Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’m joined by award winning Zoë Archer, the author of Devil’s Kiss, Skies of Steel, Sweet Revenge and Warrior.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

I started writing pretty much right after I learned to read.  But it wasn’t until I won a fiction contest sponsored by a literary magazine that I really started to think of writing professionally.  I started fielding calls from agents, but I was in a PhD program for Literature at the time and had no manuscript to show them. I wound up finishing that program with an MA, and left to get an MFA from the University of Iowa.  Once I had my degree, I came home to Los Angeles, got a day job, and wrote in the mornings (and sometimes at work—shh!). Agent queries were made, and one accepted, then manuscripts were sent out, until one got accepted. That was in 2006, and since then, I’ve had twelve novels and novellas published, with more on the way.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

I’m not sure what it takes to be a writer—talent, definitely.  But persistence and discipline are very important, too.  Maybe I realized I could really make it as a writer not when I won that contest, but when I received rejections and kept going.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

They come from everywhere, but I’m really a fan of history, and there are always stories to tell about the past.  I think I find it a lot more interesting than the present.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

Much of my process involves my husband, fellow romance author Nico Rosso.  He and I talk about an idea—sometimes just an image, sometimes a “what if?”—and flesh it out through lots of discussion and plotting sessions.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

I’ve written in several subgenres within romance, from historical adventure, to paranormal historical, to sci-fi, to steampunk, to straight historical.  The constant for me are strong heroines who often operate outside society’s norms, and the heroes who respect and admire their strength.  Those are the stories I like to tell.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

I’ve written one literary fiction novel under my real name (Early Bright, by Ami Silber), and I’d love, someday, to write historical fiction with perhaps a little less emphasis on the romance.  But I do need that romance element in my writing, so it would never go away entirely.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

Very much so.  I don’t start writing actual pages of a book until I have a solid outline that has the major beats as well as the hero and heroine’s emotional journey.  I’m not shackled to the outline.  Almost always, I deviate from it while in process because I’ll learn things about the characters and the voice of the story that don’t quite work with my initial conceptualization of the plot.  But I’m kind of in awe of people who can write without any outline at all.  I think I’d be frozen if I didn’t know where I was heading.

Plot

How do you build your story?

A lot of it comes from that phase with my husband, where we slowly tease out elements of the plot.  Usually, he’ll propose something, and I’ll do a lot of asking “why,” which we both answer.  Also, since I generally write within a historical time frame, aspects of history shape the plot.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

Or heroine, I should add!  The characters need to have drive and determination, even if they don’t know it or aren’t certain of what they want.  Ambition makes for a very dynamic, strong character.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

She needs to get away from her computer more and leave us alone for a few days.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

It can be pretty extensive, depending on the story and the subject matter.  I seem drawn to writing about things I don’t know much about, so it forces me to research.  But I don’t mind.  I was once a graduate student, and I really do enjoy research.  When I’ve written paranormal, sci-fi, and steampunk, the research comes in the form of worldbuilding, that is, creating the rules that form the foundation of this alternate world.  You can’t put everything on the page, and you shouldn’t, because that would be boring, but just knowing that you know makes a huge difference.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

Historical romance is usually set in the British Isles, but I’d really like to explore other parts of the world.  I already have in some of my books, but I wouldn’t mind continuing to do so.  Or perhaps less written-about time periods in Britain.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

Absolutely.  This is what my husband calls “meta writing,” or the overarching theme or idea behind the story.  It’s critical for me to have a broader sense of what I’m trying to accomplish before actually writing it.  Most of my stories address issues about inequality—between the sexes, classes, races—so that is often present in my mind when I’m plotting and writing.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

I have to say that Bennett Day, the hero from SCOUNDREL, gets off a lot of good zingers.  Some examples:

-“There’s always truth in seduction. That’s why it works.”

-“Do you ever have ordinary days?” she asked as they ascended the stairs.
“Why would I want them?”

-Also from that same book, the expression, “Monkeys in hats.”  When you read it, you’ll understand.

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I’m fortunate enough to write full time, and I don’t have kids, so when my alarm goes off, I get up, noodle around on the internet (hopefully not for too long), have breakfast, then write.  There’s a break for lunch and errands, then back to work.  I do listen to music when I write, both to help get me in the mood and to block out the sounds of leaf blowers and barking dogs.  My husband and I actually share an office, and our desks are eight feet apart (we measured).  He also wears headphones because we have different taste in music, and the musical demands of our stories are also different.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Honestly, that hasn’t happened to me yet (knock on wood).  I hit blocks when it comes to plotting, but not when it comes to new ideas for stories.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I’m going to sound repetitious, but my husband is really helpful here.  He gives me notes on everything I write, so if there’s something not working with a story and I don’t see it, he offers on-point suggestions.  Or if I’m actually writing and hit a block, I’ll run the problem past him and together we work out a solution.  The power of a critique partner!

How do you know when to stop?

I’m on deadline usually, so I can’t hold on to something forever.  I’m actually impatient to turn a book in, so I have to remind myself to slow down and give the piece its due.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Writing is the only way to get something written.  You have to sit down and do it.  The story won’t write itself.  Sounds trite, maybe, but it’s so, so true.  And once you’ve written, don’t stop.  Don’t give up in the face of rejection, no matter how many you receive.  There’s a reason why so many people want to write, but so few do.  Because it’s hard.  But it wouldn’t be worthwhile if it wasn’t difficult.

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

Stick close to my husband.  He’s the one with all the zombie apocalypse plans.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

There are pieces of every book that I absolutely love and feel proud for having written.

What are you working on now?

I’m just finishing up my final Steampunk romance for the series I created with Nico, and then it’s back to the world of Victorian England for my new series for St. Martin’s Press.

