In June of 2020, I will have been writing for twenty years. Though I was creating before that–primarily comic book art–it was in June of 2000 that I decided to make books my living. I was originally aiming to be a comic book artist but life threw me a curve ball and through various circumstances books became the order of the day.
I’ve been giving thought to a memoir for a very long time. It would be an opportunity to share with readers my creative journey and, when appropriate, my personal journey as well. It would also be a chance to lay my creative life out in front of me where I can see it and visit time periods I haven’t been to since they originally happened. A partial journal effort, so to speak.
Regarding publication, no doubt there would be a formal release of a paperback and eBook, but I’m also thinking of airing it on-line first, whether here at Canister X or on my Patreon or both.
It’s been a wild ride to get to the present day. I started out crafting stories completely naive as to how this business worked and hit many roadblocks along the way. The plan for this project will require further thought but I think I’ve already settled upon the process so I can create it without it overloading my already-hectic schedule.
Now I just need to settle on a title.
Watch this space for more news as this develops.
- Category Archives Writing
Any and all posts pertaining to writing books, comics, articles, essays, blog posts, social media posts, and more.
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On Scheduling
It’s important for every creator to make a schedule for their creative time. The idea of “creating when inspired” or “in the mood” doesn’t work. (Been there, done that.) Not very long ago I was mocked on-line for suggesting a creative schedule to someone who was having trouble creating. The answer I proposed to their problem was to treat it like a job and just do it. Most seasoned creators will tell you that you have to create whether you feel like it or not if you want a career in this business.
The formula is simple: Approach this casually, you’ll get casual results. Approach this diligently, you’ll get diligent results.
There is no way around this. And, usually, once you get going on a project after deciding to start working, the project starts to flow on its own anyway.
Schedule out your time. Schedule out your projects.
It’s worth taking the time to do this step. In fact, it actually saves you time later in a multitude of ways.
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On Freelancing for a Living (This is a Job)
Though this demands a full article, here is the brief version on creative freelancing for a living.
It’s a job. A fun one, but a job. The common misconception people have of those working from home is that it’s all playtime and games, sleeping in and working here and there. This isn’t true. During the day, home becomes my workplace. There is a start-of-work time and an end-of-work time. (Except during deadline season, then it’s work until it’s done.) I have clients who have me on the clock. I have personal projects on the clock. Everything is scheduled. If I don’t adhere to the schedule, I lose the job with a client and/or I lose income generated from regularly releasing books. I have my Patreon to attend to with hard-earned money being spent by people who have trusted me with it in exchange for entertaining them. I have a career built on a reputation and if I wreck that reputation, I can’t get it back. This is all taken very seriously. My career is zero without my readers and clients. My ability to eat rests on ensuring they are treated well and quality work is being brought to them.
While working at home has some advantages like not needing to commute or not needing to pack a lunch, or endless coffee and the ability to vape inside, it’s still treated like an out-of-home job. It has to be. I’m working whether I feel like it or not. I’m putting the time in whether I feel like it or not. This idea that working from home isn’t the same as a “real” job needs to stop. What is a job? It’s a task(s) you do in exchange for something. It’s a task(s) you’re depended upon to do. Any freelancer who knows their next meal is dependent on getting the job done knows this.
Thought I’d clear the air.
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On Getting Things Done
Very simply, if you want to get anywhere in life, you gotta get things done. Books don’t write themselves. Drawings don’t draw themselves. Work doesn’t work itself, and so on. You want something, earn it. End of story. Discussion over.
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On One Thing a Day
We don’t always have the same amount of energy every day. Heck, some days it’s impossible to move and get out of bed. Unfortunately, not moving equals not doing anything equals being unable to move your career along. I’ve always maintained that if, at a minimum, you can do at least one thing a day—big or small—to move your career forward, you’re one step ahead of yesterday and one step closer to achieving your goals. You can get some writing or drawing in, or get some marketing done, or drop some books off at the bookstore, or anything else. Point is, just do at least one thing a day. That’s at least seven things a week, which leads to 365 things a year.
