination, so imagine this with me for a second: you live in a society where all of the popular media, including movies, TV shows, books, advertisements, everything, shows people who look or think nothing like you.  Since art is meant to imitate life, you might start to wonder, “Am I an outsider?  Do I not count?  Do I not matter?”  Over time, you might start to see “us,” meaning people like you, and “Them,” the people who, apparently, matter.

Now imagine after decades of this feeling, a major motion picture comes out, and the leading star is just like you.

How much is that going to blow your mind?  How happy do you think you’d feel?

If you’re reading this and you’ve experienced that, you know exactly what I mean.  If you’re reading this and you haven’t experienced it, just imagine it.  Just imagine something you’ve wanted all of your life but thought would never happen suddenly is there one day.  How happy would it make you?

And if you saw that new blockbuster movie and it was awesome and you fell in love with the character, wouldn’t you want to go out and tell all of your friends and family how great it was, and they should go see it right now?

Now, still in this imaginary world, fast forward to a time when every single story you see has people just like you in them, working and living and adventuring side by side with people from all kinds of races, creeds, and orientations.  Suddenly the world goes from, “Us vs Them” to “All Of Us Together.”

The utopian Earth we see in Star Trek suddenly doesn’t seem so far-fetched when that happens.

Humanity doesn’t seem so reprehensible and hopeless.

LGBTQ+ in Project Sirius, and More

This is why Mika was always meant to be LGBT.  This is why she isn’t the only one.  This is why, as the story unfolds over the course of multiple books, there’ll be multiple queer, as well as straight, characters.

This is also why The Sword of Dragons introduced an openly LGBT character in Advent Darkness (although there were hints to LGBT as early as The Orc War Campaigns).  This is why there was a non-binary character in Chronicles of the Sentinels.

Like reality, not all of my characters will be queer.  My cast will always be diverse.  But as someone who isn’t “normal,” I look for characters like me in other stories, and I love when I find them.  It makes me feel validated as a human being.  It makes me feel seen.  And I want to give that same feeling to others.

Are there risks to doing this?  Absolutely.  Ultra-conservatives have bandied the phrase, “Go woke, go broke,” around lately (and then complain about “cancel culture” like they aren’t doing that very same thing).

But I again point to incredible successes like Black Panther and say that if you include people from all walks of life, chances are you’ll do alright.  And along the way, you’ll help make the world a brighter, better place, for everyone.

Thanks for reading, everyone!
-Jon Wasik

Sword of Dragons 5 – Not The Final Story

Hello, there!

I spent some time a few days ago chatting with my friend Nick about the next book in the Sword of Dragons saga, bouncing thoughts and ideas back and forth, and came to the conclusion that there just is absolutely no way to tell the story that needs to be told in just one more novel.

There’s too much that needs to happen to wrap up not just the main story, but for all of the character stories and subplots that have built up over the past 8 years.  And as I’ve begun developing the plot of ‘what needs to happen, in what order, and how,’ I’ve come to realize that even more sub plots would develop that would take an entire novel (IE: book 5) to setup and resolve.

So, as of this week, I’ve decided that the Sword of Dragons saga will be at least six novels.  And without having meant to, I’ve in a way set it up to be two interlinked trilogies!

Which brings up the question of – what will book 5 be about?

Avoiding the Middle Story Syndrome

I’ve written about it before in passing when talking about the Chronicles of the Sentinels trilogy – too often in trilogies, the middle story serves as little more than filler.  It helps get a story from the beginning to the end without being its own complete tale.

I actively avoided falling into that pit trap in Chronicles of the Sentinels, thinking back to the original Star Wars trilogy and how incredible The Empire Strikes Back was on its own, let alone as part of a trilogy.  Granted I think a big part of that was that Lucas probably didn’t actually envision a trilogy from the get-go (but who knows – he changes his story about what his original plans were every other day), plus the ESB director, Irvin Kershner, changed some of the story and dialogue (thank goodness), and that likely contributed to making ESB one of the best movies ever, one of the best sequels ever, and one of the best middle stories ever.

