During Timothy Rose‘s time at sea as an Officer in the U.S. Marines he did something that most do not; wrote his first horror novel. The hours spent by others on ship watching movies or playing games were instead used by Tim to invest in his lifelong passion for creative writing. Listen to his story about how he used principles learned through the military to enhance his systematic approach to self-publishing. Tim announces his first book The Legend of the Colonel’s Revenge that hit #1 on Amazon.
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Transcript
When I was on my first deployment though we had we were on a Navy ship called the USS boxer and we were part of a Marine Expeditionary Unit which was basically floating from San Diego through the Pacific and then over into the Gulf of Aden Persian Gulf type of area and the mission just give you a Baxter and that the mission of a Marine Expeditionary Unit which is for short called a MEU, is basically to be crisis response to be forward deployed to respond to different contingencies throughout the world you know it's it could be anything from humanitarian disaster relief to Embassy reinforcement to full-scale Conventional combat if necessary will when none of that is going on it's actually very boring to plug for on the shifter on a Navy ship and if you're a marine on a Navy ship floating around the world there's not a lot to do you know you go to the gym to work out a little bit on the ship try to fight for space in the weight room right if you ship it right you go to the chow hall you eat 3 times a day make sure you don't miss that and then you know we would have a couple classes that we would do with the Marines you know just I'm just trying to keep our general infantry knowledge up to speed and then you know maybe do some weapons maintenance you know she remained and stuff like that but that leaves probably a good 10 hours left in the day word you're not going anywhere you're not doing anything so what happens a lot of people read books and watch movies it's pretty much the way people pass the time and I started getting back into a lot of those Thriller novels and a lot of Thriller movies my roommates and I will we are you know in our room on the ship we started basically watching you know a lot of different like horror movies we found out on this like horror movie Kick and then I was reading a bunch of different books different novels but a lot of them were as reading the Stephen King novels again I think of red like the Exorcist red you know Rosemary's Baby some of those old you know thriller books that I really like when I was a kid and so that kind of spark that the idea of a thriller and doing like something really suspect the Slender I got really really motivated by that and I just remember thinking and this is so cool I love that stuff I remember it as a kid and I just love it now and I was like well, write something and be creative I'm going to I'm going to try to do I'm going to try to ride the scariest novel I can secure header that's why I love when I when I read through the the first chapter on Amazon I can tell by the way that you're writing and the words that you're using it's just everything about it it's it's just great I'm really excited for your future and writing cuz I haven't I'm going to I'm going to I purchase a book and read the whole thing but from what I can see it's it's really cool my mom is always really been into Stephen King novels and she's always passes off to me as a kid even even at a younger age where he couldn't quite understand them and now I look back at the way in his novels he was able to create the unexpected and really get your emotional response and that's something that I can tell in your writing is that it's it captures it captures or 10 can even just reading the first sentence that you're just can't help but read the next and it is very skilled that's awesome great motivated people getting back to me saying that it's been a page Turner they can I put it down then they had to you know they kept going and that's that's really what I was hoping for that people would feel that type of I can't put this down I gotta find out what happens next gotta find out what happens next that to me is awesome yeah what's so cool about it is just writing in general it's such an interesting art form because it's it's one of the oldest arts and it in itself you're leaving behind and essence of Tim for everyone else to understand and especially since this is something that you're so passionate about what I like about it as you're not going about it where you thinking what is what's a kind of book I want someone to by what what's going to sell and who knows The companies that you reach out to in those the proposals that you sent out because you're writing the book that you want to read it becomes powerful Justin that alone something when I typed up this 5 page how to write a novel been getting from blank page 2 completed document I wrote that if you're not if you're not feeling excited Yourself by what your writing and if you're not excited to come and get on with the next chapter then it's your readers probably not going to be excited and if so I don't think I don't think you can do it and expect other people to like it it if you don't like it yourself I think I've got an idea for why people like to speak to my horror as a genre is always been successful and why people like it I think it's me like to feel the emotions that go into horror or even like an old man Shakespearean tragedies we like that emotional hole and then it's it's just good when it's an emotional toll that takes place in a controlled environment where it's not actually it's not actually happening to us but we can we can still feel it we still have those emotions that I think I think there's probably some psychology behind that I'm not I'm not a psychiatrist or anything he has allowed us to from from a psychological standpoint it allows us to try on a mask of the character in the story it also lets us ask ourselves what would I do if that was and if I was in that situation what would I do if I was the person who is being affected by that person's actions and that type of analytical thinking often happens in the subconscious we don't quite recognize it in your hundred percent right it's all about the emotions and that's why we get so hooked to that stuff I started getting really into movies which if you know Hitchcock is obviously