5 Reasons Why Every Fiction Writer Should Own at Least One Bitcoin

photo courtesy Daily Express

This is the article you won’t see anywhere else but here on Medium. The topic is, however, worth writing about because owning Bitcoin can be a very lucrative venture, however risky. On the other hand, you know what else is risky? Writing fiction on spec. I’ve hit a bunch of the bestseller lists and even had three separate titles hit either number one on the Overall Amazon Bestseller List or No. 2. One book stayed there for weeks. I’ve won the major awards and sold hundreds of thousands of books, and still, I can’t count on having a steady writing career going forward, anymore than I could count on it back when I started in the mid-1990s.   

Maintaining a successful writing career doesn’t only take talent, it takes a whole lot of luck. This is another way of saying, being a success is never a sure thing, even when you are a success (see what I did there?). I don’t know about you but when I get on a plane, I don’t count on making it to my destination because the pilot is currently going through a streak of good luck. I’m more comfortable with a sure thing.  

How do you guarantee success as a fiction writer? How do you bypass luck by inventing a sure thing? Creating and maintaining as many income streams as possible, that's how.

Enter Bitcoin. 

I’d first heard about the cryptocurrency back in 2015 or so, around the time it was starting to shoot up to great financial heights. Having started out at its inception ten years ago at a net worth of pennies per coin, it shot up to almost $20K in value in just seven short years. Of course, that high eventually fell to around $3K last December/January. That’s precisely when I got in, purchasing one full coin.

Since that time, my coin(s) has more than doubled in value. Despite its volatility, Bitcoin has most definitely proven its worth as an asset and not the Ponzi scheme so many people believe it to be. I’m such a believer in the new, decentralized, currency, I know in my bones that one day it will provide life changing wealth. I can’t say the same thing about writing crime thrillers, sadly.  

All that said, here’s why I invest in Bitcoin. And remember, I’m no financial analyst and this isn’t to be taken as financial advice. This is merely presented here as an FYI and something to be discussed in the comments below if you are so inclined.

1.      Volatility. You might assume that volatility is a bad thing for an investment. If it suddenly loses all its value, you can find yourself flat broke. But not with Bitcoin. The old adage of buy low, sell high has never been more applicable. I keep one account where I hold or hodl Bitcoin by dollar cost averaging a certain affordable amount once per week, and another where I sell my highs and buy the dips. It’s this latter account that often pays my monthly rent. It’s not unusual for me to make $100 per day on average, depending on the asset’s mood swings. 

2.      Decentralization. Although it’s important you pay your taxes on your gains, the government is slow on the draw when it comes to regulating the block chain and crypto. It’s the perfect asset if you wish to live off-grid since there’s no third party interference like banks. Sure, this might make it attractive to crooks, but crooks like cash too. 

3.      Limited Supply. Did you know that the dollar is worth 30% less than it was in the year 2000? That’s right. Since Tricky Dicky removed the dollar from the gold standard back in the early seventies, it has continually lost value on an annual basis. What this means is, just keeping money in the bank for a rainy day is a sure way to eventually go broke. Bitcoin on the other hand has no choice but to increase in value since it’s only available in limited supply. In April/May of 2020, the existing amount of the Bitcoin will be halved, and theoretically anyway, this should create a price spike.

    

4.      Access. Unlike traditional stocks/bonds, Bitcoin is traded day and night, 365 days per year. It doesn’t take Christmas off. If you’re in the mood to make a trade in the middle of the night, go for it. It doesn’t keep bankers hours either. Should your car suddenly need a $500 repair, you can sell some Bitcoin and, depending on your exchange, the asset can be converted into cash almost immediately. You can't say the same about selling stocks. 

5.      Wave of the future. In this author’s humble opinion, Bitcoin and a select few other cryptos will be the currency of the future while worthless fiat currencies gradually get phased out (see comment no. 3). The banks will fight it of course, and so will the government to a degree. But in my mind, at least, Bitcoin’s future is set in stone. Look at this way: who would have guessed that we could do our banking, watch a movie, read a book, take our blood pressure, find directions in a foreign city, create our own online TV show, trade stocks, and so much more from palm-sized device that fits in the pocket of our Levis just fifteen years ago.

Like I said, I’m no financial analyst and what I offer up here could be all wrong by next month. I still invest in gold, silver, and other more traditional assets. But from a personal perspective, I see Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like it, exploding in popularity once mainstream brokerages begin adopting it. But that will be a bit of a bummer too because it will mean that there will be less volatility in the cryptosphere.

So, if you’re an author who is always looking for ways to increase your bottom line without taking away from your writing time, check out Bitcoin. Do the research, and if it all looks good to you, dive right in. Think of it like the Internet back in the mid-1990s. Some people saw the enormous life changing potential in it, and yet many others thought of it as a fading fad.

