Whether fresh out of college, five years out of college, or gathering that spoiled-fruit funk near the ten year-mark, it's a sure thing you've had your head kicked by some stubborn mule in corporate middle-management. Look, it wasn't entirely your fault an individual misunderstood what motivated you. You were probably missing the skills to communicate your more passionate, creative aspects, and they were probably tossed into a jackal-cackling rush to avoid something costly about you they didn't get.

That's the key ingredient to personal motivation in all generations of workers: people and businesses who NEED content aren't competent judges of content.

There's no better time than now to slam a bridle on what you're passionate about and ride that animal till it collapses, especially if it's creative- or content-focused. Here's what you need to know about making money off what jerks begrudgingly admit is important...

I've been systematically informing the YouTube recommendation algorithm that I never want to watch any video posted by anyone with the word "angry" in their username. You can imagine how neckbeards have fallen to my sword of disinterest. You can imagine a little harder, and figure there's not a drill-bit sharp enough to bore through all that toxic content. Sunlight will never find these deserving motherfuckers.

Too much content is created out of a desire to be heard, instead of a desire to know and be known. Too much content is about other content, this very post of mine included (which is why I write free books to read online during my nights and weekends).

To be blunt, the internet's content, the perpetual doggo chasing its tail, has now deep-throated the thing and is molars-deep into its own ass, ignorant to the ashy flavor. The dominant moods on the most popular content platforms are psychosis, shrieking, and self-preservation.

But with a little class, we can push beyond the slick, post-content Netflix alternative environment into something more honest and weird. So, how did Blomkamp do...?

Most villains are aware of the world's status quo. They either love it or hate it.

Open your mind to the fearful, hateful creatures that will do anything to keep themselves comfortable.

In Suns Go Dark, I wanted to explore the older generation's fear of losing their palatial comfort, and passing that fear down to the young workers laboring on the sun-farms as their predecessors once did.

A reader sits alone. They usually read alone. The simplest way to enter a story, particularly a work of fiction, is alongside a protagonist: a heroic guide character.

Stories with more than one lead protagonist are less common. The reader might not be sure which to align with and the writer will struggle to favor one over the other.

I welcomed this challenge for Suns Go Dark. Science fiction is about perspective and two leads means twice as much perspective. Most of Ghost Little's free books to read online have multiple protagonists, but that's a matter of narrative structure zig-zagging later in the story for a look into how the other half lives. Suns Go Dark favors two protagonists from the very beginning.

How do we write that into the sci-fi world? Check this out...

After debating character motivations for our free books to read online in the prior series installment, I want to shift attention to the novel's potential character interaction tropes.

We know our primary protagonist is tasked with co-existing alongside what is in most regards the protagonist of a young-adult dystopian novel, complete with caste-system rules and high school allegories. But we're faced with a question: is the "experienced person has to transport important other person" trope played out? What's the gender balance in that? If the protagonist is a man and the invincible, shouldn't-be-possible recruit is a woman, is that bad?

It depends on context and character motivations within the environment...

Now that we have a plot outlined, let's examine the best type of protagonist for the story's environment.

A simple way to start: what is exceptional about our protagonist if he / she is not a Chosen-One or a Messiah? If we're writing a free book to read online, does the audience demand a certain gravitas from their protagonist? Don't we all want to manipulate the world's very axis?

Well, if not, why is it important that our protagonist is even involved with the story's shifting world...?

The brainstorming process for discovering Ghost Little's far-reaching science fiction novel, Suns Go Dark, began with a literal dream a girl had.

From that kernel of a dream, I explored its viability as a large epic, as a short story, or as a simpler free book to read online, but in any case, it would tie into the rest of the larger story arc spread across the other books.

In time, I discovered Suns Go Dark was the governing themetic force linking these stories together. But how did it go from dream to page?

The Dark Tower is an inaccessible magnum opus of imagination and insignificance. It's probably a tricky pitch for a movie, as well. In fact, I recall the potential for a movie adaptation news motivating my initial read of the text.

And, yes, that marathon session through the series roughly ten years ago revealed:

1. This is a story structured around the terrifying idea of an endless universe
2. This is a story about writing as a craft
3. Because of the first two things, it's a wickedly difficult series of books to pitch as a mega-big Hollywood movie (let alone properly adapt into a movie)

But how does The Dark Tower teach us how to write stories, how to write characters, and how to write worlds...?

In the animated .gif to the side here, you'll observe a hundred-million dollar rendering of King Kong whipping a freak-beast with a boat propeller attached to a chain.

This is from the film Kong: Skull Island. It's so dumb. I loved it. But the movie's also a living embodiment of culture-as-a-franchise (or, CaaF, which I just made up).

Thousands of people spent insane cash to put a bet on movies like Kong: Skull Island. Interfacing with this sort of entertainment is exhausting.

How do we counteract this trend? We go low-tech. We go local. We enjoy indie bands. We discover free books to read online. We pull our heads out of the sand...

Writing and self-publishing a novel in roughly 25 days isn't out of the question. Now, that writing and publishing milestone isn't going to make any modern writer a single red cent. Nevertheless, posting a working "beta" draft, something that may become a novel and people may one day pay to read, must become measurable.

I've approached this declarative moment.

Ghost Little has built a living document, a library of free books to read online, tailored to modern reading habits and written with digital distribution at its foundation.

This is how to write a short novel and how indie authors can get their work out there.