Ken Fite

When comedian Chris Rock starts to work on a new comedy special, he’ll show up unannounced to a little hole in the wall comedy club called the Stress Factory in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He’ll walk on stage with a yellow pad full of notes and a pen. Rock will test new material, fumble through lines, stop to refer to his yellow pad, and write notes to himself in between laughs or awkward silence to improve the joke.

But this is the process.

This is how you create something new.

If you were there and didn’t know who Chris Rock was, you might think he was an amateur. You might stop paying attention to him. You might even get up and walk out. The material is untested. Eighty percent of what he tries won’t work. He knows this.

But he’ll do it again, forty or fifty more times, until his jokes are the best they can be. Until he’s got enough good material where he can do a Netflix special full of great jokes. Until his new act is so polished that we wonder to ourselves, How does he do it?

Writing a novel is a lot like this.

You show up and work like a mason would, brick by brick.

You write the words, unsure if they’re any good, knowing that’s future you’s problem.

You go through them many more times, revising, deleting, and adding to them until they’re as good as you are capable of getting them. Eventually you’ll publish your book and then you start over again, from the beginning. Fumbling, awkwardly. Amateur hour.

That’s where I am now, at the beginning stages of writing a new book. The beginning is always hard for me. The writing is hard. It might not be very good. The words may end up on the cutting room floor. Or they may get turned into even better words before they’re read. Either way, the words still have to be written. One by one, brick by brick.

When we doubt ourselves, when look up at the mountain of our dreams and we see how far up we’re going to have to climb, there’s one thing we have to remember, and keep reminding ourselves of it like a light we can use to lead our path up to the summit.

We’ve done it before. We can do it again.

I’m making good progress coming up with the next story. My goal is to make it great.

Stay tuned. -Ken

I’ve started a tradition where in January of each year I share with you my what my wall calendar looked like from the year prior. Maybe it’s an accountability thing. Maybe it’s to show you how many blank days there were where I didn’t work on a book. Or maybe it’s to show you that in spite of yourself, you can still reach your goal if you keep trying.

Whatever the reason, here is my calendar, with Xs representing the days I worked on a first draft, and numbers showing the chapters where I went through additional reviews.

Similar to the prior year, you’ll notice a lot of white space in the first few months (I need to do something about that). In my defense, it was a very busy year! This year is turning out much the same as I work on getting the series out in audiobooks soon.

Having just released Blake Jordan #9 a few weeks ago, my plan is to spend the next few days thinking of where the series should go from here, and what could be next. Then I’m going to start writing the first draft for book #10… whether I’m ready or not.

Because just like you, I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Blake Jordan. -Ken

I love New Year’s Eve… not only because it’s my wife Missy’s birthday, but it also marks the end of the year and the start of something new (which we’re all ready for).

For the last few years, December has been a down month for me. But that hasn’t been the case this year. Sure, I’ve taken a little time to rest and recharge, but I’ve also been busy with my new release, ABUSE OF POWER (in case you missed it… it’s out now!).

December is also when I like to reach out to my readers to ask them a few questions…

What do you love about the Blake Jordan series? What do you want to read more of? Last year’s survey responses were so helpful to me. Like TV shows that listen to their fans, your feedback helped me write a story this past year that many of you loved.

Would you please take a moment to complete this year’s reader survey?

I consider your input invaluable to help me write the best stories possible for you in 2023… and you’ll enjoy many hours of reading in return. It’ll be quick, I promise!

Just click here and give me your thoughts. Thank you so much. -Ken

Hey there,

I’m writing a short newsletter again this month because I have exciting news to share and then I need to get back to work: today I finished the final draft of Blake Jordan #9! I’m working on a few last edits, and in a few minutes I’ll send the manuscript to my editor so she can work her magic to help the story come to life.

In the next few weeks, I’ll send you an exclusive cover reveal, along with the title.

Then I’ll reach out again when the new book is ready for you to enjoy.

I can’t wait for you to read this story. I know you’re going to love it.