“Who’s ever going to read a book or an article on a computer screen?” they laughed.

Me, I’m laughing, all the way to the bank (the digital banking app on my smartphone, that is).   

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

How to Write a Novel in 30 Days

Getting in my 2000 words in Thailand

Yes it’s possible to write a novel in 30 days and still have lots of time left on your hands. You just have to be disciplined.

You hear all the time about the writers who take, or took, years to write a single, 60K word novel. They sweated over every single word, toiled over every sentence, lost sleep over every paragraph, only to toss the whole damn thing out in the end. This is a sad state of affairs during any era, but in this, the new golden age of fiction writing, it is downright tragic.

The Need for Proliferation

Readers…serious serial readers…crave content. I’m talking the readers who can devour a book or sometimes two books per day. These are the people writers like me are targeting. The readers who will read my books as fast as me and my various publishers can put them out. Relatively speaking, there aren’t that many serial readers out there, but all you need is a fraction of them who read (or listen in the case of audio books) all your stuff in order to make a very nice living.

The Need to Write Fast

Proliferation not only takes talent, it takes speed. But speed, my friends, is relative. I know authors who are penning not one book per month, but two and even three, plus writing blogs and articles in their spare time. Many of these authors have families and perhaps part-time jobs. So where do they find the time to write so many books? They don’t find the time. They make the time.

How to Write a Novel in 30 Days

Time for some math (or maths as the Brits like to say). A single, double-spaced page of copy contains approximately 250 words. Four of those pages will get you 1,000 words. First thing I do when I wake up in the morning, is grab the coffee, sit down and write about 1,000 new words on average, meaning sometimes it’s 750 words, and other times, 1250. But you get the point.

The writing session usually takes me an hour to an hour and a half. I take little breaks in between to heat up my coffee, or just go outside and breathe the fresh air. When that hour and a half session is done, I go for a short run and lift some weights. That also takes me about an hour and a half. After that, I’ll shower up, and sit back down at my desk where I’ll write maybe another 500 words. This takes me into lunch time.

Lunch is usually enjoyed at my desk, where I’ll write another 250 to 500 words. When that’s done, I like to break for a quick nap. The nap is essential in that I feel like a brand new man when it’s done (I don’t really sleep. It’s more like entering into a meditative state). Back at my desk with a brand new cup of coffee by my side, I will either complete my 2,000 words, or if they are already done, I might write a few more just to get ahead so that perhaps I can take Sunday off. Or, I’ll edit the words I’ve already written along the way.

Speaking of the editing process…

Edit as You Go

For me, writing a novel in a month’s time requires that I edit my words as I write them. This provides me with two advantages over those who simply plow through a first draft. It not only allows me to write semi-error free, tight sentences the first time around, it also keeps my literary train on the tracks, rather than veer off the rails into a place my story has no business of going.

Which leads me to…

Outline as You Go         

I’m not necessarily a pantser nor do I rely on detailed outlines. This is art after all, and art has a way of taking over and going where it will if you don’t reign it in, within reason that is (see the above metaphor about going off the rails). But like Hemingway once said, what’s the best way to ensure that come the next morning, you’ll be able to carry on with your story? It’s by knowing what’s going to happen next.

That said, not only do I stop for the day in a place where I know what’s going to happen next, I outline along the way by jotting down two or three story points that will keep the narrative flowing come the following morning. Do that consistently and you will never ever have to worry about writer’s block again.

And in The End

If you’ve stuck to your 2,000 word per day schedule. If you’ve been disciplined enough to edit what you’ve written every single day, if you’ve outlined along the way, then by day 30 (or perhaps even sooner), you will have completed your novel.

So what do you do with the rest of your time?

Write some articles for the Vox. 

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

 

A Case of the Mondays

Photo courtesy Quartz

Anyone who’s ever watched the 1999 movie, Office Space, knows just how dreadful and soul sucking a day job can be. Being ball-and-chained to a small cubicle for eight and half hours per day is, to many people, a form of slavery. But hey, unless you’re independently wealthy, everyone’s got to work. We have to eat, right? We have bills to pay.

Too bad most Americans are said to be only $400 away from being flat broke, meaning, they not only live paycheck to paycheck, they can’t afford it when their car breaks down or the refrigerator goes on the fritz. If that’s not depressing enough, you’re still expected to show up for work on Monday morning.

A Case of the Mondays

In Office Space, the main character Peter, played by actor Ron Livingston, is so depressed after having arrived at his dull, soul sucking job on a Monday morning, he decides to skip out for a coffee along with a couple coworkers. They visit a nearby cheesy chain establishment, Chotchkies, which is sort of like TGIF Fridays on steroids. Like Fridays, the staff is not only expected to where an obnoxious uniform covered in “flair,” their attitude must be over-the-top happy.

