I went back and forth on how to
start this blog. With a story, the beginning is always self evident. For me
that's being right in the thick of things, running from the word go. I
toyed around with the idea of doing something like that here. Just
writing my idea on what stories are and why we love them so much but I don't
think that's the best foot to lead with. No, at a certain point that I should
actually take the time to introduce myself.
My name is Jacob Kaine. I'm a happily married twenty-eight year old father of one who is trying to make a living as a fiction writer. Currently I'm one of two manager's at a local Fine Dining establishment in Fayetteville, Arkansas which also happens to be about as close as I come to a home town.
I completed my first novel, a multi-genre Modern Dark Fantasy set in (you guessed it) Northwest Arkansas. I'm hard at work on my second novel, a fast paced heist story that has a few western as well as contemporary influences. I'm a fan of several genres but in fiction I like it dark. Comedy, horror, and action work best for me when they have an edge to them. I like to have my feet first firmly set in a grim and gritty real world only to find out that the real world has dark places in it.
My other attraction in terms of stories is character. I can be drawn in like anyone by spectacle but I'll always come back for well written characters with a dose of real world humor. The grittier the better. If it tells you anything my own personal favorite author is the man himself, Stephen King.
Mr. King has been a distant
friend through his writing for me since I first made my way through IT at the
age of thirteen. Since then he's become something of a personal inspiration.
His On Writing book is something I would suggest to anyone trying to find a
starting point. His daily regimen alone is something to aspire to for any
starting writer. The idea being that a writer should have a place where they
write that is completely theirs that they go to every day for a set time period.
Not always an easy goal to attain but one that I've found to be well worth it
in practice.
I try and write every morning for at least three hours although between my supportive but energetic wife, a fifty plus hour a week job, and a beautiful two-year old girl, I sometimes find myself asking where the day went and when I'm going to be able to put in my three hours on the book. A new regimen of waking up at five a.m. every day has helped a lot in this regard.
I do have a degree in English Creative Studies which I only mention because it has done little for me in terms of a career beside broaden my horizons a bit as a reader and a writer. It certainly is not the entrance pass to a wonderful career straight out of college. If its any indication, my first full time job after obtaining my degree and leaving the restaurant industry for a brief time was at an armored car company. This is a common theme with people who have an English degree. We either teach or find ourselves adrift in the job market, trying to find something that meshes with our artistic sensibilities.
The closest I've come to being paid for anything closely relating to writing was a job as a Correspondence Writer for a fairly large mortgage company based out of Oklahoma City. It was a season in hell to say the least and I left it after only a year. I have no problem with hard work but when that hard work saps every bit of my creativity in addition to leaving my family scraping to get by, well I think in that instance it's time to do something else.
The one positive thing that came out my office job was that it got me started, really started, on my first novel. I'd toyed around with them in college, writing a bit here and there to have something to turn in for my writing courses and I had some good ideas which have led to both my current works. I dabbled a bit writing chapters when I needed something to turn in but really, I was too focused on the college pursuits of drinking, screwing, and trying to finish my damned degree. Plus anyone who has taken four Lit courses at once can attest that its very hard to even think about writing when you're pulling all-nighters just get the next days reading done.
Of course that may all be irrelevant. The truth is that I wasn't in the right mindset at the time. I knew I wanted to write but I was unfocused. I figured there was all the time in the world to try and really get a book out. It was bullshit of course but I didn't know it. There's always time. And almost everyone has a book in them. They may need a little finesse and hard work to get it out and the language may be choppy but its in there.
The other distraction was my second passion which is comic books. I'll probably get to them at some point in one of these blog posts but all that matters here is that I originally went to school on an art scholarship. My plan leaving high school was to become a comic book artist/writer since I also have a fair degree of talent in terms of illustration. My senior year writing project was a fully outlined (down to the issue) 60 issue run and written first full issue of a comic book series that I've been tinkering with for years.
So, you can see where writing, real, rigidly scheduled daily writing, fell through the cracks for me. I would start a writing project only to turn back to illustrating and then back again for a short story. I let my creature comforts and daily distractions convince me that I could get to a book later when there was more time. Things may have gone on like that for a long time. I can't really say what would have happened or how long I may have taken to come around to doing what comes most naturally if it were not for meeting my wife and my daughter being born. That set a lot of priorities straight.
The office job refocused things a bit for me. I had a little help in that arena. My wife and I agreed that she should be the stay at parent home early on while she finishes school. This was decided for several reasons that I don't need to get into here. It only matters to say that one starting income does not a comfortable living make. We had a little girl who I of course want to provide the world for. And I found out that the stories were still in there.
That was a major revelation. I remember being bored at the office one day, I was in between training modules and was told to look busy, so I started typing. Soon I was back in an old story that had been kicking around in my head. The next thing I knew I was a hundred pages in and it was clear that I needed to start working on it in earnest at home. The story was real, it was there, and it wanted to be born.
