The other day, my wife Helene asked me how artists do it. How do we spend weeks, months, or even years painting a picture, writing a song, or penning a novel, only to then wait for an audience that may never come? Her question arose from concern for our ongoing podcast, "Legacy - A Novel Writing Experience," which is three episodes into it's first season and, so far, hasn't garnered too much attention.
Well, Helene's point is a fair one. There are few guarantees in an artist's life. I know that first hand. I've written sixteen novels and, so far, have published only half of them! The rest sit on a shelf, unwanted and, for the most part, unread. Is that frustrating? Sure. Is that heartbreaking? Sometimes. Does it make me want to give up? Never. In his masterful novel "The Agony and Ecstasy," Irving Stone writes, "One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it.” I completely relate to that sentiment. I don't write novel after novel, often with little or no certainty that it will be published, out of choice so much as compulsion. I have stories in me and they have to come out, period. I know that may sound silly, even ridiculous, to someone who's never felt that level of creative drive. But you hard core writers out there ... you get me. Art isn't a rational choice. If an artist ever stops and asks, "Hey, what's my cost/benefit ratio here?" he or she will immediately put down their pen, abandon their canvas, or switch off the computer and go get a job at Starbucks. As I've told many a would-be author: if you're in this to get rich, stop now. The fact is that very, very few of us ever make a living from our writing. I know a number of professional authors, some much more successful than myself, who live hand-to-mouth because the paying side of this business is so utterly unreliable. It's simply a reality that, for the time being, we scriveners must accept. Why? Well, because we'd be miserable without it. So, we celebrate our small successes and, when failure strikes (as it does all too often), she shake ourselves and try again, and again, and again. As for our podcast, I'm not worried. Everything I've read about podcasts and podcast listeners tells me that we need to have at least a full season under our belt before we can expect any real attention. In the meantime, we're putting out a new episode every two weeks on the hope and prayer of someday garnering an audience who will enjoy the fruits of our efforts as much as we do. Because that, my friends, is the artist's path. And we walk it with pride.
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Dear Dad,
Remember the novel you outlined, the one based on Grandpop's life, the one that you recorded on several old-fashioned cassette tapes? This is back in '92, when you were dying of cancer. Well, it took me a long time to listen to those tapes, a very long time. But when I finally did, I couldn't believe what it is that you had wrought. This story of three Sicilian brothers who emigrate to American in 1910 is a powerful, human saga of strangers lost in a strange land, finding to find their place in a world so alien it might as well be Mars. I know your intention when you made these tapes was for me to someday write the story, and the I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get to this point. I simply wasn't "ready." I wasn't ready to hear your voice again after all this years, wasn't ready to write a book so far out of my wheelhouse, and wasn't ready to commit to a project this big and, frankly, this intimidating. But I'm 58 now, just eight years younger than you were when you left us, and I'm ready now. So, it's with a glad heart that I report topping the 60,000 word mark this morning on the novel you outlined. So far, it has no title but there's plenty of time for that. Right now, it's enough to be actually, finally, blessedly bringing to life the characters you invented. This is your book, Dad. But it's also mine, and I've brought much of my own personality and writing style to the work. Thirty years of authoring novels, of telling stories, has brought me to this moment. I can't promise this particular story will ever be published, though I will absolutely try. I can't promise it'll be the best work I've ever done, though as of right now I believe it is. But I can promise you, with gratitude and love, that I will tell it. Thank you, Dad. I miss you. - Ty Firstly, allow me to apologize for missing last week’s blog entry. I have no excuse other than the tragic fact that I’m getting old and, despite being retired from my career in Corporate America, I actually live a rather busy life. Good. That’s out of the way. Right now, as some of you know, I’m deep into my current project, which is a collaboration with my father (sort of), the nature of which always takes some explaining. If you’d like to know more, check out the Current Project page. As of this writing, I’m am nearly 50,000 words in. That probably sounds like a lot, but this book is a “saga” of sorts and, as such, is going to run quite long, at least in its first draft. I’m looking at somewhere around 200K by the time I’m done, though I’ll trim that down a bit as I edit later revisions. All part of the process! The story centers around three boys (Peter, John, and Angelo Donatello) who are forced to flee their home in rural Sicily to emigrate to American in 1914. Once there, they struggle to make a life in an alien land that, frankly, doesn’t much want them there. Along the way, they must weather sometimes violent prejudice, the advent of the first world war, and the rise of Prohibition, all in an effort to do, what to them, seems next to impossible – become American. So far, I have no title. I’m just calling it “Dad’s Book.” 