Please welcome Erik Trant, best selling author of Steps. He’s here for his second blog tour stop with Women on Writing – WOW!
Eric’s subject is very dear to my heart since I spent a lot of years squeezing my creative writing aspirations in between the proposal deadlines I had to meet working my day job in the aerospace industry. Even now, my writing life has gone by the wayside for a few months while I work a consulting job. I can barely eek out a journal entry each day. However, I truly believe my work as a technical writer/editor and proposal manager taught me the discipline I needed to become a published author.
Eric’s insight into this topic teaches us how we all can benefit from a second career. Here’s Eric.
Part-Time Authors: How a Second Career Improves Your Writing
by Erik Trant
I suppose the dream is to begin writing around year ten, publish somewhere just north of puberty, bang out a Masters of Fine Art at the local institute, and scoot your way onto the best-seller’s list by, let’s say, year twenty-five. Then you spend the rest of your days travelling, writing, and borrowing a friend’s cabin to finish your latest trilogy (we only write trilogies, say it with me: tree-loh-gee).
You form callouses on the heel of your palm (where you rest it on the keyboard). You wear out the tips of your fingers and the backspace button. You develop this odd hunchback, coffee-stained teeth, pasty skin, and an uncomfortable, ponderous, silent stare that marks you as one of ~them~.
You write a few boyhood trilogies. You switch gender and write a girlhood series, which you later realize should have stopped around book seven. You reach into the career years, the child-rearing years, golden years, write a few horror trilogies and a romance trilogy set in an Alaskan cabin.
Then you look up from the keyboard. Your hunchback pops into place. The tape slips off the backspace key, and you fix it, stick the key back down, test it, yep, still works but barely. You’re running out of time, and you realize every book, every trilogy, every series was about a boy who wanted to be a writer. A girl who wanted to be a writer. You thumb through the career books, all of them writers, authors, wait, here’s a librarian, and you have a secondary character who was a barista, because you did that in college, but the rest are all writers!
Writers writers everywhere, an inch of salt caked on your fries where you should have used a sprinkle. No astronauts. No engineers. No musicians, teachers, police officers or sales clerks. Not one character sat at a window all day in the local municipality printing, signing, notarizing building permits. Nobody drove a bus after school or waived the crossing guard flag. No waiters. No cooks. No bartenders or gym trainers.
Nothing but writers, and now your tongue is dry. It’s all you know, and we write what we know (a whole trilogy, in fact). Many of your favorite authors lived that dream, and while they squirm into other careers (with mixed success), a good many of their books slide over to that comfortable, well-worn spot on the couch where they employ writers to do the dirty work of suffering along their character arc.
By limiting yourself to a write-only career, you cleave out only a tiny section of a world which the rest of the population finds about as interesting as a thumbtack in the eye. Readers, who are almost exclusively ~non-writers~, want to meet-and-greet themselves in the book. I won’t knock the dream — I had it, too. But I will say that my second career (is writing first?) has greatly expanded my character pool, and allows me walk in many more shoes. I can wear steel-toed boots on a drilling rig, or ride the back of the sign truck on the highway department, stopping to scrape dead animals off the pavement. I can cover my shoes and work in a Class 10 cleanroom, slip on dress shoes for a presentation, take them off to run some heavy math, then slide into my socks to write a program on the couch.
All that non-writer living allows me to step along paths full-timers may never discover. I built a whole closet full of shoes I can walk in, owing to my second careers, but when I take stock, I notice a pair is missing. Odd. I’ve never worn high heels, never worked behind a counter as a makeup salesman worrying if I am thin enough, pretty enough, young enough, spraying anyone who exposes the veins of their wrist. Should I? Could I? Would I?
Maybe I still have some living to do.
***
About Steps: Steps is a well written science fiction novel you won’t want to put down. Following the Peacemaker family through their battle of survival will keep you on the edge of your seat as you wait to see what obstacle is next. Society is falling to a ravaging virus, and the Peacemaker family is stranded in the mountains of Arkansas. Forced to band with a group of deserted soldiers, they battle to survive starvation, apocalyptic cataclysms, and a growing number of dangerously infected wanderers. As their dwindling number struggles against ever-increasing odds, they realize they are not alone in the wilderness. A large creature is present in the hills, at first seen only as a fleeting shadow. Now the family not only faces impending death from the unstoppable virus, they must also deal with the mysterious giant, whose footprints signify that he knows where they are.
Paperback: 218 Pages
Genre: Sci Fi
Publisher: WiDo Publishing (May 21, 2015)
ASIN: B00Y3A9AZE
Twitter hashtag: # StepsTrant
Steps is available as an e-book and paperback at Amazon
About Eric: Eric W. Trant is a published author of several short stories and the novels Wink and Steps from WiDo Publishing, out now! See more of Eric’s work at
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6939871.Eric_Trant
http://www.amazon.com/Eric-Trant/e/B00DU1O8T0
***
I very much appreciate having Eric with us today and I’m happy to offer a lucky reader a copy of his latest book, Steps, in return for a comment. The winner will be chosen randomly through Rafflecopter.