Thanks again for all of your support. -Ken

Hey there, Happy Halloween!

I always look forward to today. I love walking around with my sons as they go trick-or-treating, watching them have fun as they go door-to-door adding to their stash while I stand back knowing I will be collecting the dad tax on their candy after they fall asleep. It should be a fun night and I’m really looking forward to spending the time with them.

As an update on the new story, I’ve spent the last few weeks working on a lot of things, including Blake Jordan #9. I’m so close to finishing the book, and accomplishing a lot of other personal things I’m working on. When I think about what I hope to do, I think about a quote from a former coworker of mine… one that always puts things in perspective: Hope is not a strategy. So I’m putting a plan in place: to be done by November 30th. Then I’ll give the manuscript to my editor who will need it for about a week to do her magic. Then I’m hoping—no, planning—to have it ready for you to read.

Tomorrow I’ll start the final draft and plan to have good news to share next month. -Ken

It’s been an interesting month, to say the least. Last week I drove over to St. Pete Beach for the annual writer’s conference that I’ve started going to. It was my fourth year and I had a blast hanging out with my author friends, going to all of the writing and advertising sessions, and meeting new people. Missy always drives over on Friday and brings the boys for the weekend to have fun at the beach. Great memories were made!

While at the conference, I kept hearing rumblings about this hurricane called Ian making its way toward Florida. The track even had it making a beeline for St. Pete Beach for a while, so the impending storm was on everybody’s mind. We drove home on Sunday then the next night they evacuated the hotel, so we made it out just in time!

Ian hit early yesterday morning. Before it did, I picked up my mom when there was a lull between two of the feeder bands and managed to get home safely with plenty of food, snacks, and most importantly, coffee. Then we settled in and hunkered down…

Everyone is safe. No damage to our house, except for maybe some shingles we’ll have to get checked out. Lots of flooding at the entrance to our neighborhood, so we’ve been staying put until it recedes some. I’m very thankful. It could’ve been a lot worse!

As far as my new story goes, Blake Jordan #9 is coming along. My update last month was that I had just finished the first draft, and as I type this, I’m almost finished with the second draft. Then I’ll write a third and final draft, then I’ll send the manuscript to my amazing editor. It’s always exciting to see the story start to take shape with each draft.

Thanks to those who reached out to check in this week. I have the best readers! -Ken

I have good news to share: I’ve just spent the last 60 days finishing the first draft of the next Blake Jordan novel! I still need to write the second, third, and final drafts, but having a finished draft I can start working on improving is a great feeling. I’m thrilled!

Most writers aren’t going to tell you this, but I will… whenever I write a new story and see it published and read the reviews, I often think to myself: Can I do it again?

Which has made me do a lot of thinking about habits and how we spend our days. Because when I look at my wall calendar where I mark a big X on each day I wrote, there are a lot of blanks. All of January, all of February, and all of March. Two rows of Xs in April, then two weeks of blanks, all of May is blank, and all of June is also blank.

In other words, I only wrote for two weeks in the first six months of the year…

That’s when I realized, if I don’t act soon, I might not finish my book this year.

July 1st I committed to writing 1,000 words a day, every day, rain or shine, whether I felt like it or not, no matter what was going on, no matter if I knew where I was going with the story, or if I was writing by the seat of my pants. It’s best to plan your work, but if that’s taking too long, I’m starting to learn it’s best to just get started, ready or not.

That was also when my youngest son, who’s really into RL Stine books and can’t believe I met him in New York a few years back, hinted that it would be cool if I wrote a short story for him for his tenth birthday. “Write a book like RL Stine’s,” he’d said.

So in addition to my daily 1,000 word goal for the new Jordan novel, and all of my other daily responsibilities, I wrote ANOTHER thousand words every day for ten days for the “KL Fite” short story, and finished it the night before his tenth birthday. And my son loved the story! Watching him listen to my wife read a chapter every night was one of the best experiences ever as they laughed at some of the events that took place and he begged for Missy to read, “Just one more chapter,” before going to bed. As a writer, when you write what you think is a funny line that makes you laugh, or a clever turn of events, you imagine the reader’s reaction, but you never see it in real time.

