#iwroteabook

[bitonti]

I left the traditional working world six years ago and started growing my hair long. My goal was to write books. Sparing everyone the gory details, I had to hone my craft over these last few years. Turns out you don't just write a book because you believe you can. 

 

I know print is a dead medium but the season's over, it's not like you guys are doing anything.

 

Well, it's a small step, but today I'm pleased to announce a short story collection called "Noisy Alien Communicator and The Visible Spectrum" under a new imprint called Frankford Publishing. It's called Frankford after the Yellow Jackets, a defunct NFL team (like the Jets, haha).

 

The premise is that humans summon intelligent life using a synthesizer. The NAC is real, invented by my friend Scott. Here's a video of him demonstrating it

 

 

There are full-color illustrations and schematics on how to build your own. It's a fantastic book, if I don't say so myself, and I'm really proud of it. Whether you get aliens or not with it, your mileage may vary.

 

It would be great if people checked it out (links below) and maybe even leave a review. May it be the first of many. Thanks all. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Noisy-Alien-Communicator-Visible-Spectrum/dp/B0BN277JF4

https://frankfordpublishing.com/

 

 

[Jetsfan80]

Well done bit!

Any short stories on bowling balls with knives, by chance?   

 

Also, lol:

 

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR NOISY ALIEN COMMUNICATOR:

“These humans are impetuous and must be destroyed! That’s why I pay taxes!”
-Rrrxx from the gas giant orbiting Rygar-42

"How have these foolish creatures survived this long?”
-Zilens from the Sigmoid quadrant

[SomebodytoAnybody47]

What was your process for honing that craft? I wanted to learn more about writing screenplays and starting from ground zero. 

[Dcat]

40 minutes ago, bitonti said:

I left the traditional working world six years ago and started growing my hair long. My goal was to write books. Sparing everyone the gory details, I had to hone my craft over these last few years. Turns out you don't just write a book because you believe you can. 

 

I know print is a dead medium but the season's over, it's not like you guys are doing anything.

 

Well, it's a small step, but today I'm pleased to announce a short story collection called "Noisy Alien Communicator and The Visible Spectrum" under a new imprint called Frankford Publishing. It's called Frankford after the Yellow Jackets, a defunct NFL team (like the Jets, haha).

 

The premise is that humans summon intelligent life using a synthesizer. The NAC is real, invented by my friend Scott. Here's a video of him demonstrating it

 

 

There are full-color illustrations and schematics on how to build your own. It's a fantastic book, if I don't say so myself, and I'm really proud of it. Whether you get aliens or not with it, your mileage may vary.

 

It would be great if people checked it out (links below) and maybe even leave a review. May it be the first of many. Thanks all. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Noisy-Alien-Communicator-Visible-Spectrum/dp/B0BN277JF4

https://frankfordpublishing.com/

 

 

Congratulations!  

 

[bitonti]

22 minutes ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Well done bit!

Any short stories on bowling balls with knives, by chance?   

 

I'm in negotiations with Dewayne Robertson for his life rights so fingers crossed 

 

[bitonti]

28 minutes ago, Zachtomims47 said:

What was your process for honing that craft? I wanted to learn more about writing screenplays and starting from ground zero. 

well I started writing articles for many years and blog posts - so I thought writing would be easy. I could write 1000 words on Nick Mangold why couldn't I write everything else? 

then I did actually write screenplays and pitches for hollywoo - I use this software called WritersDuet for all the odd formatting, lived in LA a bit. 

but it was hard to get anything actually made from a script unless you have like a famous person signed on. Anyone want to read my Willy Wonka sequel "Slugsworth's Revenge?" not really was the answer. Unless I was like the grandson of mr. nestle or Johnny Depp was signed on for it, that was never getting made. I did work with Documentary people and doing research for various project pitches but I never could get used to the LA way of life 

books was the final stop on the train 

there's a book called "save the cat" that is amazing for screenplays. Read "Save the Cat" is my first advice. (they call it that because it's a trick to have your main character save a cat in scene 1 to make him likeable). There's save the cat for movies and save the cat for novels, both are great. People talk about STC story types it's become part of the lexicon.

to answer your question I read a bunch, wrote a bunch, then determined my weaknesses - for me my world building was great, my character development was ok but my plot structure was garbage.  I ended up writing myself into corners because I hadn't planned it out correctly. Editors can fix alot but it's up to the author to fix the story.

I read Save The Cat writes a Novel, and all the books on Plot i could find this summer. Then I wrote like dozens of outlines, trying to determine what worked the best. I have 2 novels in various states of repair I hope to finish those soon. And by soon I mean before i die lol. Short stories doesn't need that much structure just a taste of what's happening and a twist at the end.  

Joseph Campbell "the man with a thousand faces" is another great book. There are only a finite amount of stories to tell. And we've been telling them since Fire was invented. There's the quest story, the romance, the institution story (like Shawshank) there's like 10 or 20 plots out there, depending on who you ask. 