Thanks again, Eric, for being my guest today. I hope you’ll have a very successful WOW! tour.
Eric’s Blog Tour Dates
Monday, July 6 @ The Muffin Stop by for an interview and book giveaway! http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/
Tuesday, July 7 @ Choices with Madeline Sharples Eric Trant makes a book blog tour stop at Choices as he writes a guest post for Madeline Sharples. The guest post is titled: “Part-Time Authors: How a Second Career Improves Your Writing” and you won’t want to miss his insight into this topic as well as an opportunity to learn about and participate in a giveaway for your own copy of Trant’s latest best seller Steps! https://www.madelinesharples.com/
Wednesday, July 8 @ Katherine Hajer Eric Trant authors today’s guest post at the blog of Katherine Hajer as he speaks on “Exploring the World: Why Writers ~ Must ~ Get Off the Couch.” Learn more about this topic as well as Trant’s latest novel Steps. http://www.katherine-hajer.com/
Friday, July 10 @ Ava Louise Eric Trant stops at the blog of fellow author Ava Louise. Don’t miss Eric’s guest post titled: “Bigotry in Writing Part I: How Much is Too Much? ” and learn more about Eric’s latest novel Steps http://avalouise.net/
Monday, July 13 @ Renee’s Pages Here’s a guest post we can all sink our teeth into (or not)…”Workout Fun: A Simple Trick to Spice Up Your Workout Routine” by Eric Trant. Eric visits the blog of WOW!’s own Renee Roberson as he shares his thoughts on workouts and his latest novel Steps. This is a blog stop you won’t want to miss! http://reneespages.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, July 14th @ All Things Audry Eric Trant offers reader of All Things Audry an insightful guest post titled: “OCD: How This Super Power Can Be Used for Good or Evil.” Find out more about this and Trant’s latest best seller Steps http://allthingsaudry.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, July 15 @ MC Simon Join author MC Simon as she review the latest novel by Eric Trant. Learn more about Steps and find our for yourself why Eric Trant is a top selling author. http://www.mcsimonwrites.com/
Thursday, July 16 @ I’d So Rather be Reading Eric Trant stops at the blog of fellow author Ava Louise. Don’t miss Eric’s guest post titled: “Bigotry in Writing Part II: How Realistic are your Biggots?” and learn more about Eric’s latest novel Steps http://www.idsoratherbereading.com/
Saturday, July 18 @ Hott Books Don’t miss the awesome topic of “Editing 101: Why I Never Argue with My Editor (or My Publisher)” by Eric Trant as he stops by Hott Books as part of his WOW! book blog tour. Hear from Eric and find out more about his latest novel Steps http://www.hottbooks.com/
Monday, July 20 @ Create Write Now Today’s guest author at Create Write Now with Mari McCarthy is none other than Eric Trant. Find out more about Eric, his latest book Steps and his guest topic today which is “Killing the Dream: Five Sure Ways to Never, Ever Achieve Your Long-Term Goals.” http://www.createwritenow.com/
Tuesday, July 21 @ Lisa Haselton Lisa Haselton reviews Steps by Eric Trant and will be giving away a copy to one lucky reader! http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandinterviews.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, July 22 @ Kathy Pooler Eric Trant will wow readers as he writes a guest post for Kathleen Pooler at Memoir Writer’s Journey. Don’t miss today’s post titled: “”Bad Reviews: Why You Must Read Them (and How to Survive),” Learn about this and Trant’s latest novel Steps! http://www.createwritenow.com/
Wednesday, July 23 @ Slay the Writer Fellow author Trisha Slay reviews the latest novel by Eric Trant. Find out more about Trant and Steps and get in on the giveaway to win your own copy! http://trishaslay.com/
Thursday, July 24 @ Bring on Lemons Eric Trant authors today’s guest blog post at Bring on Lemons (the blog of Crystal Otto) and the topic is: “The Grinder: A Simple MS Word Automation That Will Clean Up Your Manuscript.” http://bringonlemons.blogspot.com/
Monday, July 28 @ Selling Books Join Eric Trant with a guest post titled “City Lights: Why it is Important to Turn Them Off” as he visits Cathy Stucker’s Selling Books blog. http://www.sellingbooks.com/
Thanks for having me.
– Eric
My pleasure Eric. Hope the post is okay.
Thank you Madeline for hosting!!!!
You are very welcome, Crystal. xoxo
In 2002 I left my day job to stay at home to begin a writing career. I eventually learned i needed a job to give me a break from my thoughts and writing. It wasn’t mentally healthy for me, so I went back to work. Today, I work over a 100 hours a week. The difference before I quit work the first time is 50% of that time I’ve dedicated to my writing. Writing is my passion…. work is my needed break from my thoughts I write about. It works for me, what others do is for them to decide. This is a Great article. Peace and love.
Thanks for sharing your work experience with us Keith. I think a balance of work and writing make for a better writer. You are a prime example of that. Love, Madeline