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Today I chat with Justin Sloan. He’s a multi-faceted writer with a lot going on. He’s a video game writer(with credits on the Game of Thrones; Minecraft; Story Mode), a novelist(Allie Strom and the Ring of Solomon; Falls of Redemption and more), and he is also a screenwriter(Wrecked and My Husband’s Prego).
Justin also has two nonfiction books on how to take your writing from hobby to career in Creative Writing Career Book 1 co-authored by Norman Felchle and Creative Writing Career 2, co-authored by Stephan Bugaj. If you want to read his amazing fiction, Justin has the first books in the Ally Strom and Back by Sunrise series FREE.
You can find more about Justin at his website www.justinsloanauthor.com or you can connect with him on Facebook or Twitter.
Watch the Video Interview
In the Intro I talk about…
- Some helpful books and other resources: The Artists Way by Julia Cameron; Creative Writing Career – Books 1 and 2 by Justin Sloan and co-authors Norman Felche and Stephan Bugaj; and a Podcast to help you write compelling emotion in your stories here: How to Write the Heart of your Story with C.J. Lyons.
Summary of Interview
Justin Sloan is a multi-faceted writer and creative entrepreneur.
Besides writing the books, video games and screenplays above, he’s also co-host of these podcasts: Self-Publishing Answers podcast; Creative Writing Career podcast and Military Veterans in Creative Careers podcast.
Here are the highlights of the interview…
- How he was inspired to start writing his novel because of a love for Game of Thrones and wrote 160,000 words in 3 to 6 months.
- How writers need to devote themselves to self-editing: Justin mentions books like The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Volger.
- He talks about his own story of how he was talking to all these professionals about how to have a life as a creative writer and from that he interviewed these people who were doing it – which became the nonfiction book Creative Writing Career 2.
- He shares how new writers can set up your own career plan and how to put the pieces in place to them moving so you can work toward your career as a creative writer. A big part of that ties into author platform – how you set everything up to represent you.
- Justin talks about how he began connecting with creative professionals from Pixar and Disney and he says a big part of networking, is how you set up your profile on LinkedIn or other social media. It’s important that your profile and who you are as an author to be focussed as you begin to network with creative professionals.
- As he took classes on Screenwriting at Johns Hopkins, he fell in love with the craft. He encourages writers to write a screenplay of your book before you turn it into a novel. Tools here are: Final Draft(Mac); Movie Magic Screenwriter; or Amazon StoryWriter.
- He encourages writers to read through good screenplays like Matrix; Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, etc. Analyze them and find your voice. Then work on your own screenplay. He encourages writers to focus their screenplays on 1 or 2 locations and 5 characters or less. There’s more chance your screenplay will be bought that way.
- Recommends that writers do other things that help to contribute to who you want to be as a writer. For example, if you can, go work at one of these literary management companies or Literary magazines are looking for readers. That will open more doors for you.
- We talk about writers who choose the self-publishing route – which means you’ll do more of the work – but you also have greater control. Self-published authors make a lot more in royalties.
- I asked Justin to talk about his fantasy novels, and they sound amazing. You can find out more on the Justin Sloan Amazon Author Page.
You can find Justin at www.justinsloanauthor.com. His latest book is Book #2 of the Eternal Light Series. Click here to pre-order Dawn of Destiny.
