Harry Dresden's Advice To Writers

by Bert Carson

Harry            Jim           James             Paul 

All writing is inspired.  I don't use the term inspired in a metaphysical, spiritual, out-of-body, context.  I simply mean that something always prompts a writer to write.  Period.

In the case of this blog post, Jim Butcher inspired me with a short message he added to the audio version of his fourth Harry Dresden Book, Grave Peril.  I've not heard anything like that message in an audio book, and I was pretty impressed - inspired to do two things:  First, to do the same thing in my audio books, and second, to share the idea with you.

Here's the source of the inspiration and the first chapter of the book, thanks to Joy and June of Buzzy Multimedia.  Listen after Jim's message, to James Marsters, and be amazed as he becomes Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden.

I didn't find Jim Butcher and Harry Dresden in a book store, at Amazon, or even by word-of-mouth.  I found The Dresden Files on Amazon, in the Prime Movie section of the site.  I was in need of fresh video blood, so I decided to give it ten minutes.  Now, Christina and I have watched the entire solo season twice, and we're about three episodes into watching it a third time.  For me, Paul Blackthorne, who plays Harry, brings the character to life perfectly.  Christina and I might be the only people who feel that way, since it was gone after one season.  However, I feel so strongly about it, I decided to share a bit of it with you.

Here's the point of this post, the primary one.  Jim Butcher created Harry Dresden, and on their own, the fourteen books of the series have built a large fan base.  Then Joy and June of  Buzzy Media put together the team of James Marsters, Jim Butcher and Harry Dresden, and created amazing Audible Books of The Dresden Files.  

Somewhere along the line, Nicholas Cage got involved and produced the one season series.  And the point is, it took a team, whose members come from California, Missouri, England, and North Carolina, to get Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden in front of me, but it happened, and in this high tech, scattered attention world in which we live and write, that's what it took. 

Maybe its time to by-pass the search for an agent, who will look for a publisher, and maybe find one, and instead find someone who believes in us, our writing, and our character; someone who will put together a team to take our Harry Dresden to the world.

Bert Carson