Alfred Hitchcock is known as the end of the master of suspense yeah I started getting in his movies out I think I watched I'm washed all of them but I ended up watching all of all the big ones for sure the birds psycho North by Northwest is most well-known ones and then a lot of others that are pretty good but not necessarily as well known certainly not today and then I started reading a lot about Hitchcock and just how how we got that reputation is the master of suspense in really what it was and what he did that was you could call groundbreaking become, Pioneer maybe but it was all about giving the reader giving the viewer a little bit of it of the secret like letting them in on the secret in so the suspense is created by what you as the reader or what you had the the person watching the movie nose and what they character doesn't know if you think about that in like a lot of the slasher films that came after you know Hitchcock we know that if the main character you know it goes behind that door goes into that room we know that the bad guys in there right in the fact that we know that the bad guys in there we're not rooting for her no no don't go in that door yeah and you get a lot of those four soda stereo type swear it's like oh why can't believe like why would you go in that house or why would you go stay there of course that's a dumb idea but that was when we want to hear right right understanding of what was going on and then certain things and certain that something was going to happen anything in general and romance stories are are designed around the emotional response you're getting out of it truly an art form and there is a lot of psychology on Amazon and going Leave when I look back on it especially after after you know basically pitching it to 70 + agent and having all of them say oh no we're not interested that didn't discourage me because I was still going to figure out a way to publish it whether it was traditional or self-publishing but it got me into thinking I'm not going to keep on beating my head against the wall trying to convince these other people hey this is a great novel you should check it out I said I'm going to try to go this route that other authors have experienced a lot of success with which is self-publishing on Amazon now at the time I started getting busy again with with were we're getting ready for another deployment to we actually got deployed to the Northern Territory of Australia for 7 months I was there for 7 months so I kind of like in backed away from the process of editing that novel and then you have getting ready for something like the Kindle it wasn't into it till the end of that deployment where we kind of got a little bit of a break from all the exercises we were doing all the training that we're doing that I actually had time to start editing it again and then also studying on ways to self publish and that whole routes I read a lot of books on you know self-publishing editing doing things like that that would actually make it possible to put it on Amazon and a very professional way because to be clear with with Amazon you can if you wanted to you could write a bunch of stuff on a Word document tomorrow and just throw it and just publish it on Amazon the Kindle All You Know Jack I mean ever sell anything different working on and you came back and you were able to stay on track with that you're saying it sounds like you're so much I really enjoy writing and I know anyone right now is going to be the ability for you to be able to keep on track with a project like that the organization of writing a book because I've done it myself but I've heard from other people especially maintain your when you were working on getting something on how to complete a lot of other things like that every day and I think that people really fall off and hit a bump in the road and then and then on your planning on getting back to at the big idea down an elevator pitch From there looking at actually putting together a synopsis and waiting when I this synopsis it was me just free writing it at one of 2 Pages just going through writing down all the ideas I had for in this novel and then from there taking those ideas typing up the synopsis allows you to kind of really look at them red dress some of them in your head and start identifying different plot points of the novel and then from there breaking that down into an outline chapter by chapter and then Freed chapter reading up a synopsis of the chapter will allow you to structure the novel and then once you've got that set in stone it's a matter of saying OK hey every day I'm going to write lunch after or if you're feeling particularly motivated everyday I'm in the right to Chapters so if you think about it you got see if 30 chapter novel and you're committed to writing one chapter a day you get out of the novel done in a month here ethically but then the systematic piece of that is ok you've got all these chapters you know if you got the synopsis for H1 now it's just a matter of like I said but and share sitting down and in writing that chapter every day whatever what's crazy is go in there and talk about that stuff I'm thinking first things pop into my head as I'm really really impressed that you're taking this systematic approach to creativity and I know that a lot of times a person I want to ask you is what your personality type is because a lot of Highly creative types and I read some exit from your novel and its excellent by the way great riding the visuals I mean it's awesome I don't know why someone didn't give you a book deal but you make more money now anyway right but the systematic approach that you're going about it just it it sounds like such a great way to reverse-engineer the final product and it really sounds like you've got a great way of explaining it and you make it sound so effortless and I love that they will thank you appreciate the one thing that has helped me is definitely joining the Marine Corps and being in the Marine Corps because as you can imagine that's an organization that provides a lot of structure in your life yeah so I think I've had a lot of that drilled into me I think as I've gone through this organization and certainly as an alternate you know I physically looked at different ways to implement systematic approaches to things like training training plans and then getting individual Marines trained and ready for deployment and then even with my current job it's it's