WRITE, PUBLISH, REPEAT. By :ilichulic Brown By his junior year, John Ashley had already written and published a science fiction series, "The Xavier Series," and started his own freelance writing company. Ashley began writing his first novel when he was 12 years old. He said he was most productive with writing his novels in the middle of the night. ''I'm a night owl, so I write from about 9 o'clock at nightto 3 o'clock in the morning," Ashley said. "I can write about 1,000 words an hour, and an average novel is about 60,000 to 80,000 words, so really it only takes about two work weeks." The science fiction books followed futuristic scientists who discovered a new planet with resources for human life. Problems arose when the scientists realized the planet was already inhabited. According to Ashley, after finishing the first novel, the biggest challenge was getting it published. He decided to self-publish his novels but hired a professional formatter and cover artist. "I average about 20 to 30 downloads a day, so it's weird to think that every day there are people that are reading what I've written," Ashley said. Senior Jared Ogburn and junior Hunter Yeats, friends of Ashley, both read all of his novels and worked for his freelance company as writers. Ashley and Yeats were also roommates their freshman year. "It was neat getting an autographed copy and just knowing that my roommate wrote these," Yeats said. In his freelance company, Ashley wrote for companies and organizations that needed website content but did not have the time nor resources to write for themselves. Ashley hired several other students to work under him as writers. "I've done my fair share ofwriting, and I enjoy writing as well," Ogburn said. "(John has) seen a couple ofthe pieces that I did, and he liked what he saw. I love doing it. I wrote about two to three articles a week. They pay pretty well for an article, and it's nice to come away with a little extra cash at the end of the week." Although both Ogburn and Yeats agreed not every article they wrote was interesting, Yeats said he enjoyed writing about contemporary issues. "One of my favorite ones was on the psychology of 'going viral,"' Yeats said. "I just did some research about how videos and products go viral and how they spread on social media, so that was interesting." Ogburn and Yeats both said they enjoyed working for Ashley. "John is an excellent character, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he's going to do in the future," Ogburn said. "He's probably going to be a name that you hear popping up." Junior John Ashley stczrted writing the first hook in hisfour-hook series, "The Scrolls of Xcwier. ·· ut the age of 12. I Photo hy Owen Brnwn I :t O PEOPLE
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