Since then, we've relocated, I got back into a much more comfortable environment in the restaurant industry and things are doing much better in terms of finances. The biggest advance though has been finishing the novel. Its energizing and draining at the same time. Now all I can do is hope that people read the damned thing. In terms of what I want from a career of writing, that's it really. I want the ideas to keep coming, to keep getting the same joy out of living in the little worlds my mind spins out, and finally for other people to read and enjoy them. I guess only time will tell on that last part but for right now, the writing itself is a blast.
My name is Jacob Kaine. I'm a happily married twenty-eight year old father of one who is trying to make a living as a fiction writer. Currently I'm one of two manager's at a local Fine Dining establishment in Fayetteville, Arkansas which also happens to be about as close as I come to a home town.
I completed my first novel, a multi-genre Modern Dark Fantasy set in (you guessed it) Northwest Arkansas. I'm hard at work on my second novel, a fast paced heist story that has a few western as well as contemporary influences. I'm a fan of several genres but in fiction I like it dark. Comedy, horror, and action work best for me when they have an edge to them. I like to have my feet first firmly set in a grim and gritty real world only to find out that the real world has dark places in it.
My other attraction in terms of stories is character. I can be drawn in like anyone by spectacle but I'll always come back for well written characters with a dose of real world humor. The grittier the better. If it tells you anything my own personal favorite author is the man himself, Stephen King.
I try and write every morning for at least three hours although between my supportive but energetic wife, a fifty plus hour a week job, and a beautiful two-year old girl, I sometimes find myself asking where the day went and when I'm going to be able to put in my three hours on the book. A new regimen of waking up at five a.m. every day has helped a lot in this regard.
I do have a degree in English Creative Studies which I only mention because it has done little for me in terms of a career beside broaden my horizons a bit as a reader and a writer. It certainly is not the entrance pass to a wonderful career straight out of college. If its any indication, my first full time job after obtaining my degree and leaving the restaurant industry for a brief time was at an armored car company. This is a common theme with people who have an English degree. We either teach or find ourselves adrift in the job market, trying to find something that meshes with our artistic sensibilities.
The closest I've come to being paid for anything closely relating to writing was a job as a Correspondence Writer for a fairly large mortgage company based out of Oklahoma City. It was a season in hell to say the least and I left it after only a year. I have no problem with hard work but when that hard work saps every bit of my creativity in addition to leaving my family scraping to get by, well I think in that instance it's time to do something else.
The one positive thing that came out my office job was that it got me started, really started, on my first novel. I'd toyed around with them in college, writing a bit here and there to have something to turn in for my writing courses and I had some good ideas which have led to both my current works. I dabbled a bit writing chapters when I needed something to turn in but really, I was too focused on the college pursuits of drinking, screwing, and trying to finish my damned degree. Plus anyone who has taken four Lit courses at once can attest that its very hard to even think about writing when you're pulling all-nighters just get the next days reading done.
Of course that may all be irrelevant. The truth is that I wasn't in the right mindset at the time. I knew I wanted to write but I was unfocused. I figured there was all the time in the world to try and really get a book out. It was bullshit of course but I didn't know it. There's always time. And almost everyone has a book in them. They may need a little finesse and hard work to get it out and the language may be choppy but its in there.
The other distraction was my second passion which is comic books. I'll probably get to them at some point in one of these blog posts but all that matters here is that I originally went to school on an art scholarship. My plan leaving high school was to become a comic book artist/writer since I also have a fair degree of talent in terms of illustration. My senior year writing project was a fully outlined (down to the issue) 60 issue run and written first full issue of a comic book series that I've been tinkering with for years.
So, you can see where writing, real, rigidly scheduled daily writing, fell through the cracks for me. I would start a writing project only to turn back to illustrating and then back again for a short story. I let my creature comforts and daily distractions convince me that I could get to a book later when there was more time. Things may have gone on like that for a long time. I can't really say what would have happened or how long I may have taken to come around to doing what comes most naturally if it were not for meeting my wife and my daughter being born. That set a lot of priorities straight.
The office job refocused things a bit for me. I had a little help in that arena. My wife and I agreed that she should be the stay at parent home early on while she finishes school. This was decided for several reasons that I don't need to get into here. It only matters to say that one starting income does not a comfortable living make. We had a little girl who I of course want to provide the world for. And I found out that the stories were still in there.
That was a major revelation. I remember being bored at the office one day, I was in between training modules and was told to look busy, so I started typing. Soon I was back in an old story that had been kicking around in my head. The next thing I knew I was a hundred pages in and it was clear that I needed to start working on it in earnest at home. The story was real, it was there, and it wanted to be born.
Since then, we've relocated, I got back into a much more comfortable environment in the restaurant industry and things are doing much better in terms of finances. The biggest advance though has been finishing the novel. Its energizing and draining at the same time. Now all I can do is hope that people read the damned thing. In terms of what I want from a career of writing, that's it really. I want the ideas to keep coming, to keep getting the same joy out of living in the little worlds my mind spins out, and finally for other people to read and enjoy them. I guess only time will tell on that last part but for right now, the writing itself is a blast.
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