😊 In addition to the book itself, there’s also “Legacy – A Novel Writing Experience,” which is an author’s tutorial that’s told through the “lens” of the writing of this book. I’m excited about the book and its characters, which are a huge departure from my writing wheelhouse. Since this is the first book I’ve written in retirement, I’m throwing myself into it pretty much completely. The image of the project wall that I’ve included in this post bears that out, I think. Suffice it to say that the challenges of this long and complex novel are kind of consuming me, which may be why last Thursday’s blog entry deadline “whooshed” by without my even noticing it. The project has been generating a fair amount of interest and I’ve been fielding a lot of questions. If you happen to have one, feel free to ask it by commenting on this blog entry. I love getting feedback and will answer you promptly, I promise. When I’m a little further in, and more certain of its content, I’ll see about posting a snippet or two from the novel for those of you who are interested. Right now, the only folks who’ve heard any of it at all are the members of my local writing group! Okay, that’s it for now. Thank you for your interest and your patience. Keep writing! With the launch of our Legacy podcast (iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn), I've been thinking a lot about my writing process. The podcast, after all, deals with the creation of a novel, from soup to nuts, with each episode touching on the various "building blocks" that go into fiction writing, especially novel-length fiction writing.
In this post, rather than simply regurgitate what the podcast has to to say, however, I decided to instead quickly review those building blocks, as I see them. I'm not going to go into a ton of detail on any of these topics, as they will be discussed quite thoroughly on Legacy and, later, in future blog entries. Instead, this list should be considered a roadmap of sorts, a companion piece to the podcast, one that illustrates what's coming up on the show.
These are the topics coming up, first on Legacy and then on this blog. Bear in mind that all of the advice offered in both these venues is entirely subjective. Nobody can "teach you know to write a novel." Not me. Not your high school creative writing teacher. Nobody. The best I can do, the best anyone can do, is teach you how I write a novel. Then it's your job to decide which parts can, or should, be applied to your work. In any event, know that I'm on your side. Writers are a siblinghood. We stand up for one another and support one another, or we should. Good luck out there. And keep writing! As of this morning, Legacy - A Unique Novel Writing Experience launched on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn. This is a podcast written, produced, and hosted by myself along with my wife, the beautiful and talented Helene Drago. We're both very excited about it. The subject of the podcast is the book I'm currently writing on with my father, Tony Drago, who passed away in 1992. If that sentence intrigues you and you'd like to know more, please check out the Current Project page for all the details. The first episode, called "The Drago Tapes," is up and waiting for you! I really hope you check it out. It's only twenty minutes long, so it won't take too much of our time. And, if you like it, give us a 5-star rating on whatever app or platform you use for podcast listening. It's a simple gesture, but one that really helps us get the word out! New episodes will follow every two weeks. If you're interested in writing, especially fiction or novel writing, then this podcast is definitely for you! But Legacy's launch signals more than just the birth of the podcast. It's part of a broader effort to reach my goals as a full-time working writer. In addition to my father's book, I have an YA SF novel called Torq coming out sometime in the next month or two, and yet another book currently being reviewed by my agent. In addition, I'll be teaching an adult writing class this Fall in Haddonfield, NJ. It'll be a fantastic experience! If you're local to South Jersey and interested in learning how to write and publish what you write, check out the Haddonfield Adult School Fall Brochure! Also, I've taken a very part-time job teaching chess to school kids! This one isn't related to writing, per se. But I'm really looking forward to it starting up in early September. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, I'm starting on a school tour this Fall and Spring to promote Torq. In just a couple of weeks, I'll be reaching out to thousands of teachers, librarians, and administrators at hundreds of middle and elementary schools in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. As many of you may know, this isn't the first time I've done this. My previous tours have sent me to more than sixty schools in six states, where I did presentations and conducted workshops for close to seventy thousand kids! This time, however, I'll pulling out all the stops. Let's see if I can top the one hundred thousand mark! If you'd like to talk about my visiting your school, check out the School Tour page! And, as a final note, I'm going to be blogging regularly from now on. Expect to see blog posts on this site every Thursday. Exciting times are coming! - Ty I tried to come up with a better title for this blog entry. Well, tried a little. But sometimes "on the nose" is the way to go.
