Tag Archives: authors

Miss Matisse Interview- With Published Author Digger Cartwright Question 5

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Miss Matisse: I’ve realized in the years I’ve done online sales, and writing myself that a degree isn’t always required, and a handful of the authors that actually don’t have degrees are the BEST ones out here! I commend you for pursuing your passion, and those classes that you took have paid off! What would you say is your process when it comes to writing? i.e. How do you normally begin?

Digger Cartwright: It normally starts with an idea. I’ll jot down some notes on paper. Yes, I’m a bit old fashioned when it comes to that. I like to write ideas down on a legal pad or notepad. Sometimes the story comes into focus first and sometimes the characters come into focus for me before I have the entire story in my mind. Sometimes this happens almost overnight and sometimes it takes days, weeks or months. I’ll make a list of the characters and a little description of them including things like how they look, dress, act, and so on. I’ll make an outline of the plot and work out the sequence of events so I have something to follow when I sit down to actually write the manuscript.

I have to make a decision as to what style and tone I want the book to have. Is it going to be fast paced or slow moving and methodical? Is it going to be character driven or story driven? Is it going to be dark? What’s the best style for the genre that it’s in? I have to make all these decisions, then it’s really just a matter of doing the work and putting the words on paper. Sometimes I’ll skip around once I have the outline. I have been known to write the ending first once or twice, and sometimes I’ll just work chronologically from the first event all the way through to the end.

http://missmatisse.com/diggercartwrightinterview/

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Miss Matisse Interview- With Published Author Digger Cartwright Question 1

Posted by diggercartwright on

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Miss Matisse: Hello Digger, so…first things first, what an awesome name you have! Would you mind telling our readers a little about yourself and how you became a writer?

Digger Cartwright: I’m a businessman and entrepreneur first, and in the process of starting and running businesses I’ve had to do a great deal of writing over the years. Predominantly, it’s been in the form of business plans or research reports or articles for trade publications. Over the years I also did a lot of letter writing to politicians to give my commentaries on issues effecting America, business or the economy. I’ve done a lot of writing of commentaries for think tanks, like ThinkingOutsideTheBoxe.com, but it’s more along the lines of presenting a case and offering interpretations and solutions.

I think what really got me started writing was that I didn’t like the ending of a particular book so I set about to write the ending that I liked. There were some short stories along the way and teleplays before I decided to make the plunge into my first novel. I actually wrote The Versailles Conspiracy first as a quasi screenplay/novel. After that I didn’t do much for a couple of years until I got the idea for Murder at the Ocean Forest, which became the first novel I actually published.

I’ve always been very creative, ever since I was a child, and I’ve liked to be the storyteller at times, so perhaps there’s always been the writer in me. I’ve always been an avid reader, so there has always been part of me that said I can do that or I can write a better story than that. Some say I have a flair for dramatics. So overall, writing is a good fit for me. I’ll let the readers be the judge of that.

http://missmatisse.com/diggercartwrightinterview/

http://www.diggercartwright.com/

What tips do you have for young aspiring writers? Interview by learnfreemarketing

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Writing takes a lot of hard work, patience, and dedication. Most of the time, writing is a labor of love, it’s a passion. You don’t get noticed overnight, and if you’re in it to get rich and famous, you’re probably going to be disappointed. You shouldn’t be writing because you think it’s going to make you rich and famous. You should be writing because you enjoy it and it’s a personally rewarding experience for you and it may bring joy and entertainment to others. If you end up getting rich and famous, good for you. I’m certainly not trying to be discouraging, but the fact is a lot of writers never get recognized, never get an agent, and never get published by a major publishing house. If you’re serious about writing, make sure you have a good story to tell. Make sure your manuscript is professionally edited and polished. You can’t throw something together haphazardly and say it’s ready to be published. You’ve got to make sure that your final product, your final manuscript, is the best that it can be. It can’t just be good. It has to be great. There’s a lot of competition out there. I think there will be something like 2 million books published this year. You’ve got to make sure yours is exceptional if you want to be successful. Then you have to decide if you want to go the traditional route of trying to find an agent to get your book published by a major publishing house or if you want to self-publish. There are pros and cons to both. A lot of people have made a decent living through self-publishing. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit and really want to take charge of marketing your own work, you might be a candidate for self-publishing. Here again, nothing happens overnight. You’ll need to be patient. You’ll need to be dedicated and disciplined. And don’t get discouraged if you’re not as successful as you hoped or if you get turned down by agents or publishers. If you believe in yourself, keep working on it. When you get bucked off the horse, you’ve got to get back in the saddle and keep at it. The same goes for writing. If you believe in yourself and your work, keep going. Write more and more. The more you write, the better you’re going to get at it. Listen to criticism; it can be helpful. You may want to take some classes or workshops to help improve your skills. But if you’re an aspiring writer, you need to be aware of the challenges, you need to believe in yourself, and you need to be patient.

http://www.empowernetwork.com/learnfreemarketing/blog/digger-cartwright-interview/

http://www.diggercartwright.com/Blog/Latest

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As an author of several mystery novels, what motivated you to shift gears with your latest project and write an inspirational book? Interview by “With Five Questions”