Except, in this case, I did.

And it made my heart very happy.

Three years ago, I read a really interesting book called Atomic Habits by James Clear. What stuck with me the most was the idea of the compounding effect. Writing a thousand words today won’t change my life and won’t make much of a difference in a finished novel. But writing a thousand words today, tomorrow, and every day can.

If you want to change something in your life, if you have a big goal you’re not sure how to turn into a reality, try creating a tiny habit, a goal you can reach daily. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish when those daily wins all add up. It compounds.

Tonight, I’m meeting with my editor to tell her about the new story and to make sure I don’t have any plot holes or things to tighten up. Then I’ll start on draft #2. With any luck, I’ll have Blake Jordan #9 ready for you in a few months. Then again, luck has nothing to do with it. When we commit to a tiny daily habit, finishing is inevitable.

I hope you enjoyed the behind-the-scenes how my stories get created, and I hope it inspires you with your own goals. You can do it, too. One tiny habit at a time. -Ken

Just a quick update on Blake Jordan #9. I’ve been making great progress the last several weeks. So much so, I have to be careful with how much I say. I don’t want to jinx myself. But just know it’s coming along and I’m feeling good about the story overall.

When I look at my wall calendar, the one I mark with a big ‘X’ for every day I write a thousand words, I see a lot of blank spaces. Three whole months at the beginning of the year. Then two and a half weeks of Xs, followed by seventy-five blank squares, before I finally got in gear and started showing up every day whether I felt like it or not.

It’s easy to get discouraged when life gets busy and you have nothing to show for it aside from an empty blank square representing the day and a dream you didn’t pursue.

But we have to remember that those blank days did get filled up with something. With helping others, with spending time with our kids, with doing things that were important.

At the same time, I’ve learned that the people who are the most successful weren’t the most talented. They were the ones who kept hacking away, little by little, day by day. One of the greatest character traits is perseverance. People who don’t ever, ever quit.

We might get sidelined. We might get sidetracked. We might have to press pause for a while, but we never give up. Because those with ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance understand one thing: that success is the sum of small efforts done daily.

It’s hard to believe tomorrow will be July already. Every year over the July 4th holiday, I try to take a few days off to reflect on the year so far and how I’m doing with my goals.

Because on New Year’s Eve, we all came up with crazy goals for the year. We said:

“I’m going to lose all of the weight!”

“I’m going to finally write my book!”

“I’m going to make progress on my dreams!”

And then by February, we let our gym memberships lapse…

We wrote a few chapters and gave up when we got stuck…

We made some progress on the dreams in our heart, but allowed life to get in the way.

Don’t feel bad. It happens to all of us. But the difference is, most people don’t worry about the things they promised themselves. Not until the next New Year’s Eve that is.

July 4th is one of my favorite holidays. Not just because of what it represents, but because it takes place pretty much smack dab in the middle of the year. It splits it in two. And that gives us a chance to sit back and take stock of how we’re progressing.

One of my friends posted this on Facebook the other day:

“There are people with certain skills and talents that could make them very successful. But they are terrified of losing the income they are guaranteed. THEY are the biggest risk takers. It’s riskier to bury your talents than it is to use them. A ‘guaranteed’ salary is a set number. Potential is limitless…”

It seems to me that many of us give up on our dreams not because we’re lazy, or busy, or get distracted, but because we’re afraid. Afraid of what the next goal will be if we ever do lose all of the weight, afraid our book won’t be read—or liked—if we do write it, afraid of failing at that thing we dream about, so we instead focus on the dream itself.

But what if we’re wrong?

Don’t believe the lie. Because every year around this time, I’m tempted by it, too. This is around the time I start to doubt myself, when I start to think the book I’m writing isn’t good, when I start to wonder if I have enough time left in the year to realize my dream.

