It all began in the library . . . doing math
I was doing a preparatory engineering course with two friends at the library. Game of Thrones was really popular at the time, and I had the phenomenal idea that we should all write stories in a similar world, but about each other. That way, we could really screw things up for ourselves in funny and extraordinary ways. Of course, both my friends were in, however, I was the only one that actually did it.
I got home and started writing. After spending an awful lot of time on it, I realized it was actually getting sort of good. I changed the name (mostly because it would not be accepted in the eyes of the public), and all the friends I had included got to rename their characters. Thus, my writing career had begun.
That project lasted a long time, and at some point, I think I realized I wasn’t good enough to finish it. It was simply too grand. I started with a simpler concept, which birthed “The Beast Hunters”-series. I knew it would also be a tremendously long book, so how was I gonna make it happen? If I am to pass on one great piece of advice, it’s this: doing something for 30 minutes every day, adds up to insane amounts of work. I started writing 500 words each and every day. Saturdays or Sundays didn’t matter, every day. Holidays? Nope, keep writing. This way, I taught myself a discipline I shall never go without again. If you want to learn anything, just break it into small pieces and ‘eat’ one every damn day. Your skill will grow.
I wrote all three Beast Hunter books (then one huge book) during my Master’s degree (which is two years in Norway). It ended up being 240 000 words, which is a BIG book. The response I got was staggering. The first person to ever devour the whole thing was one of my best friend’s girlfriend’s cousins (mouth-full, I know). I’d never met her, but she loved it. Then more of my friends and siblings and friends of my friends caught on, and the response was overly positive.
I had the book edited by two editors—that’s how bad I am at English apparently—and met an agent at “The Jericho Writers Summer Festival”, who told me the writing was industry standards, and the book was too long. Luckily for me, the book was already sectioned into Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, now Book 1-3 respectively.
Since then, I have gotten into writing Science Fiction as well (first book named SPECTER), and also met with a Norwegian movie and series producer. A friend of mine works in the industry and called me for the fifth time one day; they needed stand-ins. I’ve been an actor in many videos and some movies and shows, so on his fifth attempt, I said yes. The producer and I got along swimmingly, and I wrote him the outline and first episode for a crime show (big in Norway). We talked and discussed, and he liked the idea, but offered a lot of producer reasons as to why it couldn’t be done. I went home, and he called me back the same evening, telling me to watch a specific movie and we’d meet up the next day to talk about something.
Had I not answered my friend’s fifth attempt to get me to that shoot, I wouldn’t today be involved in writing a movie together with the producer, meant for an international audience. It’s going swimmingly, and I can’t wait to progress.
I joined “The Jericho Writers Summer Festival” again in 2020, but this time it was virtual. At this time, I was going to self-publish the books, as I hadn’t had any luck with agents. I watched a lot of seminars, one of them being about author promotion in today’s social media world. The speaker, Helen Lewis, was brilliant and truly knowledgeable, and I felt inspired. In the end, she casually mentioned the publishing house Hashtag Press, which she had co-founded with Abiola Bello. I immediately searched it up and submitted my first Beast Hunter book. After a gruelling three weeks, I got a reply from Abiola Bello, where she requested the full manuscript. I sent it right away and had to wait even longer (which is normal in the industry). She came back to me, offering to publish the first book and I signed the contract. Thus, I would be a published author.
I was a fool to think that now everything was good. The book will be published, and all is well. Then I learned how much work it is to get published. First I revisioned the book again, removing about 7000 words (my writing skills had vastly improved since it was years since I wrote the first Beast Hunter book). I sent it in and got it back with some changes they wanted - no problem. Then they put an editor on the book. A fantastic editor at that - and she sniffed out EVERY storytelling shortcut I’ve avoided as a novice author. “You need to work out the money system. She would never say this for this, this, this, this, this, this, and finally this, this, and this reason. How would this kind of store stay in business?” and the questions kept coming. I went to work and fixed it all, and the book really became a lot better. Alright, good - all done and ready for the book to go to print. Ooh, no-no. Not long before publication, the publisher told me they wanted a narrative change - and at first, I hated it. I started listing all the problems it would bring and why they weren’t solvable, not realizing that I was actually solving them. After calming down, I went to work. I only had 5 days to implement major narrative changes - I worked my ass off and got it done on time - and FINALLY, the book went to print. They were satisfied. I was satisfied.
The book launched and I bit my nails for days upon days. “Will anyone buy my book? If they do, will they like it?” All this worry clouded my mind, for good reason. You offer yourself up for judgement by everyone on something you love and have worked so hard on. For a little more than a week, I had a blog tour online, which is where a number of bloggers have gotten the book in advance and blog about it, spread out over some days. I felt nervous, but the first entry on the tour was absolutely stunning. And so was the next one, and the next one. When the tour ended, 100% of the bloggers loved the book, and gave me hope for the future. As far as I know, The Beast Hunters is selling like crazy. We had to do another print run after 6 days. So I got my fingers crossed about the book.
There’s a lesson here, and I know “About Me”s usually don’t have a piece of advice in the end, but here it is: I’m finally a published author, and now I’m working with one of Norway’s utmost producers to make a movie, all because I once sat down and started writing 500 words every day. Did I know what would happen in the future if I kept it up? No . . . but it did amount to something, and I’m still just starting out. A small, but consistent change in your life now, can turn into huge changes in your life further down the line - you just have to stick to it.
The second piece of advice is here: create your own luck. I can’t count on ten fingers how many times I’ve been told “you need to be lucky”, and though it’s undoubtedly true, I hate hearing it. I thought you couldn’t control it, and whether I’d get published or not wasn’t even dependant on me. Wow, was I wrong? Yes, it’s A LOT about luck, but you need to stick your neck out at every minuscule (or huge) opportunity. If I hadn’t watched that seminar, I wouldn’t be published. If I didn’t go to that film shoot, I’d never met my producer. You can create your own luck by always trying, and not fearing failure. Who cares about failure? At least you’re trying. That’s what I think, at least.
Anyway, other than that, I’m an electrical engineer and work out from time to time. I’m living with my girlfriend of ten years in our house and own two lovely, fragile, little dogs. That’s me. Thanks a lot for reading.