In the Beginning

I have written stories for about as long as I can remember, at least the last few months.

When I was a kid, I started out doing G.I. JOE fan-fic, Indiana Jones type treasure hunting yarns and some pseudo-Tolkien inspired fantasy outlines.

In a lot of ways, that's still what I do-very action oriented yet indomitable character driven tales. It has to have punch and bring the blood and thunder as it were-I cannot be bored. I write the stories that I want to read. Quite often I catch myself wanting to watch a movie that doesn't exist or read a book on a certain time period and subject and 'Lo and Behold' that book doesn't exist either. What do I do? I write it. I'd like to think the whole reason I have a novel published, Heroes of the Fallen (with more on the way) and a half dozen short stories coming soon is because there is a passionate fire behind them. You have to want these stories to be told...and it does take skill, talent and TIME, but there has to be a fire burning, you have to sit down and WRITE.

That's was the biggest obstacle for me in my 20's. I always knew I would write books, I had a drive to tell the stories I wanted to read-BUT-I kept making excuses and saying I would write when I had time, when I was older and was just sitting around.

How foolish of me-when am I ever just gonna be sitting around?

Throughout my 20's I had a lot of adventures, but my point is, that IF you really want to write you have to sit down and do it.

I didn't really get after it until I was 28. I would go into my favorite local restaurant in the evenings, order a drink and usually something simple like soup and pie-I got everything for free because the waitress's liked me (Yes, I was that guy-the one who gets free pie) and I would tune out the world and write.

Now the stuff I wrote back then will never see the light of day-but the point is even back then I was learning-voice, pacing and characterization and perhaps most important of all I was forming a habit of discipline when it came to writing.

My hope for here at the Man Cave Author blog is that we can all share some writerly wisdom and reap what we sow. Keep your sword sharp and your pen handy.

From Storyteller to Author

My name is Michael Young and I'm excited to kick of "Man Cave Authors".  We are a group of five published authors, dedicated to showing what being an author is like from a man's perspective. In addition to myself, we have Dan Harrington, David West, J. Lloyd Morgan, and Frank Cole. We hope that we can help inspire other men (and women too) out there to pursue the amazing journey that is publishing.

Each of the five of us will take turns posting, and this month we're going to start out by telling our stories about how we became authors.

By today's standards, I grew up in a huge family.  Being the oldest of eight children, I was often called on to be the combination babysitter/entertainer, and spent many an afternoon and evening keeping my siblings entertained with stories. Sometimes we would even go out back on our trampoline and act them out.  I've always been blessed with a vivid imagination.  When people ask me where I get my ideas, I just shrug.  I wish I knew.

I started actually putting my ideas down on paper, or more accurately, word processor, in high school.  I took a few great writing classes and, one day, I decided I was just going to start to try to write a novel.  It took me about a year of working on it every day in the evenings, but I finished it: Face Value, a novel of 170,000 words. Looking back on it now, it definitely needs some work. I don't know if it will ever be published, but it was my first step in building my skills and confidence as a writer.  I realized I had the discipline to make it happen.

I had the idea for "The Canticle Kingdom" pop into my head one day while I was working at Target.  It was my second year of college and I was very busy between work and school.  However, I churned out just a little bit every day and over about a year's time, the first draft came together.  I attended a publisher's fair at my university and there met representatives from Cedar Fort to whom I pitched my manuscript.  They took it and sent it back a little later with a request for a few rewrites.

I took a few months to revise and then sent it back.  I must have checked my email 20 times daily for a response, but finally in July of 2009, I got the green light.  "The Canticle Kingdom" came out in February 2010 and it's been a crazy journey since. But that's another story.

Since then, I have been typing away at a number of other manuscripts and I hope to have some others out on the shelves soon.  Looking back, I think the biggest thing I've learned from the experiences I've had is that writing is a lot like the tortoise and the hare.  It is the slow, consistent commitment to every day writing that will help you get your projects done.  Intense, but infrequent bouts of writing will not bring the same results.

If you'd like to read more about my writing, please visit my personal blog at http://www.writermike.com.

Thanks for reading and check back later to hear from another one of the Man Cave Authors.