{"id":31,"date":"2009-09-14T06:45:39","date_gmt":"2009-09-14T11:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/?p=31"},"modified":"2009-09-14T06:45:39","modified_gmt":"2009-09-14T11:45:39","slug":"biology-101-to-writing-101-or-who-is-this-christopher-guy-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2009\/09\/14\/biology-101-to-writing-101-or-who-is-this-christopher-guy-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"Biology 101 to Writing 101 (Or: Who is this Christopher Guy, Anyway?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I never thought I\u2019d be a writer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always thought I’d be a biologist<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

While I always loved reading and making up stories, I thought my adult years would find me studying bears or wolves as a wildlife biologist. I remember the moment I decided that’s what I’d be: my father and I were watching a nature show on PBS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“That’s what I want to do when I grow up!” I said.<\/p>\n

I was 10 years old.<\/p>\n

The Best Laid Plans…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Advanced college chemistry classes put an end to my biology studies. When I was 20, I switched from studying biology to English, deciding that I wanted to teach high school.<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way, writing happened.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Comic Books<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of my best friends at the time was an artist who wanted to illustrate comic books. I worked on a comic book script, my friend illustrated the story, and we submitted it for publication.<\/p>\n

My first writing submission was accepted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the years that followed, I wrote independent comic books. I met my wife — an artist — while working for a small comic book publisher. I supported myself for several months making up stories.<\/p>\n

Writing was a pretty nifty thing to fall into.<\/p>\n

A Change in the Script<\/strong><\/p>\n

Independent comic books rarely pay the bills, though. Familiar with script writing, moving to screenplays seemed like a natural leap.<\/p>\n

The problem with screenplays: everybody has one.<\/strong> Or two. Hell, some people have a pile <\/strong>of the things! Competition is fierce, and living outside of Los Angeles reduces one\u2019s chances of success even more.<\/p>\n

Still, my first screenplay advanced in the Austin Film Festival\u2019s<\/a> Heart of the Screenplay<\/em> competition. Through comic book contacts, I made a couple studio connections. My first two screenplays were considered by several major studios, but nothing was ever developed.<\/p>\n

Paid to Travel<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following a layoff from my day job that allowed some time off to write, I planned to take a trip to East Texas. Looking through an old book on travel writing I bought in Taos, New Mexico on an old trip, I decided to pitch a travel article to the Dallas Morning News<\/a>. I was surprised by how quickly I heard back, and even more surprised that the paper wanted to see the article after my trip.<\/p>\n

With just a query letter, I sold my first non-fiction piece and was paid to travel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Novel Idea<\/strong><\/p>\n

I also wrote a novel during time off from the day job. The novel was well-received by agents, but they felt it was too quirky for them to market. (It’s a coming-of-age story about a family traveling cross-country in a possessed station wagon.)<\/p>\n

Chatting with one of the agents, I asked what made her consider my novel. I was told my query letter was good, but that it was my non-fiction credits that got attention.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve received more attention as a writer with newspaper and magazine clips than any awards or fiction credits. I’ve followed other writers<\/a> who went from writing articles professionally to writing novels professionally.<\/p>\n

That Juggling Thing<\/strong><\/p>\n

I currently juggle my time as a technical editor (aviation), writing articles and Web content, and working on fiction. I don’t make a living as a fulltime writer; I work a day job and supplement my income with writing.<\/p>\n

I hope The Juggling Writer<\/em> helps others doing the same thing; I hope this blog will become a place where we can share what works, what doesn’t, and plenty of successes.<\/p>\n

So…that\u2019s who I am.<\/p>\n

Who are you?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I never thought I\u2019d be a writer. I always thought I’d be a biologist. While I always loved reading and making up stories, I thought my adult years would find me studying bears or wolves as a wildlife biologist. I remember the moment I decided that’s what I’d be: my father and I were watching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}