👋 What's crackin' ya'll! · Story Hacker Free

👋 What's crackin' ya'll!

First, let me say it is a true honor to be part of a group of awesome creators! Even though it may sound like it… I am not kissing butt here LOL it’s truly how I feel. I appreciate what it takes to be an author, and everyone here is an author to me. Rather you have written 1 word, 1 sentence or a 130K word novel, you, my new friends are an inspiration to me.

I am a 52-year-old gray beard named Bobby Martinez and I am from California. I have dreamed of being a writer since my sixth-grade year of Junior High School. The dream to be an author came from a sixth-grade teacher. She told me and my parents that she had read a story I wrote in class. She explained that I wrote at a college level. That statement was the start of my writing career. At least it should have been. Truth is, I was too young to understand what it meant to follow a dream.

Years would pass and I had stacks of notebooks full of gibberish but nothing resembling a chapter or even a scene for that matter. I knew nothing about structure and never thought of the "novel" idea of learning how to structure a novel. Nope, not me, that made too much sense, and I lacked the common kind of sense.

Fast forward to my early 20’s when I found out I had cancer for the first time (yep, I said first time) and my wife pushed me to write my first novel, the one I talked about since she met me, while I recovered. However, as I explained I lacked common sense. LOL 15 more years went by, and I found out my cancer was back and I had a second battle to win. I now, crazy right, but being the perfectionist I am, I knew I had to beat it twice just to make sure I won! Perfectionists, right? It was during this horrible battle and recovery from what’s called a RPLND or Retro Peritoneal Lymph Node Dissection that I finally took my wife's advice and started the first draft of the first book I had ever written. I don’t recommend cancer or the RPLND but I do recommend writing the first draft of any new book.

You would think I ran with it from there but instead, the whole common-sense issue reared its ugly head again. This was lucky for me though because this first ever novel was 110k words of pure ugliness. I realized it when I was trying to find an editor for less than $1,000 and was forced to read my own book in an effort to cut the fat out. Let me tell you guys, this novel was very overweight and by the time I was done cutting the fat I had no book to have edited. It sucked and I knew it!

This is why I decided that for the next 20 years (told you I was a gray beard) I would become a marketer and learn how to sell books as well or better than a traditional publishing house. You probably didn’t expect that, did you? Like I said, common-sense. Now that I am finally capable of building sales funnels to build lists of rabid readers to sell my novels to, I can finally write.

How’s that for a novel of an introduction?

Sorry, but I wanted you guys to know we all struggle with our writing journey, and even though all of our paths are different... our journey is the same. Please know, I am here if anyone needs to talk through a beat, discuss a chapter or even beat the stuffing out of a chapter. Or even if you need to talk marketing, websites or graphic design… I am here for it. I might have a bit of knowledge after 20 years making a living doing those things. LOL

I can’t promise my common sense will grow but I can promise to be there if you need me. I guess what I am saying is that I am here to help as well as learn and I wanted everyone to know that.

Finally, thanks to you Jason Hamilton for always being there on video whenever I need you. Your passion and desire to help others write is a true inspiration. Thanks for allowing me into your world and I can’t wait to learn more!

8 comments