I’d like to thank today’s author Zoë Archer for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Zoë Archer is an award-winning romance author who thinks there’s nothing sexier than a man in tall boots and a waistcoat. As a child, she never dreamed about being the rescued princess, but wanted to kick butt right beside the hero. She now applies her master’s degrees in Literature and Fiction to creating butt-kicking heroines and heroes in tall boots. She is the author of the acclaimed BLADES OF THE ROSE series and the paranormal historical romance series, THE HELLRAISERS. She and her husband, fellow romance author Nico Rosso, created the steampunk world of THE ETHER CHRONICLES together. This Spring will see the beginning of her new gritty Victorian romance series, NEMESIS, UNLIMITED.  Zoë and Nico live in Los Angeles.

Visit Zoë Archer Online:

Website:  http://www.zoearcherbooks.com/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Zoe_Archer

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/zoe.archer1

Tumblr:  http://zoearcher.tumblr.com/

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Author Yasmine Galenorn

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by New York Times Bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn, the author of over 30 novels, including the Otherworld series.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

I knew from the time I was three years old that I wanted to “make books.” I began writing short stories before I knew how to print my name. I guess I’m just a born storyteller.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

I always knew in my gut. But I also know that it would take time and a lot of hard work. I never shied off from submitting my work, and I never got shaken by the rejections. Disappointed? Yes. Shaken? No. To me they were badges indicating I was making the effort.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

~Laughs~ Where don’t I get ideas from? They’re everywhere I look, everywhere I turn. From dreams to snippets of conversation I hear in restaurants to a license plate reading “Hunter” to music to…well…everything. I don’t understand NOT being able to find ideas.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

My subconscious is good about moving things around and then dumping the idea into my conscious mind. After that, I play with it. But I’m an organic writer—I don’t plot heavily. The books evolve as I write them, though I do admit to waking up in the middle of the night, cursing, because now I have to get up and write down an idea before it gets away. However, keeping my iPhone by my bed helps—I just use Siri to record notes and email them to myself. The next day, I can usually decipher what I was thinking about. ~grins~

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

Exactly what I’m writing now—dark urban fantasy. A story has to have strong paranormal aspects in it for me to be interested in writing it.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

Other than what I’m writing? I wouldn’t mind exploring paranormal horror, also perhaps some cyberpunk and magic realism.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

I write a 1.5-2 page synopsis for each book and work off of that. Writing series instead of standalones makes it easier for me to build off the prior books. There’s already an ongoing story arc and while each book has its own story, there’s an overreaching plot to the series as a whole.

Plot

How do you build your story?

I’m an organic writer. My books evolve as I write them. I go into a book knowing the highlights, the beginning, the end, but everything else grows as I write and that includes the series story arc as well as the plot/story for each individual book.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

Someone who’s flawed. Who has doubts, fears, failings. Someone who knows they’re up against great odds, and still perseveres. I always preferred Batman to Superman—Superman was too “good” and too invulnerable. I like my heroines/heroes to play in the gray areas, to get kicked down, and then to get up again.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

“Opinionated. Volatile. Magically delicious. Warped. Not G/PG rated. Loves her friends dearly. The crazy cat lady. So type A she gives Bill Gates a run for his money. Takes no prisoners. A mean, mean author who beats up her characters and then expects them to get back on their feet and fight. She likes to play in the dark.”

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

All my books are placed regionally so I know the area. There are also fantasy settings, so I spend some time creating those.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

I love writing regional work and fantasy settings. I don’t see that changing.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

I’m here to give my readers a great adventure, not teach them a lesson. I don’t write with an agenda or a set ‘theme’ though I do notice themes after the fact. One book, I called my “book of broken glass”…another, the theme ended up being “the boys next door are scarier than the monsters coming in from the outside.”

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

~Grins~ A few, yes. Here’s a small sampling:

From Darkling: “Some wounds are forever, I thought.  Even when you drop the baggage, the claim ticket’s still burned into your soul.”

From Bone Magic: “Followed by my Lady and the pack, we ran until the stars burnt themselves out of the sky. We ran until the sun threatened to creep over the horizon. We ran until the madness left us.”

From Night Myst: “And she arose from her deathbed in a gossamer gown, with eyes the color of starlight and hair as black as the night.”

Also from Night Myst: “I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. The faint taste of leather and sweat and passion. And something behind it. Magic rode the currents.  Shadow magic, spider magic, blood magic. The taste of sweet poison and wine.”

And, from Haunted Moon: “Bones are for memories. Bones are to feed the earth and the worms. Bones are not meant to be walking above the ground without flesh and soul attached.”

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I write full time, and have a home office. I get up and start work. I always write in my office, though I may do my thinking elsewhere. I work a 60-80 hour week including writing, research, promo, admin, so my routine is work until I’m done in for the day. And yes, I write to music a lot of the time. Usually hardcore alternative, darkwave, industrial goth, but sometimes Celtic stuff gets in the mix, or a few other genres. Each book has a playlist and—some books back—I began listing the playlists in the back of each book. The playlists are also listed on my website under each individual title.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I don’t get writer’s block. If the story slows, I figure I’ve gotten off track, I go back to where it was flowing and see what happened. But usually, if I stall out, a walk outside, playing with the cats, or watching TV for a little bit will jog things again.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I’m not sure what to say about this. Revisions? I make the revisions that are necessary after talking to my editor, and it usually doesn’t take more than a day. As long as I write the story that needs to be written, as opposed to trying to force it to go in a certain direction, the books flow smoothly. I continue to tighten and refine during the copyediting process when I get the copyedits back.

How do you know when to stop?

