I Started A Newsletter

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Everyone says you need a mailing list. I’m not sure if that’s true. But I was banned from Medium a year ago, and YouTube has been shadow-banning my account for political content I posted nearly a decade ago.

If I’d had a list, I could’ve stayed in touch with my readers from Medium. Since I didn’t, I had to start over from scratch — not a great experience. But that’s exactly how the social media overlords designed it.

This time, I want to be at least somewhat prepared. A mailing list seems like a good tool to have.

I don’t expect it to grow overnight. Like I said, I’m starting from almost zero, trying to build my author project. But the goal is to eventually have a tight-knit inner circle — people who support each other online by sharing links, insights, and checking out each other’s projects.

This isn’t meant to be a spammy or scammy thing. I hate spammers and scammers as much as any sane person. For now, I only share links when I’m offering free books or discounted new releases on Amazon. As the list grows, I’ll keep adding more value to the newsletter.

If that sounds interesting, you can sign up here:

Join the Newsletter

I’ve Updated My About Page

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Trying to become an author is now my main online project. I’ve updated my About page to reflect that more accurately. Over the past few days, I also spent some time figuring out how Twitter works. I think posting a weekly progress report there could be an engaging format for readers.

But Twitter moves fast—very fast. Posts get buried quickly. Either they catch attention within ten minutes, or they disappear into the void. There is a Highlights feature, but I doubt many people would scroll through all my weekly reports there. That’s why I’ve decided to link those tweets here on my website on the about page —for easy access and a clear overview of my progress as an author.

I also made some changes to the link structure. Linking to my tutorial channel didn’t really make sense anymore. I’m still doing daily tutorials, but that project runs independently on YouTube without any cross-promotion—so I’ve removed it from the About section.

More adjustments will follow as I continue testing and evaluating what works best on each platform.

For now, my focus is mainly on writing updates on Twitter, producing at least one video essay per week, and publishing my short stories here and on Substack for free. Next up is finding out how Amazon’s in-build promotion methods work. I have an idea about using them to find readers, but I don’t know if it’s going to work.

All these plans might change and evolve, but I hope to have a solid system and publishing schedule set up across all platforms I care about by the end of the year.

I’ll keep you updated here on the blog.

Write Better Books | A Lesson from Red 11

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One of my favorite filmmakers is Robert Rodriguez. I remember watching Desperado as a kid—it instantly became my favorite movie, and to this day, it remains one of the greatest action films out there.

Rodriguez got his start with El Mariachi, the precursor to Desperado. The movie aired on German TV around the same time. I liked it. It was good. Only later did I learn that El Mariachi was his low-budget debut—made without a crew, without a producer, and without any help from Hollywood.

I read Rebel Without a Crew, the book in which Rodriguez details how he made El Mariachi for just $7,000—and how that film opened the doors of Hollywood for him. I couldn’t believe it was possible to create a quality movie on your own, and on such a tight budget, even back in the early ’90s.

Today, things are even more accessible. You can make a solid movie with just a smartphone and an editing app like CapCut—almost for free. All you need is a few friends, a strong idea, and the drive to make it happen.

To prove this point, Rodriguez made another $7,000 movie in 2018 called Red 11.
I watched it yesterday. It’s certainly not a Hollywood blockbuster, but it’s good—especially when you consider it was made on a shoestring budget.

Watch it here:

And here’s the big lesson: If you want to be an artist—a creative, a storyteller—use what you have and just get started. You don’t need to crowdfund your first book. You don’t need a $20 million budget to make a movie. You don’t need a record deal to make music.

With today’s technology and the reach of social media, anyone can be an artist. The gatekeepers are gone. Make your low-budget film. Self-publish your book. Upload your songs to Spotify, your short films to YouTube, and your comedy sketches to Twitter.

Just start. Learn as you go. Improve with each project. And build your audience, your skills, and your income along the way.

I’m Figuring Things Out – No More Transcripts Here

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When I started posting video transcripts from my essay channel here, I thought it would be a helpful addition. But I recently discovered that YouTube now automatically generates transcripts for every video. I have no idea when they introduced this feature—it’s probably been available for quite some time without me noticing. Since the transcript is already provided by default on YouTube, reposting it here doesn’t add any extra value.

So, I’ve decided to stop posting transcripts on this site.

When I launched this blog, my goal was to create a real-time diary of a hobbyist writer trying to build something. That includes learning, making mistakes, and adjusting course along the way. Naturally, that means my approach will change from time to time.

For instance, I originally planned to write weekly posts about storytelling lessons from movies, shows, books, and more. But right now, I’m leaning toward doing that content in video form instead. It helps me reach more people. Just this Monday, I published a video about a storytelling lesson from the movie The Menu, and it reached more viewers on Rumble in two hours than my written post did within an entire week.

I’ve got a bunch of ideas on how to promote my writing and build an audience. Some of them might turn out to be nonsense. That’s part of the process. This blog is a real-time diary, and in real time, there will be plenty of mistakes and course corrections.

The first of those: I’m shifting my focus toward video production and away from regular blogging. But don’t worry—I’ll still keep you posted here about what’s working, what’s not, and what I learn along the way. Yet, video production is my main focus; blogging is only a minor priority, for now.

On George R. R. Martin Addressing the Fans

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So, the master decided to address his fanbase recently. Once again, he had to comment on Game of Thrones. His post quickly turned into a rant about fans ranting about him not finishing the series (source).

I get it. An author can write whatever he wants. And if Martin doesn’t feel like writing the next book in the series, nobody has the right to troll him into doing it.

At the same time, I also understand the fans. They’ve invested their time, emotions, and a significant amount of money into the series. Reading an unfinished series can feel like a wasted effort when there’s no conclusion in sight.

The show on HBO was great — fantastic, even genius — until they ran out of source material and had to “invent” the last two seasons. Was it the showrunners who rushed it all into that strange ending? Or was it actually Martin himself who gave them that ending?

Maybe Martin had already outlined the finale, which the show then used, and after seeing how fans reacted, he became unsure about publishing it in book form. Maybe he even lost interest, because at this point it feels like trying to reanimate a dead horse.

Whatever the reason behind the delay, I believe that an author carries a certain responsibility to bring a series to an end — especially when readers have invested so much and when the story depends on multiple character arcs and major cliffhangers.

You can end James Bond, Reacher, or even Batman mid-series, because most of their adventures are episodic by nature. But ending Game of Thrones halfway through is like ending The Lord of the Rings before Frodo reaches Mordor — or Harry Potter before the final confrontation with Voldemort.

Or to put it differently: It’s like Robert Kraft going to a massage parlor and only getting… a massage.

By not writing the next book, the master is leaving us all with collective blue balls. And that’s the reason he is receiving ridicule under every single one of his posts. The only way to end that would be to sit down and write the damn ending.