I think when you look at the story of ESB, one of the biggest reasons why it was such a powerful story is that it tells a self-contained story with a distinct beginning, middle, and end all of its own, while still contributing to the larger narrative, and leaving just enough things incomplete to bring viewers back for the final story.

That is what I need to do for the Sword of Dragons book 5.  This is perhaps one of the greatest challenges I’ve faced as a writer.  Why?  Because ever since I finished writing Secrets of the Cronal, I intended to make the Sword of Dragons only five novels (excluding The Orc War Campaigns).  Which meant that the events that were to take place after Advent Darkness were meant to be one big, final story, and that was how I was developing the plot.

Now, not only do I need to split that giant story up, but I have to make the first half its own entity, its own complete story.

There’s a lot of ways I could go about it.  But the one way I don’t want to do it is to just find a good ‘climax point’ mid-story and say “that’s where book 5 will end.”  I know some trilogies seem to do this, and it shows.  As much as I love the Matrix trilogy, you can tell that’s exactly what they did with Reloaded, and it just…wasn’t as good as it otherwise could have been.  It didn’t really stand well as its own story, and was clearly meant to serve things up for the finale in Revolutions.  Which is probably why they were released six months apart.

So, now that I’m no longer daunted by the task of fitting everything into one novel, I’m instead faced with the daunting task of…figuring out what the story for book 5 needs to be, and it is no longer “the final battle against the Darksteel Army.”

Thankfully, yesterday’s discussion helped me out a lot in that regard.

Funny enough, though…I’m going to be taking some inspiration from the third act of another trilogy.

Seeking Allies Like Commander Shepard Would

I’ll do my best not to spoil too much here for Advent Darkness, but be warned, there may be some minor spoilers ahead.

An important part of all of the books so far has been encounters with various groups, species, governments, etc.  The orcs and the Dareann Elves, for starters.  The naga and the necromancers in Burning Skies.  The Star Dragons, the Dareann Dwarves, the Navitas, Kemila’s refugees.

Every single one was intentional.  Every single one was meant to lead up to this.  And I envision Cardin and friends seeking out those groups in the 5th novel to forge an alliance against the Darksteel Army.

Unfortunately, things are never easy.  Politics are inevitable.  There will be plenty of give-and-take, and for those caught up in the series, you’ll quickly realize that not everyone I’ve mentioned is ready to be an ally with each other.

Image Source – https://magisterscorner.wordpress.com/tag/mass-effect/

Thus, as I’ve developed the next novel, I’ve been taking inspiration from Mass Effect 3.

If you’ve never played or watched someone play the Mass Effect trilogy, each game (but especially 2 and 3) revolves around the protagonist, Commander Shepard, seeking out allies to confront the antagonist of each game, and in particular the overall antagonists, the Reapers.

Mass Effect 3 took things to a galactic scale.  It wasn’t just individual allies, Shepard needed to gather entire armies.  Preferably every army in the galaxy.

But not everyone was keen on working together.  In particular, in order to gain one ally, Shepard was forced to lose another – either side with the Salarians and allow the Krogan to face a long-haul genocide, or save the Krogans and lose the support of the Salarians.  If there was a way to get them to work together with Shepard, I never found it in any of my playthroughs.

Anyway, as you might imagine, there’s gonna be some tension between potential allies in the Sword of Dragons.  After all, given what was revealed in Secrets of the Cronal, and what happened in Advent Darkness, it’s unlikely the dwarves and elves would ever work together, right?

But is it impossible?

That’s one of many questions to be answered in book 5, and thankfully, it’s all beginning to take shape.

I’m hoping that somewhere in the next few weeks, I’ll finally figure out the ‘big story,’ and can start working towards filling more details that work towards that.  Once I know what the climax of the plot should be, things move a lot faster for me.

That’s all for today!  Thanks for reading :)
-Jon Wasik

Pushing Past Nerves – Writing The End Of A Series

This past November, I finished writing my newest novel, the first in a new YA Sci-Fi series, tentatively called Project Sirius.  While I’m still letting that story ‘steep’ a bit before I go back to do another round of proofreading and edits, it’s time to turn my attention to the next, and possibly final Sword of Dragons novel.

