Friday's 5 with Tim Aker

Tim Akers was born in deeply rural North Carolina, the only son of a theologian. He moved to Chicago for college, where he lives with his wife. He splits his time between databases and fountain pens.

1.) When did you first get serious about writing?

A.) When I turned 30. I had been talking about being a writer since high school, and had some publishing credits, but on my thirtieth I decided to get serious. I went out and bought copies of every sf/f magazine I could find, started researching the markets, and began researching the various awards, conventions and organizations in the business.

2.) What is the hardest part for you about writing?

A.) Revision. I want to write the next book, no rewrite this one. Ten times.

3.) How did you feel upon publication of your first completed project?

A.) Pretty ecstatic at first. But it quickly settled on my mind that it was only one step in the larger project. Writing is something you do over the course of a lifetime, not something you do and then have done and then move on. Being a writer is so much more than one publication.

4.) What is more important to you, story, or character? Why?

A.) I don't think there's anyway to remove one from the other. Characters in a void are just dull, and a story propped up by boring characters are just flash. I don't think you can do one of those things correctly without proper support from the other.

5.) What is a typical day like in your world?

A.)  My wife and I are both self-employed. While that comes with a lot of troubles, from unstable income flows to sketchy health insurance to endless trouble trying to get a loan, it has some pretty unique benefits. We've committed to an alarm clock free lifestyle, so we get up when we're no longer tired and are able to take time off during the day. It's pretty grand. That said, I get at least two or three writing sessions in each day. I can't sit and write for eight hours, so I break my tasks into two or three hour sessions. I don't hold myself to particular goals in those sessions, unless I'm under immediate
deadline. Going to the empty page with no real expectations actually does wonders for my productivity.

Tim can be found online at:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JTimothyAkers
Twitter: http://twitter.com/@TimAkers
Website: http://www.TimAkers.net

How my first novel nearly ended my career

Writing is a business. It’s a business that’s in trouble, or at least a business in dire transition, but it still follows the fundamental rules of capitalism. When you’re coming up in this job, when you’re still holding on to the warm fuzzies that you get from writers conferences and other supportive, aspirational environments, it’s easy to think that writing is somehow immune to the hard edged efficiency of the business world. But it’s not.

Here’s how I figured that out, and also how that discovery nearly ended my career as a writer before it really started.

Like most hopeful writers of my generation, I was a reader first. Actually, if you’re a hopeful writer and you’re not a reader, fuck off. Stop what you’re doing and spend ten years reading. I don’t care who you are, writers have to read.

Okay, anyway. I was a reader. And I formed a bond with other readers, and fell in love with the idea of writing. I started writing pretty young. I used to carry a pile of looseleaf paper in my coat pocket, and I would write these tremendously long stories about robots, that wad of paper getting bigger and bigger until I had to type a bunch of it into my dad’s Apple II, and then I would start over with another wad of looseleaf. So I spent a lot of my youth telling people I was a writer, and I was going to be a writer when I grew up.

That lasted through college, and then I got busy with being an adult. I got married to a woman I actually liked to spend time with, got a job that beat me into the ground each day, bought a house that needed maintenance on the weekends. And in my off time, as little of it as there was, I had hobbies that weren’t writing. Like drinking. And videogames. And I was only spending maybe one or two days a month actually writing, and nothing was coming of it. Obviously.

Then I turned thirty, and realized that if I was actually going to be a writer, I needed to get the fuck at it. I started making sacrifices with my time and health. I entered a phase where I was pretty much going to work, coming home, eating dinner and then shutting myself into my office to write. Everything else in my life suffered. But I was writing.

Read the rest of Tim's journey at TimAkers.net