Since becoming a full-time writer -- that is to say, since writing became my full-time job -- I've been working on ways to fill my time. I celebrated the end of my corporate career by finishing a new novel, tentatively called "Dragons." It's a YA science fiction story about a teenage boy with a unique and extremely dangerous power who finds himself kidnapped by an interplanetary corporation with designs to use his "skill set" to advance their own agenda, for good or ill. It's an adventure story about growing up hard and fast in an unforgiving adult world. As we speak, my amazing agent is reviewing it. Already, I know there will be changes, so let's call that one a "work in progress." My latest finished novel is TORQ. This one is expected out this summer through Swallows End Publishing. It's also YA science fiction, but wholly different. It tells the story of Rand Roberts, a teenager who lives in the Machine, a massive, fully self-contained ... well ... machine, two miles high and a mile square. The hundreds of thousands of people who have made their home inside it have done so for millennia -- so long that they no longer believe there even is a world outside. This is a story of Haves versus Have-Nots, and of a hero named Torq who's destiny will forever shift the balance. I guess it's basically a superhero novel set in a wholly unique world. Needless to say, I'm very excited about this one! My current project is a huge departure for me. But you can read all about that on the Current Project page. But it bears saying that, in this case, the book is only part of the story. Soon, my wife and I will be releasing a podcast that we've been working on. It's called "Legacy" and, as far as we know, it's the first podcast that deals with the writing of a novel while the novel is being written. Consider it kind of an author's how-to, presented through the filter of the most challenging and personal project of my career. We're over the moon about this one! I guess that's it, at least for now. But new projects keep popping up all the time. As they do, I'll pass the info along. Thanks for following! I've been writing and working for a living my entire adult life. During the course of a successful 35-year career in Corporate America, I managed to simultaneously author fifteen novels, seven of which were eventually published. There were also two anthologies, a plethora of short stories and articles, and let's not forget the online magazine I've been publishing for 20 years.
No flies on this guy. But as of March 1, 2018, something has happened that I never expected, at least not at the (not so) tender age of fifty-seven. I've retired. Suddenly, I find myself with time on my hands, time to write, time to edit, and time to think about what to write or edit next. In short, I've become what I always dreamed of becoming: a full-time writer. Yay, me! Of course, few dreams are ever fully realized. Yes, I have the time to write but, thus far, I haven't found a way to make my writing pay in any substantial manner. And, believe me, I've tried. I have this goal in retirement. Until recently, I always thought it to be a reasonable and completely attainable goal. Now, well, I'm not sure. Basically, I want to earn $20,000 a year either writing or doing writing-related activities. Just twenty thou ... not so much, right? Hmm. The way to do this, of course, is to set up a series of income streams, sources of income that are more or less independent of one another and which can be nurtured and grown separately. This way, if one stream starts under-performing, for whatever reason, the others can pick up the slack. At least, that's the theory. So that's what I've been working on since March 1st. I didn't retire blindly. I knew this was coming and, as such, I put together a plan of what I thought those income streams would be. Of course, as the saying goes, "Man plans; God laughs," and things haven't worked out quite a lucratively as I would have liked ... yet. In future blog entries, I'm hoping to review some of the streams there were successful and some that weren't, and visit with you the hidden tripwires in each. Maybe some of you will be able to find use for the this hard-won wisdom. I hope so. In any event, please feel free to tag along. I have no real idea of how successful all of this is going to be. But I'm looking forward to finding out. - Ty Drago |
Who is Ty Drago?I'm a husband, father, published novelist, and editor/publisher with 20 years experience in the modern publishing arena. Archives
April 2024
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