TG Geeks Webcast Episode 384
The Two Gay Geeks 🏳️🌈 have a chat with Zachry Wheeler, author of The Immortal Wake Series, the Max and The Multiverse Series, Max and the Multiverse Shorts, and Puki Horpocket Presents Series of which he has a new entry to chat about. A Phil Short. And if you are familiar with Phil, you are probably as excited as we are to hear about this. This was great conversation as always with Zachry, who we have dubbed the heir apparent to Douglas Adams. Have a listen and we hope you enjoy this as much as we did.
About Zachry Wheeler
The first thing I can say about my writing history is that I never intended to be a writer. I went to college to become an accountant, and I wish there was a punchline to follow that statement. I made it through half the curriculum before caving to boredom and switching to Computer Science (no offense to the ledger jockeys). Luckily, all of my classes counted as elective credit, so it wasn’t a giant waste of time. I remember sitting in class thinking, “If this what my life will be like, I might as well end it now.” Thank goodness I had the keen insight to switch to a more exciting career in, um … programming.
I graduated in the late ’90s. Yup, I left college with a computer degree right before Y2K. At the time, big-tech companies were handing out jobs to anyone who could spell “computer.” I also had the extreme foresight (blind-ass luck) to teach myself web development as it was gaining momentum. I oopsie-doodle back-flipped into a solid career.
That’s when my writing life began, but I didn’t know it at the time. Most people think that programming is just staring at code all day. And in a sense, it is. But, there are a lot of other tasks that go along with it, including a large bolus of technical writing. Think documentation, wikis, manuals, etc. At a baseline, most competent programmers are actually decent writers. They need a strong grasp of language in order to do their jobs. It takes a certain amount of editorial skill to translate blocks of machine code into meaningful user instruction. That’s why Technical Writing is its own career. The good ones are worth their weight in gold because they alleviate a lot of user confusion and training costs.
This is why I can say that I have been writing professionally for longer than I’ve been a writer. It took me a while to realize that coding was writing, which also gave me the tools to develop my own writing platforms. I have owned and operated several online ventures, everything from review sites to news outlets. I didn’t recognize it at the time, but I had crafted a bypass to the reputation grind. I had the next best thing: a killer web presence.
When I decided to write fiction, I already had the basic tools. I still needed to learn hooks, structure, provocation, etc. You know, the things that make books interesting as opposed to sleeping aids. The first draft of my debut novel Transient actually read pretty well as a thesis on vampire biology, but the story lacked pacing and plot. It sucked, in other words, which kind of defeated the purpose.
That’s when my writing career began to take shape. I started learning more and more about the craft. I read constantly and devoured every pro tip I could find. The most exciting moment came when I was reading a book and could actually critique it. “This writing sucks and this is why it sucks.” (I was reading my own book, but that’s beside the point.) I had gained the insight I needed to write decent fiction. I was by no means at a Douglas Adams level, but I finally had momentum and I’ve ridden it ever since.
That’s what writing is to me, a never-ending battle of brain-melting masochism. It’s a skill you never truly master, which I find endlessly appealing. I enjoy learning new things and writing offers a bottomless pit of improvement. My appetite shows no signs of abating, so I hope to continue this journey for many years to come. Few things are more rewarding than a happy reader,
About Zachry Wheeler
The first thing I can say about my writing history is that I never intended to be a writer. I went to college to become an accountant, and I wish there was a punchline to follow that statement. I made it through half the curriculum before caving to boredom and switching to Computer Science (no offense to the ledger jockeys). Luckily, all of my classes counted as elective credit, so it wasn’t a giant waste of time. I remember sitting in class thinking, “If this what my life will be like, I might as well end it now.” Thank goodness I had the keen insight to switch to a more exciting career in, um … programming.
I graduated in the late ’90s. Yup, I left college with a computer degree right before Y2K. At the time, big-tech companies were handing out jobs to anyone who could spell “computer.” I also had the extreme foresight (blind-ass luck) to teach myself web development as it was gaining momentum. I oopsie-doodle back-flipped into a solid career.
That’s when my writing life began, but I didn’t know it at the time. Most people think that programming is just staring at code all day. And in a sense, it is. But, there are a lot of other tasks that go along with it, including a large bolus of technical writing. Think documentation, wikis, manuals, etc. At a baseline, most competent programmers are actually decent writers. They need a strong grasp of language in order to do their jobs. It takes a certain amount of editorial skill to translate blocks of machine code into meaningful user instruction. That’s why Technical Writing is its own career. The good ones are worth their weight in gold because they alleviate a lot of user confusion and training costs.
This is why I can say that I have been writing professionally for longer than I’ve been a writer. It took me a while to realize that coding was writing, which also gave me the tools to develop my own writing platforms. I have owned and operated several online ventures, everything from review sites to news outlets. I didn’t recognize it at the time, but I had crafted a bypass to the reputation grind. I had the next best thing: a killer web presence.
When I decided to write fiction, I already had the basic tools. I still needed to learn hooks, structure, provocation, etc. You know, the things that make books interesting as opposed to sleeping aids. The first draft of my debut novel Transient actually read pretty well as a thesis on vampire biology, but the story lacked pacing and plot. It sucked, in other words, which kind of defeated the purpose.
That’s when my writing career began to take shape. I started learning more and more about the craft. I read constantly and devoured every pro tip I could find. The most exciting moment came when I was reading a book and could actually critique it. “This writing sucks and this is why it sucks.” (I was reading my own book, but that’s beside the point.) I had gained the insight I needed to write decent fiction. I was by no means at a Douglas Adams level, but I finally had momentum and I’ve ridden it ever since.
That’s what writing is to me, a never-ending battle of brain-melting masochism. It’s a skill you never truly master, which I find endlessly appealing. I enjoy learning new things and writing offers a bottomless pit of improvement. My appetite shows no signs of abating, so I hope to continue this journey for many years to come. Few things are more rewarding than a happy reader,
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