…Except that every time I do, my anxiety shoots through the roof.

“But why?”  Because this is the finale of the biggest story I’ve told so far.  I want to do it right.  I want to ensure every character gets their moment.  I want to wrap up all the story threads.

And that is a tall order.

Can it even be done in just one more novel?

The Great Debate In My Head – One or Two More Novels?

I’ve already been working on the next novel in the back of my mind for months, even years, and I’ve been jotting down ideas and ‘must haves’ now and again.  And as of this moment, I still haven’t decided if it will be one or two more novels.

Originally, I had planned for the Sword of Dragons saga to be six novels.  (Actually, originally originally, I’d planned 10 or more, but by the time I started writing Burning Skies, I knew that wouldn’t be the case.)  It wasn’t until I finished writing Secrets of the Cronal that I started to wonder about condensing it into five novels.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt like six books would be stretching it out unnecessarily.  After all that I packed into book 3, surely books 4 and 5 could be just as packed and get the entire story out, right?

Except…

Writing Advent Darkness with a revised writing style was not just an enjoyable experience, it’s been hailed as my best book yet.  And I wrote it by making it a tighter, more focused story.  Sure, this entire saga is a broad epic telling of Halarite coming out of its shell and becoming a part of the larger Universe, and is also Cardin’s “origin story,” so-to-speak.  But narrowing in on specific characters and their experiences in the larger tale helped me tell a far more compelling story, while still moving the overall narrative along.

Cardin has really started to come into his own in Advent Darkness, honing his powers despite not exercising them as much as he should, while simultaneously finally realizing his leadership potential (quite unwillingly).

Sira’s begun to accept her new reality and new companion, and the fact that she’s becoming an entirely different person.

Kailar’s powers have peaked, but despite real effort on her part, she hasn’t overcome her greatest shortcomings, and now is paying the price (as is everyone else).

All three of these must be addressed and resolved by the end of the finale.  Plus Reis’s quest for equality amongst non-magical people.  Dalin is still rejected by the Wizards and has settled into his life with Cardin and the others, but will he always be satisfied with that?  What about Elaria’s people and the conflict on her world?

Not only should all of that be addressed, but so too should the overall story involving the Darksteel Empire.

I fear that if I try to resolve it all in just one more novel, it’ll be too much for one story.  But if I spread it out to two novels, there might be unnecessary fluff, and could make for two mediocre novels.

The easy button would be to say “well book 5 concludes the current narrative, but I don’t have to wrap up everything, because I could start a new series within the same Universe!”  But I think it would be a neater, tighter act as a writer to wrap it all up here, and then, only if there’s a compelling story that needs to be told, would I start another series within the same Universe.

So what’s the solution to all of this?

Just Keep Working

There’s no way around it – I’ll have to just push through it, and keep working on the story.  I’m almost to the point where I’ve got enough general ideas of what to do for the story, so now I should start working on what I call a ‘story progression,’ where I write down the events in the order I think they should happen within the novel.

These days, since I don’t like to do chapter-by-chapter outlines anymore (I feel like doing so stifles the story a bit), that’d be the last step to take before I actually start writing the novel.

So it’s entirely possible that within the next month, draft 1 of the manuscript will begin.

And I have a lot of fantastic inspiration to work off of, too!  Mass Effect 3 being a key influence, since I’ve had the idea of Cardin needing to assemble allies to stand up to the Darksteel Empire, and to be frank, all of the seemingly-random encounters throughout the saga has been leading to just such a story.  Hmm, maybe I should play through the Mass Effect trilogy again ;)

That’s all for today – thanks for coming along with me on this crazy journey through my head!  Until next time :)

-Jon Wasik

Voice Acting – A Bold New Course

Hello, there!

In my last post of 2022, I mentioned at the end that I had begun to pursue voice acting as a career!  I wanted to go into a bit more detail on what brought me to that decision, and where I’m at with it today :)

Unintended Careers

By day, I’m a computer sys admin, specializing in Windows desktop and server administration.  (All you Unix/Linux/Mac lovers out there, I’m sorry but I don’t know enough about them to help you troubleshoot!)  And by all measures, my career is a resounding success!  I make enough money to live comfortably (though inflation isn’t helping), I’m pretty good at what I do (but not as good as the best), and I’ve built up an impressive resume over the past twenty years (wow, yeah, 20 years exactly this month!)