more me focusing on the instructor is that are getting 300 Marines ready to go to the fleet rainforest to actually deploy or to train and then deploy at IHOP. Has allowed me to take my creativity which I've always sort of had as I mentioned and then you know why start of the structure to it so it makes sense and I love that it's not stapling the creativity for you because I'm not saying that's the case in every way I find that I am fairly structured along with my creativity but I like that you're able to manage this in a way that like I said indoors time because nowadays I'm concerned I look at the media's that that's created I see a lot of people are doing videos are telling stories through videos and its thrall thrall just different forms of Storytelling you know there are different ways of explaining the story in and making people feel emotion and and sharing ideas and sharing history and facts and things like that but you're really you're combining a an art form that in my eyes is that it's at an advantage and also the disadvantage where we have access to more information technology is making it easier to spread things like you're able to self-publish on Amazon and get your own following that is incredible but on the flip side of that your way of approaching it and it seems like you really have something to offer people who are looking to get accountability and build a system behind their creative process whether it be writing a book or a screenplay or something you know to generate contents. It's huge value for sure He will within the the world of creative writing and it's called the the outline versus I think it's the column the pastor's the Panthers or something like that basically to explain that the the pastors are the ones who right by the seat of their pants that is they don't know what they're going to write about they sit down at the computer or just start writing in start developing wouldn't whatever Nation idea is in their head that doesn't sound like you at all it's not me what the reason a lot of people like it is in in a lot of people talk about over this is this is the way the right is because Stephen King I think is famous for that method but what I tell people and what I advise myself and other is that I'm not Stephen King and most people aren't Stephen King write if your Stephen King that that probably works for you I'd that obviously works for you create Baseline ideology is really popular about every different discipline if you think about it it seems like a lot of people are encouraged to creatively without thinking about it and thinking about how to learn the fundamentals of piano and guitar and I thought I was awesome and I'm just going to go for one of my favorite song and I could not because I didn't understand the instrument learning how everything worked but not understanding music theory I pass all of that and just go straight to creating something beautiful when the lead guitarist even create this beautiful Masterpiece a lot of time to get to that level of proficiency and Stephen King novels you know a lot of the systematic approach and really I think that's really great that you're sharing that from your head create page staring at you to know that I 3014 and then I got done with a little bit I actually got an agent for that so I don't actually the project and then pick it back up 2015 end of the end of our What I did was I kind of went back through it over the course of a couple weeks maybe 3 weeks or so and I did a round of just really comprehensive that it's on my and and then had a couple to other marines that were they said they were really interested in reading and they were basically beta readers for me to give me some feedback and again in their feedback I said hey just be honest I don't I don't care you're not going to hurt my feelings and their feedback was encouraging to get there like yeah we really like that or you know each one of them said yeah I really thought was awesome I thought was really good so then I looked for an editor because as I was reading about self-publishing did mention that the one thing you can do to really help yourself out is to find a good editor someone that can you know help you paste makes a big difference makes a big difference right so I ended up getting hooked up with with an editor from a former a former Marine a guy by the name of Wayne stand it he's a self-published author who writes a bunch of Sea Adventure novels like a very good category he's done he's done very well and I met him after emailing my e-mail this guy named Chris Fox after I read his book which was called 4000 + 5000 words per minute or per hour which is the book on writing productivity okay and I email him and I just said hey I appreciate your book you know this is not who I am where I'm at and then he said hey you may want to email this guy Wayne Static cause he's a former Marine and you know self-publish did you looking for more information he might be able to help you and so I didn't you marry me the email late November and I started a little bit for the holidays also congratulations that was another move in the holidays just a little busy making the draft and the rest of this sounds like a lot of technical figuring out finding an editor table in the project other people showing up on the Amazon website and also some people would like to The books are called legend of the legend of the Colonel's Revenge the legend of the man cave so I just said hey look I'm going to brand this thing Legend novel I'm on Facebook is Tim Rose Legend author or Timothy Rose Legend author and I'm on Twitter as well at the Legend novel that's one thing that I think too it's no longer will you have to go through the Publishers because you can get a professional high quality print the amount of publishing platform that allow you to create even bound books I have one on my desk right now that someone publish and they they have printed copies of it and I can hold that side to side with any other Publishers not saying any names and the two books you can hardly tell that it was self publish it looks really professional and you don't have to you have to get a book deal to be an offer you've already a call paste that and that's a huge thing so I can graduate you for that and sharing all the stuff that's it's been awesome getting to know you and learning more about the stuff so I'll make sure everybody gets the information and looking forward to the next book.