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Actually, it wasn’t my idea to write my latest book, Conversations on the Bench. I was asked if I would be interested in writing a book about Sebastian, the central figure of this novel. What really motivated me to undertake the project was Sebastian himself and the story he had to tell. I only met him in person at a symposium hosted by the think tank that he had been instrumental in establishing. Over the next couple days I got to know him and his colleague, and I realized that he had a very fascinating perspective on life that was really the result of his own unique set of life experiences. The more I learned from my few conversations with Sebastian at that symposium and the more I subsequently learned from Robbie, the founder of the think tank, the more motivated I got about writing this inspirational book. It was clear to me that Sebastian’s story needed to be told. He had such a huge personality that you couldn’t help but like the guy, and I think everyone did. Everyone that I talked to had something good to say about Sebastian or had some story to tell about him and how he had impacted their life. He was always very positive and encouraging, and he was always there for his friends. He was just a remarkable individual and the more I got to hear his story, the more inspired I was. And ultimately, this entire project, Sebastian’s story, has really had a very big impact on my life, just as Sebastian himself had a big impact on the lives of people who knew him.

http://withfivequestions.blogspot.com/2013/05/meet-digger-cartwright-author.html

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Could you tell us a little bit about the real life friendship that inspired Conversations on the Bench? Interview by “With Five Questions”

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Robbie was a young college student when he met Sebastian in the mid-1990s. They met while both working at a hotel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Robbie was a full-time student studying finance, business, economics, etc. and worked full time. Sebastian had an educational background in economics and worked two jobs–tax investigator by day and hotel reservationist by night. They would spend hours talking about everything going on in their worlds and the world at large. And thus began a lifelong friendship. After Robbie graduated from college, Sebastian had some very poignant words of wisdom and anecdotes to share to help the young college grad get through some tough times. Robbie ended up starting his own successful business at about the same time that Sebastian was forced to retire due to health issues. That gave them the opportunity to spend a lot of time together, Sebastian mentoring Robbie and giving him encouragement, and Robbie integrating Sebastian in the business as much as possible.

They ended up starting a think tank, Thinking Outside the Boxe, to share their writings about any topic they could debate as well as their economic commentaries and research. As Sebastian’s health declined, Robbie was there to offer support and encouragement, just as Sebastian had been there for him. These two guys had this great brotherly relationship. Robbie even referred to Sebastian on many occasions as the brother he never had. And I think Sebastian liked that and really thought of Robbie as his little brother. He was there for Robbie to give him advice on women, relationships, business, whatever, and all the advice came from Sebastian’s own experiences. It’s the type of friendship that very few people are lucky enough to find in this life. It’s really just a heartwarming and truly inspirational friendship that I have recounted in Conversations on the Bench.

http://withfivequestions.blogspot.com/2013/05/meet-digger-cartwright-author.html

http://www.diggercartwright.com/Blog/Latest

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How have you balanced your career in business with your interests in writing and publishing? Interview by “With Five Questions”

Posted by diggercartwright on

It’s been difficult to balance the two. When I started writing, I did it as a hobby primarily. I did it because I just enjoyed it and wanted to tell some stories. It wasn’t really a priority for me. When I could find time, I sat down and wrote a little bit. But the more I wrote, the more I wanted to write even more. I wasn’t satisfied with having a book sitting incomplete, so I started to schedule more of my time for writing. I had to keep in mind that business was what made money. In the early days, writing only cost me money in terms of time, and writing at that point didn’t have much financial return. As I wrote more, I started to dedicate a little more time each day to writing until I finished a particular project. That’s really how I still do it. I don’t write full time. I still have business to tend to, but I really try to manage my time well. There’s always going to be sleepless nights when I’m working on a project or missed meetings or cancelled lunches, but I’ve come to accept that.

In the past few years, however, I’ve really started to focus more and more on writing as a business unto itself. I’ve chosen to go the independent, self-published route for a number of reasons that are neither here nor there, and that has really gotten me to examine and get deeply involved in the business aspect of being an independent, self-published author. I’ve really integrated the entire process from writing to marketing into my overall business structure and found some synergies there. I’ve adopted the perspective that as a writer I’m creating a product and it’s my company’s job to sell copies of my book. It’s been a very entrepreneurial endeavor in writing a book and bringing it to market. That’s one of the primary reasons that I’m working on setting up the National Federation of Self-Published Author Entrepreneurs as an outlet and resource for other self-published authors who are serious enough about writing to undertake it as an entrepreneurial business venture. If you’re a writer who is serious about your work, you can turn your writing endeavors into a business. Just like any entrepreneurial venture, it’s not necessarily easy, and it takes a lot of dedication and hard work. But if you dedicate yourself to it and have a passion for it, you can make self-publishing a successful enterprise.

http://withfivequestions.blogspot.com/2013/05/meet-digger-cartwright-author.html

http://www.diggercartwright.com/Blog/Latest

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