The server Peter and his buddies get is just one such individual. As they sit down, the server, Brian, played by actor, Todd Duffey, plants a broad, if not obnoxious smile on his face. It’s a direct contrast to the gloomy, upside down faces seated around the table.

“Looks like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays,” Happy Server Brian says.

I’m not going to give away too much of the movie’s plot, but suffice to say, from that point on, Peter is determined to find a way not only to get rid of his job, which is presided over by his evil boss, William Lumbergh (Gary Cole), he wants to find a means of employment that will allow him to do nothing at all, every day, all day.

Maybe Peter didn’t realize at the time, but what he's talking about is passive income.

Writing as Passive Income

One of the main reasons I got into freelance writing and fiction writing in the first place was to avoid a day job. I was groomed to run an industrial and commercial construction company. Immediately after college, I was given a week off and told to report to the office. There was no backpacking in Europe with my friends, no heading to New York City to land a job perhaps as a cub reporter, no heading cross country to find my fortune on my own terms…no fun of any kind.

I was to report to the office and begin my apprenticeship as a junior executive. Here’s how the first year went: I hated every minute of it. Now this is not to come down on what many people would consider the opportunity of a lifetime, and it was. But the problem was, I knew in my bones the career wasn’t for me. I couldn’t stand being cooped up in an office all day checking packing slips and asking for quotes on windows and doors. It wasn’t my cup of tea.

Emotionally speaking, here’s how a typical week would go. Monday morning is a horrible experience exacerbated by lack of sleep, anxiety over what the day will bring, and the empty feeling of utter hopelessness since at that moment in time, another Friday seems like an impossible dream.

By Tuesday you loosen up a little and resign yourself to the job. By Wednesday you see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thursday you’re starting to feel like you’re gonna make it after all. Friday you’re exuberant. Friday night you get drunk with the friends, and you do so again on Saturday. By Sunday the hangover kicks in and by Sunday night you’re miserable once again because guess what day dawns in the morning?

Rediscovering Hemingway

In my spare time, I read all the books I couldn’t read or didn’t have the time to read during my undergraduate years. I was especially fond of the Hemingway novels and short stories. I also got heavily into the Hemingway biographies, especially the Carlos Baker biography which, at the time, was considered the quintessential work on the adventurous author.

I loved it. 

I wasn’t halfway through with the big book when I realized, this is the life for me. Hemingway didn’t just write, he lived the life he was writing about. He lived in Paris, went to the bullfights in Spain, hunted lions in Africa, fished on the Gulf Stream, married a very rich lady, built a house in Key West, and what’s more, he never had a real job other than a few short years as a full-time newspaperman.

The Hemingway life was the life I wanted to experience. When the realization sank in, it was like a big bright light had gone off inside my brain and my heart. I felt lighter than air because I had found my true calling. It must have been what a priest experiences when he finally discovers his sacred mission in life. 

I didn’t waste any time. That day I announced to all my friends that I was giving up the construction business to be a writer. 

They all laughed at me. 

Proving the Naysayers Wrong

Proving the naysayers wrong would not only take determination, it would take guts and a willingness to start at the bottom. After all, back then, I had more enthusiasm than talent. I started writing on the side. Taking a cue from the great Hemingway, I got a job at the local Times Union Newspaper writing sports stories on the weekends. I also started freelancing for them. Stories ranging from fly fishing for trout and bass, to travel pieces, to book reviews. 

Again, like Hemingway, I tried my hand at writing some short stories. Before long I found myself getting published in journals like the Maryland Review, Fugue, Old Hickory Review, Buffalo Spree, Orange County Magazine and many more. My journalism was getting published in New York Newsday and Hudson Valley Magazine, and I would be accepted into the prestigious Bread Loaf Writers Conference in Vermont. I was working hard, but I was also making a little money and, more importantly, making my way as a literary neophyte. 

That’s when I applied to Vermont College for my MFA in Writing. I was accepted. Suddenly, my friends were no longer laughing at me. 

Back to a Case of the Mondays

There was no stopping me. I plowed through writing school like a man possessed and in the process sold a novel that would fetch a very major deal. And while that deal would have its issues, I would never again work a real job. That was over twenty years ago. The writing life has had plenty of ups and downs since then, but I can still wake up on Monday mornings, and if I so choose, roll over and go back to sleep. What’s more, I can do this in Italy if I want, as easily as I can do it here in New York. Books sales, for the most part, are a passive income monster. You sell books while you’re sleeping or, like Peter from Office Space aspires to, while you’re doing absolutely nothing at all.

Come to think of it, I’ve worked really hard for the right to do nothing.

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