About Jayden Hunter:
Jayden Hunter was born in Hawaii in 1965 and learned to love books at an early age. Thrillers became his favorite genre and that is what he is focused on writing today. Omitting needless words is still problematic for him, but he’s trying.
What inspires you to write?
My love of reading. My desire to share my thoughts.
Tell us about your writing process.
I outline first using a sheet of paper and a pen. One page. The story in a nutshell. Credit to Steven Pressfield here. Next I flesh out the scenes and put them into Scrivener. I shoot for 60 scenes, roughly, with wiggle room. Next I write the rough draft in Scrivener. My debut novel took me 3 weeks from outline to 80 thousand words in rough. Then I put the story through the Story Gird, credit to Shawn Coyne here. It’s a process to flesh out the genre requirements and to make sure the story has tension, ups and downs, etc. This process takes a long time. Longer than writing. Next the rewrites start. I rewrite and self edit. Next it goes to my editor for her major edits, story edits, and hard to read places are fixed.
This is now many months after the rough draft was finished.
Next I go through the book again and consult with my editor.
Eventually we’ll send it out to a few beta readers to make sure there are not major plot holes or anything that is just plain dumb.
After that I read the book out loud while my editor makes notes.
Next comes a re-reading on my Kindle device to see how it flows.
Finally a proof read.
Then some formatting.
Then it goes to live.
Then, of course, after the ebook is publish, a couple early beta readers will finally decide to give me advice.
Good thing that ebooks can be edited after the fact because there are always a couple errors (even the big publishing houses have them).
Finally, once it’s up and running, it’s time to ask some reviewers to give it a shot.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I put myself into their minds the best I can. This is most important with dialogue. I know I’d say something, BUT would she? Would the villain? Would the mother of the protagonist actually say the things I’d say? No. That’s the hardest part about making characters real. They cannot all be the writer. Sure, the main character, the hero, at least in part, is always part of the writer. And the villain too. But not everyone can be or the story will be dull.
What advice would you give other writers?
Plan. Read Larry Brooks, Shawn Coyne, and Steven Pressfield and do what they say. And follow people online that are really trying to help authors, like Joanna Penn and other people that are generous with sharing what they’ve learned.
And read a lot.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
After spending a lot of time reading blogs and listening to other authors I decided to self publish my debut novel. There was not reason for me not to do this as I knew whatever happened I’d learn something, fail or succeed. I know a great self published book will attract attention so I’m not worried that going this route will hurt me in any way. Besides, I can always write more books.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
It will continue to expand into the rest of the world. More and more books will be translated. Both from English and from other languages into English. Amazon changed books forever and I see them as continuing to be the front runner for a long time. But that said, anything could happen. My guess is that good books will continue to float to the surface and readers will find them.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: Thrillers.
What formats are your books in?: eBook
Website(s)
Jayden Hunter Home Page Link
Link To Jayden Hunter Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit, to allow you, the reader, to hear the author in their own voice.
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