Guest Blogger Robert Jones

Robert Jones is an aspiring novelist and freelance writer who currently resides in Las Vegas, NV.  He has worked for many of the top poker and boxing websites, including most recently Pokerworks.com and Pound4Pound.com.  Recently Robert has put many of his freelance writing assignments behind in hopes of succeeding at his real dream, becoming a novelist.

Fear and Trembling in the Writing World

When Nat asked me to do a guest spot on his blog I was both honored and terrified.  I was honored because Nat has been one of the biggest influences on my writing career over the last six years or so.  I was terrified because I wasn’t sure what to write about. But the more Nat gave me ideas, the more I became comfortable.  Nat thought it would be a good concept to let his readers see one writer (Nat) in the prime of his writing career, dealing with the issues that go along with preparing to get published, and someone just starting their quest down the novel writing road (me).  I couldn’t have agreed more.

While I’m a complete novice when it comes to novel writing, I am not a complete novice when it comes to writing in general.  I first became aware that I was interested in writing in high school when I started reading any book I could get my hands on.  From kindergarten to my sophomore year in high school, it was an accomplishment if I read one book a year.  That all changed in my junior year when I read a Muhammad Ali biography for a history class.  I had always had an interest in boxing, so reading that book led me to all the biographies and autobiographies on boxers I could find, many of which are still on my shelf today.  I began to frequent boxing message boards. I found that I enjoyed writing about the fighters I had learned about, and being engrossed in the arguments you find on those boards about the “greatest fighters ever,” and “is Mike Tyson really insane?” 

One week after graduating high school I was rewarded with the best graduation gift I could ask for – back surgery.  The surgery forced me to be bed ridden for the better part of the summer, so once again I started to read, but this time instead of reading boxing books I read many of the ones I was assigned to in high school, books I had opted to pass on at the time.  All summer I read as many of the classics I could get my hands on, my favorites being “The Catcher in the Rye,” “Animal Farm,” and “Lord of the Flies.” 

Around the time I could walk without assistance I started classes at a community college.  I really had no desire to go to college, but an ultimatum was put to me by my parents (one they regret since, but we all make mistakes) so I tried to find a few classes I was interested in.  I passed exactly one course that semester—Philosophy--but that class, particularly one assignment, changed my life forever.

For the final exam we were given the assignment to write “The Philosophy on ___________” with the blank being anything you wanted.  Sitting there the night before the assignment was due, I chose a natural subject for me, procrastination.  I wrote how procrastination wasn’t always a bad thing. Then I brashly wrote, “despite me not starting this paper until a few hours until it’s due, I will still pass, and I will still get a good grade.”  I wasn’t saying this in a cocky way, and I’m far from conceited, but I truly believed that my idea for the topic, and the way I was writing it was unique.  Luckily, I turned out to be right.  On the day the teacher was to hand back the assignments, now graded, he paused and said, “In my 20 plus years of being a teacher I have never even considered reading a student’s paper aloud. However, there was one this year I was going to, he’ll know who it was when he gets his paper back.”  I still had no idea it was my paper he was talking about, but when I got it back he had written numerous praises and “LOL’s” on it.  Still, he gave me a “B” because my references weren’t done correctly.  So despite failing every class that year, I had discovered that I may have some kind of future with writing. 

Over the next few years I didn’t really like school any better, but I did find classes I genuinely enjoyed, including English and creative writing.  During this time, I also started writing for a few boxing websites. There was no pay, but it was still thrilling to see my stories published on a website.  Then something terrible happened, I began to get paid for my work.  That may sound odd, but when I started getting paid, first for a boxing website, and later for a poker website, it was thrilling.  The downside was that after a while you couldn’t tell anymore if you were writing “for the love of the game,” or because you needed to get paid.

Ironically, it was at a website for which I was getting paid that I met Nat.  At first our conversations revolved around my work, but over time the emails got more personal.  It was here that Nat told me I have a real penchant for writing, and more importantly the right mind mindset to be interesting.  Even back then, Nat wished I would put aside some of the boxing and poker freelance jobs and do some writing for myself.  I dabbled here and there, but I never seriously put the time into any of the personal ideas I had mostly because I was busy with other things. 

Fast forward eight years and here we are.  A few months ago, after seven years of making a living as a freelance writer, I began to suffer burnout.  I dreaded writing another poker story, and some of the characters in the boxing world were wearing thin on my nerves.  Over those last few months most of my writing has come in the form of Facebook status updates, and writing a list of things I need when I go grocery shopping.  In the meantime I have recharged my batteries by playing a lot of poker (i.e. social interaction), and once again reading books, something I have put off over the last few years.

Not to be overlooked is my wife, Jessica, who has put up with what I’m sure looks like laziness in her husband over the last few months.  If she’s had an issue with it, she hasn’t told me.  In a recent e-mail to Nat I compared my wife to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Zelda.  Zelda put up with a lot from her husband while waiting for him to not only find his muse, but also do something about it.  Jessica has been a saint when it comes to dealing with my issues over having a writing career, and that’s truly been an inspiration to me. 

So now I am ready for the next phase.  If I told you it was without reservations, it would be a lie.  Nat’s writing style is intimidating to me, mostly because of the amount of work he puts in improving his writing via the process of editing.  Nat often reminds me of one of my favorite Hemingway quotes.  When asked why he edited “The Old Man and the Sea” 95 times he responded, “because I didn’t have time to edit it 96 times.”  That process worked for him, as that book won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1952.  The endless editing is the one thing most daunting to me when it comes to writing.  However, Nat has a simple response to that.  “Just write.”

As I haven’t accomplished anything as of yet in the world of novel writing, I can’t leave you with any great keys to success. All I can do is to wish you success in the path you choose to take down your own personal writing road.  I will warn you, though, the path you think you’re choosing, and the path you actually go down will not be the same.  As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”