Now that’s a lot of work.
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On Staying Afloat in the Arts
This is a feast or famine industry so it’s important to budget yourself accordingly. Jump on as much work as you can when it’s feasting season and spend and save wisely so that when the famine season comes, you’ll be covered until, hopefully, it’s feasting time again.
It’s important to price yourself accordingly, not only for what your work and time are worth, but also to add in extra for the times that are lean.
Don’t overspend. Don’t splurge because you just got an influx of cash. Save it. Use what you need, save what you don’t. You’ll thank yourself later. Besides, it feels good to have a cushion in your bank account and know that it’s there in case things go wildly south.
Look at it this way: instead of your general money-in/money-out, the formula should be money-in/money-in/money-out.
Capisce?
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On Planning Ahead
Usually, I have a mental road map as to where things are going with my career, projects on the docket, and other things that need tending to. Using this foreknowledge, I try and automate as much of it as I can, then clear off the small tasks so I can then work on the bigger projects. For me, this has been a good method to get time working for me instead of me trying to find the time to get it all done.
And, of course, setting up a planned chunk of time to be offline also helps because the Net’s rabbit hole is deep and addictive.
Presently, there are things that are on my “looking ahead” agenda, things in motion, all to be revealed and/or released in due time.
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On Juggling Multiple Projects
I used to work on one novel, one short story, and a poem at the same time. Then I switched to working on one book and/or item at a time. Now I’m back to working on multiple things at once. It’s a stretch of the mind, to be sure, but also a method of getting a lot done because you are multitasking. These days I usually have one personal project, something freelance, and something art-related all happening at the same time. Thus far, things are working out okay. This will probably change in the future as the project schedule changes, but until then, I’ll stick with this method of working.
On a personal note, I am looking forward to things slowing down a bit. Can only go hard for so long until you burn out and, frankly, that’s already happened several times over. Gonna need time to recuperate but this going hard is all part of my masterplan so you gotta do what you gotta do.
Onward.
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The Canister X Transmission: Year Three
The Canister X Transmission: Year Three
Begin transmission . . .
Running weekly from May 2016 to April 2017, The Canister X Transmission was sent via email to readers worldwide.
Every week, readers received updates straight from A.P. Fuchs that were meant to entertain, educate, and inform.
The newsletter covered four main topics:
Weekly Creative Recap, in which Fuchs shared what he was working on and gave readers a behind-the-scenes look.
Flash Fiction, where each week a short-short story went out to entertain Fuchs’s readers.
Weekly Rant, where Fuchs went off on whatever topic interested him that week.
Anything, in which anything and any topic that intrigued Fuchs was discussed.
Exclusive to this collection is a special Issue One Hundred-five A newsletter unavailable anywhere else.
Welcome to The Canister X Transmission: Year Three
Available as a paperback at:
Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Amazon.co.uk
Barnes and NobleAvailable as an eBook at:
Amazon Kindle
Drivethru Fiction
SmashwordsPlease visit the Book and Comic Shop for Year Four.
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On my Favorite Book that I Wrote
One of the questions writers get asked is, which of their own books is there favorite? It’s a difficult question to answer because each book has its own charm and special qualities. However, if I were to be hard pressed and had to give an answer, I’d say it’s my first book, A Stranger Dead, simply because it was my first book and the one that kicked off this book-writing career of mine.
It’s the story that asks the question: If you found out who the Antichrist was before his season of power, would you kill him? It’s like asking the famous question if one would go back in time and kill Hitler.
The story is solid and one I’m proud of. Looking back, the writing needs work, which is why I plan on one day rereleasing the book. Perhaps on my twentieth anniversary of being a writer.
There’s something about that first book that was atmospheric, both in the story itself and in the air whenever—and wherever—I wrote it. It was my first special world, one I had complete control over. It was my first attempt at making a book.
The first book in my writer library.
Firsts, no matter what they are, good or bad, will always stand out as the benchmarks of our lives. A Stranger Dead was one of mine. What is one of yours?