Unlike in music, in fiction you can't really re invent the wheel. When Oasis sounds like the Beatles everyone says it's a ripoff. But if your book doesn't follow the tropes of Shakespeare and the Bible people don't know how to respond. 

the easy advice is "just write" but for me it's read a ton, then write. I read about a book a week, 50 a year. Need to put words in to get words out. 

Getting a real book deal is almost impossible if you aren't famous already. And even if you do, you're going to have to promote it anyway.

So i self-published. That was another process learning Adobe InDesign and Illustrator for the cover. For our cover font, my buddy scott took pictures of an old TTY machine which used to be used by deaf people using the telephone. Just trial and error it took us like 2 years to make this short story book. 

And by the way if you or anyone else does want to self-publish a book, I offer my services as a consultant and have helped several people achieve their dreams. 

[SomebodytoAnybody47]

18 minutes ago, bitonti said:

well I started writing articles for many years and blog posts - so I thought writing would be easy. I could write 1000 words on Nick Mangold why couldn't I write everything else? 

then I did actually write screenplays and pitches for hollywoo - I use this software called WritersDuet for all the odd formatting, lived in LA a bit. 

but it was hard to get anything actually made from a script unless you have like a famous person signed on. Anyone want to read my Willy Wonka sequel "Slugsworth's Revenge?" not really was the answer. Unless I was like the grandson of mr. nestle or Johnny Depp was signed on for it, that was never getting made. I did work with Documentary people and doing research for various project pitches but I never could get used to the LA way of life 

books was the final stop on the train 

there's a book called "save the cat" that is amazing for screenplays. Read "Save the Cat" is my first advice. (they call it that because it's a trick to have your main character save a cat in scene 1 to make him likeable). There's save the cat for movies and save the cat for novels, both are great. People talk about STC story types it's become part of the lexicon.

to answer your question I read a bunch, wrote a bunch, then determined my weaknesses - for me my world building was great, my character development was ok but my plot structure was garbage.  I ended up writing myself into corners because I hadn't planned it out correctly. Editors can fix alot but it's up to the author to fix the story.

I read Save The Cat writes a Novel, and all the books on Plot i could find this summer. Then I wrote like dozens of outlines, trying to determine what worked the best. I have 2 novels in various states of repair I hope to finish those soon. And by soon I mean before i die lol. Short stories doesn't need that much structure just a taste of what's happening and a twist at the end.  

Joseph Campbell "the man with a thousand faces" is another great book. There are only a finite amount of stories to tell. And we've been telling them since Fire was invented. There's the quest story, the romance, the institution story (like Shawshank) there's like 10 or 20 plots out there, depending on who you ask. 

Unlike in music, in fiction you can't really re invent the wheel. When Oasis sounds like the Beatles everyone says it's a ripoff. But if your book doesn't follow the tropes of Shakespeare and the Bible people don't know how to respond. 

the easy advice is "just write" but for me it's read a ton, then write. I read about a book a week, 50 a year. Need to put words in to get words out. 

Getting a real book deal is almost impossible if you aren't famous already. And even if you do, you're going to have to promote it anyway.

So i self-published. That was another process learning Adobe InDesign and Illustrator for the cover. For our cover font, my buddy scott took pictures of an old TTY machine which used to be used by deaf people using the telephone. Just trial and error it took us like 2 years to make this short story book. 

And by the way if you or anyone else does want to self-publish a book, I offer my services as a consultant and have helped several people achieve their dreams. 

Awesome. Appreciate it. I don't think I want to actually write to get made into a movie or anything. Just feel like I could be a lot better in that aspect and think it would be great to learn, something to get better at in 2023. If it amounts to something, then cool. We'll see where it takes us. 

[bitonti]

5 minutes ago, Zachtomims47 said:

Awesome. Appreciate it. I don't think I want to actually write to get made into a movie or anything. Just feel like I could be a lot better in that aspect and think it would be great to learn, something to get better at in 2023. If it amounts to something, then cool. We'll see where it takes us. 

If you do make a movie or tv show script be sure to consider how it can be filmed. Like a period piece is very difficult. Once I wrote a Hallmark Xmas movie and they said no because the characters rode horses and horses are expensive. Something set on a space station ok who is building that set? How much is CGI?

Ideally you should write something simple and be able to find like a student director to make a trailer for it locations around your town. It's disheartening to write stuff that never gets made - then once you get established then you can make avatar or whatever. 

i'm probably butchering the quote but "if you're selling something make sure there's a buyer for it first" 

[RutgersJetFan]

Please tell me there's a story in there that's modeled after the encounter with Pauline.

[bitonti]

2 minutes ago, RutgersJetFan said:

Please tell me there's a story in there that's modeled after the encounter with Pauline.

I'm like a westworld robot when I see that name

"doesn't look like anything to me"