So why do I want to change?  Why would I jeopardize a good, stable career for something like voice acting which is inherently not stable?  And probably won’t pay nearly as much, at least not at first and possibly not ever.

Well…I’m good at what I do, that’s true.  But I do it only because I’m good at it.  I never intended to get into Sys Admin work, I just fell into it because I was good at computers and had a knack for it.  When I first started college, I majored in English with the intent of becoming a teacher while writing on the side, in the hopes of one day transitioning to becoming a full-time writer.

That plan fell through very quickly.  After just two months as a substitute teacher, I said, “Hell no!”  But in reality, my decision not to teach started long before that, when I first started learning what was involved and what it was like to be a public school teacher.  And to put it succinctly – Red Tape.  Way too much bureaucracy and not enough freedom to actually teach what you should be teaching.  The public school system was a joke.  And the pay is an even bigger joke.

During my time in college, a friend of mine who worked as a computer lab assistant as a work study said they were hiring, and she knew how good I was with computers.  So I got that job and quit my job at the movie theaters.  That’s what started it.  I made contacts, gained experience.  Did the same job at the 2nd college I transferred to, then came back after graduation to work part-time and then full-time at the first college.  And my career just kept going.

But it was never something I intended to make as a life-long career.  In my mind, it was a stopover until I could make enough from writing.

Unfortunately, 20 years later and I’m still nowhere near making enough money as a writer to quit I.T.

After the lackluster reception of Chronicles of the Sentinels, I despaired.  I thought that would have been what launched my career off the ground, and instead, no one pays attention to it.  (Thankfully Sword of Dragons grows ever-more popular, but by itself, it isn’t enough.)  I thought…my career as a writer would never become more than a pipe dream.  I thought I was trapped in I.T. forever and I could see no way out.

That thought alone made me feel far more miserable than I ever have before.  And that on top of one of the worst and most stressful years of my life?  I was feeling pretty low in 2022.

Leveraging My Talents

I don’t remember exactly when it happened.  I think it was early Summer or maybe even late Spring 2022.  I’d been seeing advertisements on Facebook for Voice Acting/Voice Over Careers.  I ignored them mostly, like I do most ads on the internet.

Image Source – masseffect.com

But…I remembered auditioning for a voice acting role for Mass Effect Andromeda, and even though I didn’t get the role, I enjoyed the process so much.  Getting the script, interpreting the character, etc.  I remember years and years of singing in choir and loving every second of it.  Working with the choir, working with the director, how much I loved using my voice to give something to the audience, and I remember how much praise I received, from directors, from the audience.  I remember the terror, thrill, exhilaration, and sense of accomplishment when I started doing some solos.

I never actually clicked on one of those ad links, but I did start ‘googling’ to learn about the industry and the methods of ‘getting into it.’  I also, perhaps most importantly, read about the average income, and started doing some calculations as to how much of a pay cut my wife and I could weather.

And it seemed doable.  The industry is competitive, but the demand is growing, especially in the areas of audiobook narration and video game roles, as I read in the 2022 State of Voice Over.  And just how much is average?  According to an article on voice123.com, about $76k.  As I said, a pay cut from what I currently make.  And perhaps not a livable wage in Denver, CO (though there are those living in Denver who make less than that and somehow get by, so it’s possible!)

But that brings me to another development in the industry: pandemic forced a lot of folks to start working from home, and even before that, there were already a lot of voice talents setting up home studios to record from home (because let’s face it, renting studio time is expensive).  In particular, audiobook narration is often done from home studios more than not.

Which means voice acting can be done from anywhere.  We could, conceivably, move somewhere with cheaper cost of living, and suddenly that $76k/year is doable.

Of course, like pretty much any career out there…you don’t start out earning the average.  And that’s why I’m not diving in head-first.