I stop when I reach the end. No book will ever be 100% perfect. Many books later, I still think, “I could have tinkered with this word or that. But at some point, you have to let go, and since I write three books a year, I don’t have time to worry the work to death. There will never be perfection and the sooner writers understand and accept that, the better. You do the best you can each time.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Someday may never come. If you want to write, prioritize it, sit down, and do it. Don’t talk your story out. A book means putting words on the paper, not discussing it till the energy is gone. Learn the marketing side of the business—if you want this to be your career, it has to be a business as well as an art. Don’t take dubious shortcuts. Expect to spend several years on honing your craft. Your words are not set in stone, don’t be a prima donna—don’t refuse to learn how to revise and edit your work. Don’t expect instant gratification—pay your dues by putting in the hours and sweat. Learn how to submit and don’t take rejection personally. If you can’t learn how to shake off rejections, you’ll never make it in this business. Not everybody has the talent to be a writer—I’m sorry, but they don’t. But if you keep at it, work your ass off, and love the process, you may find success. If you quit, you’ll fail.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

Nuke ‘em!

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

With each book, my response will be: my latest book.

What are you working on now?

Finishing up Night Vision (book four of the Indigo Court Series) and about to start Autumn Whispers (book 14 of the Otherworld Series).

I’d like to thank today’s author Yasmine Galenorn for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn writes urban fantasy for Berkley: both the Otherworld Series and the Indigo Court Series.  In the past, she wrote mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, and nonfiction metaphysical books.

Yasmine has been in the Craft for over 32 years, is a shamanic witch, and describes her life as a blend of teacups and tattoos.  She lives in the Seattle WA area, with her husband Samwise and their cats.  Yasmine can be reached via her website at www.galenorn.com

Visit Yasmine Galenorn Online:

Website:  http://www.galenorn.com (Galenorn En/Visions)

Blog:  http://www.galenorn.com/Blog (Life on the Fringe)

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/AuthorYasmineGalenorn

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/yasminegalenorn

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Author Pamela Palmer

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by New York Times Bestselling Paranormal Romance writer Pamela Palmer, the author of over a dozen novels, including the Feral Warrior Series, Hearts Untamed and A Blood Seduction.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

Unlike a lot of authors, I had no idea I wanted to be a writer when I was growing up. I dreamed about being an astronaut, which never panned out, but I did get an engineering degree and wound up working for IBM. I was always a reader and a daydreamer and one day one of my daydreams got too involved and complicated to keep in my head. I started typing it into the computer on a whim and the more I got into it, the more I found that I enjoyed it though, admittedly, I had no idea what I was doing. A brand new library had just opened less than a mile from my house and as I perused the shelves and shelves of brand new books, I discovered a whole section on writing—story structure, plotting, characters, dialogue, you name it. It was the first time that I realized that writing was a craft that could be learned, not simply a talent you were either born with or not. I had a lot to learn, but I loved every minute of it and discovered a new career in the process.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

Soon after I finished my first book, I began entering contests for unpublished writers. I did surprisingly well in them and it was the enthusiasm and encouragement of those anonymous contest judges that kept me going while I waited for an editor to take a chance on me.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

Honestly, from everywhere. Everything I see, watch, hear, and read goes into the black box in my head. I tend to think through my fingers, so I type to brainstorm, and when I’m looking for an idea, one invariably pops onto the page through my fingers. Bizarre, I know, but that’s what happens.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

I brainstorm with my laptop on my lap and my fingers on the keyboard, typing notes, exploring story paths, delving into my characters, etc. until I believe I have enough material to start writing. I’ve often written the equivalent of a novel in brainstorming notes before I’ve written the first word of the actual book.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

I adore all things paranormal or fantasy—vampires, shape-shifters, fairies, witches, you name it.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

I’m very happy where I am. The great thing about the paranormal genre is that there are no bounds. If I can conjure it up, I can write it, no matter how far out there I go.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

Yes and no. Despite all the time I spend figuring out my stories, what I end up with is only a very basic structure. The skeleton of the plot. The specifics of the story come to me as I write.

Plot

How do you build your story?

Before I can start writing, I need to know the basics—the characters inside out, the ending, the primary turning points and a number of points along the character and/or relationship arcs. One of the best templates that I’ve found for this is Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! Beat Sheet. http://amzn.to/OOvJy4 If I can complete that template, I’ve got my plot figured out.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

My favorite heroes (and heroines) are characters who face incredible challenges, both internal and external, and ultimately overcome their own greatest fears to save the day (or the world).

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

That I’m a sadistic little… Not really. My characters love me. They’re all much happier, once they’ve managed to survive their time in my books. As they should be.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

Most of my books take place in the Washington, D.C. area, which is where I live, so my research tends to be local. I’ll spend an afternoon driving or walking around the area where the scenes are set. The book I spent the most time researching the setting for was the first in my Vamp City series. The stories take place in a vampire otherworld created as a doppleganger of 1870 Washington, D.C. I thoroughly researched the changes D.C. has seen since then. Fascinating!

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

Ones that require research trips to fun locales. Actually, I love fantasy worlds. While the books I’ve written are all based in our world, I’ve managed to slip some fantasy settings into a number of them, such as the land of Esria in my Esri series and the Crystal Realm (a castle in the clouds) in my Feral Warriors series.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

I usually discover the theme as I’m figuring out the story. It’s rarely something I start out with, though that has happened. Once I know what lesson my main character has to learn, I know my theme.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

Pretty much anything Jag (my Feral Warrior jaguar shifter) says. His language is almost always inappropriate and often foul (so not fit to print here), but he makes me laugh. Honestly, I hear the words in my head and just type it as I hear it. They’re Jag’s words, not mine. Pretty much all dialogue comes to me like that.