If you have certain skills and talents, it’s your duty… no, it’s your OBLIGATION to use and not bury them. Unused talent offers no advantage over those with no talent at all.

And if you don’t have a talent but you still have a dream? Go after it anyway. The repetition of small efforts will accomplish more than the occasional use of great talents. Most people don’t succeed from their talent. They succeed because they’re relentless.

The year’s halfway over. It’s not too late to do something future you will be so proud of.

We’re all counting on you to use your gifts, or your grit, to see it through.

I’ve been into personal development for many years. When I started work in corporate America, I read Getting Things Done by David Allen. His techniques were amazing. They helped me get so organized at work. I was always on top of my email, I was proactive with getting projects done, I left the office with my to do list done every day. Since then, I’ve probably read 20 plus books on how to get more done with less time.

But that was when life was much simpler. Because since then, a lot has changed…

Now we get way more email than we used to. My iPhone alerts me to new notifications all day every day. I just checked my Screen Time report, and last week’s average daily notifications was 125. If you check your own Screen Time report, I bet it looks similar.

But I can’t play the victim here. Because I also had 175 daily pick ups. Meaning, aside from 125 daily interruptions, on average, I checked my phone 175 times. Every day.

That’s 300 times a day I’m either getting a notification or checking to see if I got a notification. Again, if you think that’s crazy (and I certainly do), you should look at your stats, too. Because I think nowadays we’re all living in a constant state of distraction.

We live in a noisy world. And the place seems to get louder with each passing moment.

***

Last year, I started doing something different. Something to combat the busyness of life. I started choosing a word for the year. For 2021, I chose the word ‘focus,’ because I believed if I just tried hard enough, if I really gave it my all, I’d be able to drown out the ever increasing noise. I could fight through distractions and get important things done.

And it worked. Kind of. I ignored the digital noise that kept getting louder. I pressed on, working harder to get everything done, feeling like I was swimming with baggy clothes but determined to make it to the shore and finish the big important things, like my last novel. With just a few hours to spare to achieve my writing goal for the year, my new book launched on New Year’s Eve. I pulled it off. I hit the deadline. I did it. I was happy.

Then I woke up on January first with the dread of knowing I had to do it all over again.

***

I’ve made some progress on the next book in my series. I’ve written about half of the first act. A good start. To my credit, I’ve had a lot going on this year. It’s one of the busiest ever. Not to mention the noise factor has over modulated and is stuck on the crazy setting. But in all of the busyness, I’ve realized I never chose a word for this year.

Which got me thinking about how I feel the complete opposite of being focused. I feel distracted which shouldn’t be my word for the year but defines the first few months of it.

We’re all addicted to being distracted. We need the dopamine hit of something ‘new.’ And if it doesn’t find us, we’ll go out and find it. For creative people, that’s a problem. We don’t get bored anymore. I don’t know about you, but when I’m bored, that’s when I’m the most creative. Boredom is part of the secret sauce of creating something new.

But what’s interesting is this: the opposite of distraction isn’t focus.

The opposite of distraction is traction.

***

I once heard a football analyst talking about the losing team. He said, “The problem with these guys is they’re not running north/south. Every time they get the ball, they look busy, there’s a lot of motion, but they’re not gaining any traction. Run north/south!”

That’s always stuck with me. Maybe because there’s a lot of wisdom in that. Think about it. How many times have you seen a running back take the ball and run toward the sideline… only to run the clock and waste a down and have nothing to show for it?

Are you gaining any traction with the big important things you want to do this year?

Are you running north/south with a relentless pursuit of getting another first down?

Are you letting yourself be distracted by things that won’t get you to the end zone?

It took five months but I finally figured out what my word for the year is. It’s traction. Because consistent action is the best way to gain traction for the dreams you’re after.

Back when I managed people, when my teams would struggle with being distracted I’d tell them this: slow down so you can speed up. I think it’s time I took my own advice.