Avery K. Tingle, The Gamer Author

When the pandemic hit, I decided to take my writing seriously. I’m good at writing shorts, marketing, and finding inspiration in unusual places. What I’m not so good at is execution and follow-through, though I’m better at planning than I used to be.

I decided to work my way up into writing a novel by releasing a six-part series. I figured I could whip out shorts. I was very, very wrong.

I had an overall grasp of the series but I wasn’t familiar with the minutiae. The first three stories flew out of me, though I wasn’t satisfied with the final product. The fourth story took over four months and turned into the Ivan Drago of my career so far. I finally finished it last month-long after my intended deadline.

One of my favorite lines came out of the original Predator film way back in the eighties, uttered by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch: “If it bleeds, we can kill it.”. In February, I became aware of my fear of deadlines. I’m not sure where this stems from, yet. Now that I’m aware of it, I can kill it.

February 2021: What Went Right

1. Finished At Judgment’s End
   No story beat my ass as hard as this one did. This story took almost five months to get done and even then, the editing process was grueling. The world in which this story took place was very much in flux and it was difficult to convey that. But I swore to get it done this month, and I did.
   
2. Publishing Resident Evil: Foundations
   Despite the setbacks, I’ve still managed to publish regularly. Fanfiction works great as a palette cleanser when you’re between stories. It also lets you play in some of your favorite worlds and build on your brand. Resident Evil has always been one of my favorite franchises (up to part five, anyway. Six took the series off a cliff). Following another playthrough of the Nemesis remake, I wanted to tell a story that bridged the gap between Nemesis and part five. It’ll be available for free on March 15th, and I’m proud of this little tale.
   

3. Began Mysterious Ways
This was the first time I ever managed my off-time in between titles. Normally I take about a month between stories, but, I dunno. I’m middle-aged, and the clock is a genuine thing to me now. This time, I set one week where I got my head back on straight (relatively, okay,  I know) and then got right to work on book five in the series. Baby steps. It’ll be a habit soon enough.

1. Allowed Myself To Get Overwhelmed
   I always bite off more than I can chew. See me at a buffet; I’m not lying.  I wanted to jam as many courses as I could into February and took exactly…yup. None. Not one. The writing has to stay at the forefront. Everything else falls into place once I get my word counts done for the day. It’s why I woke up and wrote this before doing anything else.
   
2. Missed The Deadline For “Mysterious Ways”
   I planned to get book five in this series done by the end of February, and I’m running late. I have a grasp of the action scenes. What happens in between has always been one of my weaknesses and is pretty nebulous. I set a plan to write every single day, even if it’s just a few sentences, and I will have this story in my editor’s hands by March 6th for an April release.
   
3. Disrespected The Writing Process
   I assumed (do not do that, seriously never do that) that because they were ‘simple shorts’ and I had a ‘good grasp of the overall story’ that At Judgment’s End and Mysterious Ways would just flow out of me. This happens sometimes, yes. It often doesn’t. Lesson learned, and believe I’m planning as much as I can going forward.
   

Both writing and self-employment are very fluid processes. Mistakes and failures are part of the process. I’ve learned to love them because you learn from them. If this is a road you plan to walk, get comfortable with mistakes. It’s the only way we improve.

Thank you so much for reading this. I plan to convert to audio eventually when life settles down a bit. In the meantime, I wish you the best of luck in your creative journey. If there’s anything I can do to help, please reach out. I’d rather see people make their own mistakes than repeat mine.

Avery K. Tingle, The Gamer Author is a nomadic scifi/fantasy author currently residing in the Pacific Northwest. Fueled by a love of narrative-based video games, caffeine and trauma, he loves cats, dogs, Star Wars, and most comics. He also advocates for mental health and victims of violence. 

He hosts Writer Wednesdays and Star Wars Sundays on social media. Get connected here.