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I do have a routine, though my routine tends to evolve and change on a fairly regular basis, and it depends on what phase of the writing I’m in—plotting, first drafting, revising. In full-writing mode, I like/need to start first thing in the morning, which usually means 8:00 or 8:30, and I’ll work until about 9:00 at night. Not all of that is writing. Once I’ve written 4-5000 words, my brain is pretty well mush and I have to turn to easier tasks like blog posts, web updates, answering mail, etc. I write at home, though the exact location changes throughout the day—sometimes the dining room table, sometimes the kitchen sofa, and usually an hour or two on the treadmill desk in my office. I almost always listen to music, instrumentals. My favorite writing music is Keiko Matsui’s moodier new age jazz.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I don’t believe in writer’s block per se, at least not for me. As an ex-engineer, I’m a very analytical person. Over the years I’ve learned a tremendous amount about story structure. If I get stuck, it means I’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere. I can usually take the story apart, figure out what’s not working and why, and put it back together. And then I’m off and running again.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I get out my writer’s tool box and start looking at the character arcs, turning points, act movements, villain’s goals, etc. until I figure out where I went wrong. That said, I tend to write in layers, so the fixing may only be a matter of layering in the emotions, setting/sensory details, etc. that I blew by in the first draft.

How do you know when to stop?

When the book is due to my editor. I could tinker with it forever otherwise.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Understand that genre fiction writers are storytellers, first and foremost. Learn to write as well as you can (and it can be learned), but ultimately it’s all about the story. If you have stories to tell, you can be an author, but it takes a lot of hard work and long hours. Write, write, write, and don’t ever give up!

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

I plan to lock myself, friends, and family in the nearest Target or Wal-Mart. Food, toiletries, bedding, clothing, restrooms, garden supplies to use as weapons, electronics, batteries, books, flashlights. We’ll be set for months.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

Oh, tough question, and I have no idea. What makes any book good is such a matter of opinion and I can never see any of my books clearly. I’m much too close to them. But, then, you didn’t ask which I think is my best book, did you?

The best thing I’ve ever written was probably a note I sent to my step-grandfather soon after college, right after he caused the automobile accident that killed my grandmother. My dad blamed him. And my step-grandfather was at fault. But he certainly hadn’t meant to do it. I sent him a note telling him how sorry I was that he’d lost his wife, that I knew how much he’d loved her, and how much he was going to miss her, and that I was just so thankful that we hadn’t lost him in that accident, too, as we so easily could have. He told me later how much that note meant to him. The right words at the right time, I believe. He was a good man.

What are you working on now?

I’m currently writing the second book in my Vamp City series, the sequel to A Blood Seduction. And once it’s done, I’ll be diving into the eighth book in my Feral Warriors shape-shifter series.

I’d like to thank today’s author Pamela Palmer for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Pamela Palmer is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Vamp City series and the Feral Warriors shape-shifter series. When Pamela’s initial career goal of captaining starships failed to pan out, she turned to engineering, satisfying her desire for adventure with books and daydreams until finally succumbing to the need to create worlds of her own. Pamela lives and writes in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Visit Pamela Palmer Online:

Website:  http://www.pamelapalmer.net/

Blog:  http://pamelapalmer.net/blog/

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/PamelaPalmer

Twitter:  @Pamela_Palmer

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Author Lori Handeland

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by New York Times Bestselling Author Lori Handeland, the creator of over 40 novels, including The Night Creature Series, The Phoenix Chronicles and Shakespeare Undead.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

I always wanted to be a writer but wasn’t sure how to go about that.  I went to college to be a teacher, but while I was student teaching I started reading a book titled: How to Write a Romance and Get it Published by Kathryn Falk.  In it she mentioned Romance Writers of America.  There was a local chapter; I joined and started to learn all the things I needed to know.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

I started writing my first book and entered a contest with the first five pages.  I wasn’t going to because the book wasn’t done.  But I thought, “What could happen?  You win and they want to see the book and you have to say it isn’t done.”  That didn’t sound so bad.  So I entered.  And I won.  And they wanted to see the book.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

No idea.  I just hope they keep coming.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

I usually do a lot of initial scribbling on a yellow pad.  I like to write down all the things that “might” happen.  Then I start writing.  Some of them happen, some of them don’t.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

I’ve always written in several genres, which I enjoy because I think it keeps my writing fresh.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

I’ve always wanted to write a women’s fiction novel.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

No.

Plot

How do you build your story?

I like to use the Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler to plot out the large points of my book.  Otherwise I discover things as I write.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

Courage

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

She wouldn’t leave me alone until she got that book done.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

If I haven’t been there I read several books about a particular place.  I try to find a book with a lot of pictures.  I do internet searches for blogs and such about people who have been to the place.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

I’d like to do more books set in the American West.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

Theme comes as I write.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

I’ve always liked the first paragraph of my urban fantasy novel, Doomsday Can Wait.

A month ago I put a stake through the heart of the only man I’ve ever loved.  Luckily, or not, depending on the day and my mood that wasn’t enough to kill him.

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

Every morning I start my coffee, do my email and begin.  I need to get my desk cleared before I write.  Not sure why.

I have an office in my home.  I need complete quiet, or as close as it gets around here.  No music.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Keep writing.  I can fix crap.  I can’t fix a blank page.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

My rough drafts are very rough.  I need to print out a hard copy and edit.  This is where my English degree at last comes in handy.  I usually do several drafts before sending the book to my editor.  And then I do at least one more incorporating her suggestions.

How do you know when to stop?

I’d keep tweaking forever.  I have to stop when the book is due.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

The only way to fail is to quit.  Keep writing, learning, tweaking, then write some more.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

We have a cabin in the north woods, high on a hill, all entrances seen from the cabin.  I’m headed there.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

At present that would be BEAUTY AND THE BOUNTY HUNTER, the first book in the Once Upon a Time in the West series, which will be released October 2, 2012 under the name Lori Austin.

