Bestselling indie author Richard Fox shares the strategies he uses to keep his stories from being boring, make his character real, and keep it all straight while he’s writing.
(Note: We had a little bit of echo issues in this episode. I tried to edit most of them out, but you may occasionally still hear a little extra “me.” Sorry!)
You don’t want to miss it. Listen here –
Here are just a few of the things we touched on:
- How long it took him to actually make money as an indie author
- How learning about screenplays helped him write a good first scene
- The importance of story structure and his recommendations Save the Cat and Joseph Campbell’s Heroes with a Thousand Faces, The Writer’s Journey, Maps of Meaning
- His writing routine and how he makes sure he has time to write and doesn’t get distracted, included the app freedom
- How he works with Amazon’s algorithm to consistently make money with his books
- How he used surveys to figure out what he readers actually want
- How he uses his experience to make his stories more authentic and relatable to his audience
- What he uses as a magnet to build his newsletter subscribers
- The other way he adds subscribers to his newsletter
- His strategy for having really good pacing in his books
- How organizes his super complex plots, it’s not as fancy as you think
- Why he decided to start co-writing with fellow authors
- How he uses archetypes to create well rounded characters
- How he keeps track of the characters so they become real
- How he brilliantly makes sure people want to keep reading the next book in the series without leaving a cliffhanger (worth the whole interview)
- His best advice for new authors who want to quit their jobs and write full-time
- How you can be a part supporting turning The Ember War into a comic book series!
About the Author
Richard Fox is the winner of the 2017 Dragon Award for Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy novel, author of The Ember War Saga, a military science fiction and space opera series, and other novels in the military history, thriller and space opera genres.
He lives in fabulous Las Vegas with his incredible wife and three boys, amazing children bent on anarchy.
He graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) much to his surprise and spent ten years on active duty in the United States Army. He deployed on two combat tours to Iraq and received the Combat Action Badge, Bronze Star and Presidential Unit Citation.
You can find him:
On Amazon, or at his website richardfoxauthor.com