But the turning point, I think, was when I turned to my coworker one day and asked, “have you ever changed careers?”  He said he had.  When I asked how old he was when he did it, it turns out he was my age.  He had transitioned from another, wholly unrelated career to I.T. security in his late 30’s.

So even though I’m in my late 30’s…it’s not too late.  That’s when I decided to pursue it.

Caution and Education

Much like with my writing, I can’t just drop my day job on a whim and dedicate 100% of my time to voice acting.  I’d love to.  Especially lately, my day job has been exhausting me and I have to really really push myself to do any recording after work each day.  There are days when I just can’t do it.

So, I do what I can when I can, pushing myself as hard as I can without letting myself go too far (unlike I did last year…I don’t want a repeat of that).

But where am I now?  Well, one of the biggest things I kept reading online, from “how to break into the industry!” blogs to statements from voice actors, has been ‘education.’  Stage and screen actors agree on that as well – no matter how much (or little) natural talent you might have, education, voice coaching, voice lessons, etc, can make the difference between a good and a great actor.  It’s a must.

So I decided to take a combined approach last year.  Before we sold our house, I started recording my first audiobook, that of Legacy.  My thinking at the time was, since it wasn’t a super popular book, it would be a good way to practice.  And I did what I’m doing now, I recorded after work and on weekends when energy allowed.  It was a challenge in that house, though, let me tell you – that house had crap for sound insulation, and any time a neighbor decided to make any noise, it disrupted my ability to record.  And when the winds shifted just right, we were directly beneath the take-off vector from Denver International Airport, which meant jets with their engines at near-full-throttle were flying directly overhead.

But I finished recording.  Meanwhile, I signed up for my first voice over lessons, though it wouldn’t start until the fall semester.

And then we sold the house and moved into an apartment that has, I kid you not, foot-thick concrete walls separating the units.  With the hope that external noise wouldn’t be as big of a problem.  (I mean, it did help, but we still get a surprising amount of dog barking or engine break noises from the nearby Interstate.)

Moving delayed editing of the Legacy audiobook by a lot.  But it turns out that was a good thing.  You see, shortly after moving into the apartment, I started my voice over class.  Aaaaaand….about 3 weeks in, I finally had time to start editing Legacy again.  And I stopped.  Because just what I’d learned in 3 weeks in class was enough for me to recognize that I did not do a good job on my recording.

So I decided to focus on learning to be a better voice actor.  I finished the first class, and then took a Characters voice class, and I made improvements by leaps and bounds!  And I was loving doing the work, too, it was so much fun!

The instructor invited me to join her advanced class, so I’ll be doing that later this year (she’s also hoping to have an animated characters class, too, so I might be taking two voice classes this semester, if I have time!)  But in the mean time, to keep honing my new skills, I’ve started recording an audiobook for Rise of the Forgotten!

Artwork by Vuk Kostic

That…has been an interesting experience.  Um.  Well, let’s just say that I’m glad to know my writing improved in my later books, because I have some poorly-written, and therefore hard-to-read-out-loud sentences in Rise *nervous laugh*

But in and of itself, that challenge has been eye-opening for both my writing and my voice acting!  And I’ve been able to voice some very fun characters.  The best so far has been that of Larash, the slightly-crazy Keeper of the Way in chapter 4.  And it wasn’t just the ‘act crazy’ that was fun, it was the fact that he very slowly regains his sanity throughout the chapter, and capturing that was an enjoyable challenge!

I’m 7 chapters in right now, and I just hope that what I’m doing is good enough!  I haven’t stopped to edit any yet, though maybe I should, just to see if it’s up to snuff or not before I record anymore…

Anywho, that’s where I’m at.  Depending on how things go when I start releasing audiobooks, IE whether they sell well or not (I keep hearing requests from people for audiobook versions of all of my novels, and audiobooks are becoming increasingly popular, so maybe!) I could start to make a transition towards the end of the year.  IE: see about going part-time at my current job, see where we might end up having to move in the future to afford it, etc.

But that’s all for now (and what a long post this turned into!)  Thanks for sticking through and reading!

-Jon Wasik