What are you working on now?

The second book in that series, AN OUTLAW IN WONDERLAND, for a June 2013 release.

I’d like to thank today’s author Lori Handeland for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Lori Handeland spent years waitressing, teaching and managing a photography studio before selling her first novel in 1993.  Since then she has written many novels, novellas and short stories in several genres–historical, contemporary, series, paranormal romance, urban fantasy and historical fantasy.  Soon she will return to her roots, writing western historical romance under the name Lori Austin.

She is a New York Times Bestselling Author and the recipient of many industry awards, including two RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America for Best Paranormal Romance and Best Long Contemporary Category Romance.

Lori lives in Wisconsin with her husband, enjoying occasional visits from her grown sons.

Visit Lori Handeland Online:

Website:  www.lorihandeland.com

www.loriaustin.net

Blog:  www.thegoddessblogs.com

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/LoriHandeland

http://www.facebook.com/LoriAustinBooks

Twitter:

@nightcreatures

@lori_austin

Books by Lori Handeland:

http://www.lorihandeland.com/lori-books.pdf

http://loriaustin.net/books.php

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

John Corwin

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by, John Corwin, the author of Sweet Blood of Mine (part of the Overworld Chronicles), No Darker Fate and Seventh.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

I started writing short stories in the sixth grade about a boy named Fargo McGronsky and his dog, Noodles.  The stories were pretty violent but my classmates loved them and always looked forward to the next installment.  It wasn’t until much later in life that I started writing for realz.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

Part of that realization hit me when I finished writing my first monstrous tome, all 275K words of it.  The next realization hit me when I accepted the business realities of writing and how to actually write decent, flowing prose as opposed to thinking bigger meant better.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

Scientists have long debated this subject.  I think most of my ideas come from the part of my brain closest to where I slammed my head against a rock on a jetty while trying to show off to a girl.  I think that’s also where my sense of self-preservation comes from.

I really don’t know how I come about my ideas, only that they’re usually strange and must be tempered into a version other people can identify with as opposed to being completely weirded out by them.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

I come up with a one or two-sentence synopsis of the book in my head, or try to fit whatever bizarre notion has popped into my noggin into something vaguely usable.  If it feels like it might work as the basis for a novel, I’ll write a one-page synopsis outlining the main plot and how the book would end.  If that works, then I’ll either start work on it, or shelve it for future use.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

Paranormal, Sci-Fi—anything otherworldly.  I once tried to write a non-paranormal novel and grew too bored with it.  It wasn’t fun unless I could give everyone flying carpets.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

I don’t really have any in mind that I haven’t already tried.  I’ve done fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, and paranormal romance.  It seems we create new genres and sub-genres all the time, so I’m sure something new will come along shortly involving donkeys and the political machinations of a subterranean culture on Mars—in which case I would drop everything to write in that genre.  Until then, however, I’ll have to wait.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

Yes and no.  I generally outline the story in a short synopsis and go from there.  I have used a strict outline before and didn’t stick to it very well.  But I’ve found I absolutely must map out the plot or I’ll end up in la-la land somewhere with the book fast approaching 100K words and no end in sight.

Plot

How do you build your story?

Once I have the plot more or less set, I take the characters, determine their personality traits, and run them through a complex computer simulation to see what they do.  Most of the time they die immediately because the computer doesn’t know how to handle vampires or talking seaweed.

Okay, so part of that is true.  I do determine plot and personality traits of the characters and figure out how they’d handle certain situations and then write down what happens next.  So far, it’s worked okay for me.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

Someone who is normal by most standards rising above him or herself and doing what’s right.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

John is so smart, funny, and handsome, and you can tell he really takes care of himself.  I mean, have you seen his posterior?  I do declare that’s the finest posterior I have ever seen.  On the other hand, he is a bit strange, coming up with all these crazy shenanigans, like everyone on Earth dying and becoming ghosts.  What sort of hooligan would wish that on people?

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

It depends on how familiar I am with the setting.  My past few books have been set in Atlanta where I live.  As with most people, however, Google and Wikipedia are my two best friends.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

I don’t know yet.  Probably someplace that doesn’t really exist, so I’ll have to make it up.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

Most of the time if there’s a theme or purpose, it forms along the way.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

It amazes me when I look at quotes readers pull from my works.  Everyone finds something new they think is funny.  I don’t really have any favorite lines from my own stories because I tend to look at it from as a whole, but here are a couple from Sweet Blood of Mine:

“I was falling for Elyssa and my track record with girls looked like a zombie apocalypse.”

“What was it about women and crying that made me feel like crap?  They must have guilt pheromones in their tears.”

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I don’t really have a routine aside from sacrificing Concord grapes to minor deities.  I can’t listen to music while writing although I can write in places that are noisy.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I remind myself that I’ll be dead one day and I don’t have enough time to suffer from writer’s block.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I’m usually pretty happy with my first drafts and I have a great set of beta readers and a tough content editor who show me what needs fixing.

How do you know when to stop?

I used to go through manuscripts ad nauseam, like up to 8 times.  No more!  I’ve found my gut instincts with writing are usually fine, I just need outside advice to help.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Don’t write.  Give up and join an ultimate Frisbee team.  Learn tiddlywinks.  Meanwhile, email me all your ideas for books and maybe I can salvage something from them.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

We’re already in a zombie apocalypse.  Just look at all the zombies walking around staring at their iPhones.   My plan is to pray they’re not driving and texting while I’m on the road.

If we hit a real Zombpocalypse, I plan to hole up somewhere with my beta readers and write stories about it to keep us all entertained.  Or barricade myself in the Playboy mansion.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

Probably a short essay on why my mom is the bestest mom ever for the local newspaper.

What are you working on now?

Book 4 of the Overworld Chronicles.

I’d like to thank today’s author, John Corwin for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

John Corwin has been making stuff up all his life. As a child he would tell his sisters he was an alien clone of himself and would eat tree bark to prove it.

In middle school, John started writing for realz. He wrote short stories about Fargo McGronsky, a young boy with anger management issues whose dog, Noodles, had been hit by a car. The violent stories were met with loud acclaim from classmates and a great gnashing of teeth by his English teacher.

Years later, after college and successful stints as a plastic food wrap repairman and a toe model for GQ, John once again decided to put his overactive imagination to paper for the world to share and became an author.

Visit John Corwin Online:

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/johnhcorwinauthor

Blog  http://johncorwin.blogspot.com/

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/John_Corwin

My Books on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/John-Corwin/e/B004OTEQQW/

Books by John Corwin:

Sweet Blood of Mine

Dark Light of Mine

No Darker Fate

The Next Thing I Knew

Outsourced

Seventh

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Jess C Scott

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by, Jess C. Scott, the author of The Cyberpunk Elven Trilogy, Naked Heat and Wicked Lovely.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

My goal was to write my first novel by the age of 21, and to publish it by the age of 23. I liked the speed, efficiency and DIY aspect of self-publishing, so I’ve been on it since mid-2009 (a few months before I turned 23).

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

I have very intense but quite scattered drives a lot of the time. Writing is one of the rare activities which focuses my thoughts and energy for some kind of useful outcome (in a process that’s enjoyable for me as well).

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

Everywhere, for sure. A short comment on a blog or article; a Facebook status update; something someone said; what I read on the back of a cereal box…

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

I let them float around in my mind until it’s time to start piecing things together. I can be inspired by a lot of different sources so it’s a pretty intuitive process, in a creative-analytical kind of way. It’s a personal thing too, but I guess it’s how I stay open/honest with myself, the story/characters, and readers/customers.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

I’m passionate about original stories that are both meaningful and entertaining, so that’s what I run along with

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

Crime fiction (murder mysteries and psychological thrillers, in particular). I’d like to work in a genre that’s mainstream but allows for some quirkiness and/or deviancy.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

Yes, most of the time. I like following a quite detailed outline as it keeps me focused (I divide it into parts sometimes, so that I can clear off a certain amount on a regular basis).

Plot

How do you build your story?

It depends on the inspiration for a certain point or message I’d like to explore. That’s usually the starting point since it’s sort of the foundation for the entire thing.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

I think intensity and not being driven or motivated by shallow values make a great hero.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

“Complex.”

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

A little bit, though I generally feel a greater connection to developing realistic, memorable characters.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

The settings I dream about at night. Some are really vivid.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

Yes, usually. I like having some kind of purpose to my life (this is reflected in what I write about as well).

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

In Wicked Lovely, one of the characters says, “I felt like an animal, and animals don’t know sin, do they?” I add some other lines to my GoodReads quotes page (http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2980674.Jess_C_Scott)

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I try to keep to a certain output everyday (though I generally don’t do much writing if I’m temporarily in between projects). I like to type on my home PC (somewhere quiet and comfortable). I listen to music sometimes when I’m doing tedious tasks like formatting or looking out for spelling errors.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I stop writing and float around until the writing impulse kicks in again. Watching quality TV shows and doing a bit of daily exercise are important things on the to-do list too.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I’ll discuss key issues with people whose opinions I respect. Good ideas tend to float around when I’m in the shower. I usually try to work out a good outline beforehand. When the first draft has some kind of structure, I find it generally requires less fixing later on.

How do you know when to stop?

I guess there’s a sense that the story is complete (in terms of storyline and what the characters go through).

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Work hard/smart, and keep improving along the way. Try to be as disciplined and efficient as possible.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

I think it’s already arrived in some ways, so I’ll either join the zombies or do whatever I can to survive while maintaining my self-identity and sanity.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

The next project (to paraphrase a quote by the architect, Frank Lloyd Wright).

What are you working on now?

I’m currently outlining the last installment of my Cyberpunk Elven Trilogy. I might complete a dragon trilogy before working on a psychological thriller next year. I’ve been looking out for a couple of commercial niches I could try working in (my early work is a bit too complex to categorize neatly!).

I’d like to thank today’s author, Jess C. Scott for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Jess C Scott writes in a variety of genres including erotic fiction, urban fantasy, young adult fiction, cyberpunk, and crime fiction (2013). In a Word Riot interview, Jess mentions that the basic message in her work is “to be unafraid to be one’s true self.” Jess is also the founder of jessINK, a company dedicated to publishing original stories that are both meaningful and entertaining.

Visit Jess C. Scott Online:

Website: http://www.jessINK.com

Blog: http://jesscscott.wordpress.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jessINKbooks

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jesscscott

Books by Jess C. Scott:

http://www.jessINK.com/eyeleash.htm (debut novel)

http://www.jessINK.com/erotic_writing.htm (promotional eBook on quality sexual literature)

http://www.jessink.com/fiftyshades.htm (Fifty Shades parody)

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Alexandra Ivy

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Ivy, best known for her paranormal series Guardians of Eternity.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

Like most writers I’ve always loved to read and at a young age I started scribbled stories just for myself.  But, it wasn’t until I went to college and took a playwriting class that I realized I found my true love.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?
I’m not sure I really have J  It took a looooong time for me to get published.  Almost ten years.  Most sane people would have given up after so many rejections, but I looked on those years as my apprenticeship.  With every new manuscript I was honing my craft and learning more about the business.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?
They’re always stewing in the back of my mind.  Sometimes they’re sparked by something I read in the newspaper or even by a conversation I happen to overhear.   Sometimes they come from a fragment of a dream.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?
I always start with the characters.  Once I understand their strengths, their weakness, and how I want them to grow during the course of the story, the plot starts to evolve.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?
I started with historicals, and I loved the research and recreating the atmosphere of the past.  But since writing paranormals, I’ve discovered just how much I enjoy creating my world, populated with creatures from my imagination.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?
I would love to do a high fantasy!

Structure

Do you work from an outline?
A very, very flexible outline.

Plot

How do you build your story?
Since I started as a playwright I actually write my book in play format first.  I write three to four chapters of pure dialogue, before I go back through and layer in stage movements or actions.  After that I go through again and layer in the emotional responses for the scene.

I know it’s different from most writers, but with this method I can make sure that my characters are the main focus of the story without getting lost.  All writers love, love, love words and it’s easy to forget the plot in the prose.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?
He has to be strong, and for a romance, sexually compelling.  But more importantly he has to have an ability to be kind and vulnerable.  A bad boy with a heart of gold J  He also has to have flaws.  A too perfect hero is a bore.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?
Hmm…that’s hard.  I suppose they would say that I’m funny, driven, a little OCD, and devoted to my family.   I’m also a perfectionist who tends to make those around me nuts.  

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?
My current stories are set in the Midwest where I live so I haven’t needed to do a lot of research, but when I wrote historicals I would do an intense month of research before ever starting to write the story.  That’s what I loved best about writing historicals and I had to be careful that I didn’t devote so much time investigating tiny details and run out of time to actually write the book.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?
I would love to create a whole new world for a fantasy.  One that’s completely original and bound by my own rules of magic.  I wonder if that means I have a god-complex?

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?
Yes.  I have an overall theme for the series that speaks of being outside the ‘norm’ of society, but also a theme for each book.  They tend to focus on loss and or a lack of trust or the need to be accepted by others.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?
My favorite lines are usually from my snarky gargoyle, Levet.  But I think my current fav line is from Sophia in The Real Werewives of Vampire County:

“A family is like medicine.  Best in small doses.”

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?
I usually get up early and exercise–otherwise I never get around to it.   After that I answer emails, check my Facebook and Twitter, then do a little promo.  Once I’m done, I start writing and usually don’t stop until late at night.  When I’m in a book I have to stay in writing mode until I’m done, or I lose the ‘feel’ for the story-line.  My poor family has learned that once I disappear into my office they won’t see me for a very long time.

How do you deal with writer’s block?
I never let myself think of writer’s block.  I write every day, and even if I throw it out later, I never give myself permission to wait for some mysterious ‘muse’.   This is my job, and like any other employee, I have get my work done, no matter what else is going on.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?
Sometimes I’ll go back and rewrite the scene from another character’s point of view.  If that doesn’t work, then I’ll pull out my outline and see where things started going wrong.  I almost always have to trash a few chapters when I’m writing because they just didn’t work for the story.  You can’t be afraid to admit defeat and start again.

How do you know when to stop?
Sometimes I don’t…sigh.   Usually a book has a natural progression from beginning to end, and it flows to a conclusion.  But sometimes I realize I’m way over my word count without any conclusion in sight.  That’s when I have to start making cuts.  And they’re always painful.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?
Write because you love to write, not because you want to get published.   A reader can always tell when you love what you do.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?
I’ve already decided that I’m like the last antelope at the waterhole.  I have no survival skills.  None.  So I fully intend to throw myself at the first zombie I see and get it over with.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?
I don’t know if it’s the best, but my favorite book is WHEN DARKNESS COMES.  I think because I wrote it just for my own pleasure without pressure or expectations.  It was fun and different from anything I’d ever tried before.  Certainly, I never dreamed it would be the beginning of the Guardians of Eternity that is now on book 10.

What are you working on now?
I’m actually working on a new series.  The books are tentatively titled the ‘Sentinels’ and will start off in a short story collection coming May 2013.   These will be different from my Guardians, with the stories revolving around people who are ‘gifted’ with special abilities.  They’re known as high-bloods and will include witches and psychics and necromancers, as well as the Sentinels.  The Sentinels are men and women who are trained warriors who protect the high-bloods when they travel away from their safe-house called Valhalla, or track those high-bloods who are a danger to the mortal population.

I’d like to thank today’s author Alexandra Ivy for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Alexandra Ivy graduated from Truman University with a degree in theatre before deciding she preferred to bring her characters to life on paper rather than stage. She currently lives in Missouri with her extraordinarily patient husband and sons.

Visit Alexandra Ivy Online:

Website:  www.alexandraivy.com

Blog:  http://ivyguardiansofeternity.blogspot.com/

Facebook:  http://ivyguardiansofeternity.blogspot.com/

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/AlexandraIvy

Books: http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/catalog.cfm?dest=dir&linkid=2408&linkon=subsection

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Roasted Rats on a Stick
Is Your Writing Any Better Than This?

Storytelling & Marketing
I just read an interview with Amanda Hocking and she talked about the secrets of her success.  These “secrets” are what I’ve been talking about for years.

How To Succeed as a Writer

90% of your success as a writer is dependent upon how good you are at storytelling.

The other 90% of your success is dependent upon how good your marketing is.

 What does it take to be a writer?

Imagine going into a restaurant where they serve ROASTED RATS ON A STICK.

Would you ever go back?

90% of writers operate at the “Roasted Rats on a Stick” level.

Most writers are HORRIBLE.

This is because writing is very, very, very difficult and most people are either too lazy or to proud to study.

How good do you have to be?

You don’t have to be Shakespeare.

All you have to do is to get to the “MacDonald’s” level of writing.

So, concentrate first on STORYTELLING.

Next, concentrate on MARKETING.

STORYTELLING

The Rules

There are two rules to writing:

The first rule is that there are no rules.

The second rule is that just because of rule number one, that doesn’t mean you can do anything you want.

Like art or music, there are no rules as to how you approach your work, but an understanding of the subject is still important, and usually necessary to produce the greatest works.  If you break the rules, you should at least know what they are.

So what does it take to be a writer?

You need three things:  Passion, practice and study.

Passion

The most important trait that a writer needs is zest, gusto, passion.  Although it’s important to understand things like story structure, point of view and how to write a scene, it can be easy to forget about the fire which causes a story to be told in the first place.  Ray Bradbury has said that he wasn’t born with natural talent in writing.  Instead, he was born with a passion for writing itself.  His enthusiasm was the fuel that forced him to develop his skill as a writer.  Think of it this way; if you want to fly to the stars you need a rocket ship full of fire.  How do you know if you have the passion to write?  How do you know an artist has passion for drawing?  An artist draws all the time, simply for the fun of it.  Writers write all the time.

Practice

“Write a thousand words a day and in three years you will be a writer.”

– Ray Bradbury

If you want to succeed as a writer, you need to write at least a thousand words a day.  Ray Bradbury wrote a thousand words a day for ten years before he sold something.  That’s three and a half million words worth of stories.  Like a musician or a professional ball player, you need to practice every day to succeed.  One great way to get into the habit of writing every day is to join one of those Play By E-Mail (PBEM) games on the internet.  While the quality of writing isn’t always the best, it will get you writing all the time.

An art teacher (Gary Faigin, who teaches classic realism) once told me that he could tell how many hours someone has been drawing just by looking at his artwork.  He said that every profession has a certain number of hours you need to put into it before you are proficient.  Airline pilots need a certain number of hours of flying time before they are qualified to pilot planes safely.  Music, art, sports and writing all require “X” number of hours of practice before you are good enough to work professionally.  The number of hours required depends on your natural talent, how quick you learn the techniques of your craft and on how much passion you have for what you’re doing.

Everyone writes terribly at first, but after six months or a year of practice (or more), the bad stuff will tend to go away.  Another way to think of it is like an athlete lifting weights.  You shouldn’t try to lift heavy weights until you’ve developed the muscles.  If you write all the time, things like your individual voice and style will develop naturally over time.

So if you want to be a writer, you need to write at least a thousand words a day.

Study

Imagine seeing a bridge or a skyscraper or an automobile and deciding that you’re going to go build one too.  Without acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to build that bridge or skyscraper or automobile, you won’t get anywhere.  Yet this is the approach people take when they want to become a writer.  They think they can do better than what’s gone before.  They dream up an idea and just start writing, refusing to learn anything about how stories are put together.  Fiercely independent, they never study the craft of writing.  This kind of nonsense is the reason so many people fail.

Imagine an artist saying something like, “If I go to art school, I’ll learn the FORMULA and all of my art will look exactly like everybody else’s.”  This kind of thinking is nonsense, and yet this is precisely the reason why aspiring writers refuse to study writing techniques.  It’s true that the best artists spend most of their time practicing, but they also need to develop the skills needed to be an artist.  Michelangelo didn’t just spend time practicing.  He studied his subject.

The Seven Steps of Classical Storytelling

For more information, get John Truby’s book, “The Anatomy of Story.”

1. Problem/Need
2. Desire
3. Opponent
4. Plan
5. Battle
6. Self-Revelation
7. New Equilibrium

Every writer should have these books:

The Top Five Books on Writing

1. “The Anatomy of Story,” by John Truby.
2. “Zen and the Art of Writing,” by Ray Bradbury.
3. “Writing the Breakout Novel,” by Donald Maass.
4. “The Scene Book,” by Sandra Scofield.
5.  “The Power of Point of View,” by Alicia Rasley.

The Top Five books on Self-Publishing

1. “How I sold 1million E-Books in five Months,” by John Locke.
2. “The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing,” by J.A. Konrath.
3. “Format Your E-Book for Kindle in 1 Hour,” by Derek Canyon.
4. “Smashwords Book Marketing Guide,” by Mark Coker.
5. “Smashwords Style Guide,” by Mark Coker.

MARKETING

Definition:  The science of finding prospects and turning them into profitable customers for your business.

A man wants to get married.  So he goes out and buys a beautiful diamond ring.  He visits a bar and walks up to a girl he likes.  He says, “Will you marry me?”

Obviously, this is a STUPID way to operate.

Yet, 90% of people take this approach to marketing.

They get on FB or Twitter and as soon as they meet someone, they say,

“Hi, buy my stuff!  Look at me! Buy my stuff!”

Warning from David Ogilvy: 

Ford once ran an ad and discovered that the people who saw the ad bought less than the people that didn’t see the advertisement.

Advertising can UNSELL your customers.

The Business Friendship Model

People buy from those they like and trust.

Consider how people make friends, how one person makes friends with another person.

Have you ever even taken the time to consider the process?

Most business owners don’t consider this idea but instead try to behave like a big company which by definition depersonalizes the relationship process.

Structure this friendship building process with your customers.

Hey, I want to pay attention to you.

I want to connect with you.

I want to help you.  I’m committed to doing it.

In fact, I’m going to give you more value than I’m going to ask you to give me.

What customers do is turn around and say, “Hey this person is talking my language.  This makes sense to me.  I want to get involved with this.”

Every individual customer wants to communicate with another individual person.
They don’t want to connect with a company.

Don’t try to make your company sound like a big business.

You don’t want customers to feel like they are interacting with a company.

A customer wants to communicate with an individual human, not a big company.

What is the most important thing to know about marketing?

The first law of success states that, “You must radiate in order to attract.”

The best way to build a relationship with someone is to give away free content.

Give away newsletters, PDF special reports, audio files and videos.

To generate internet traffic, create FREE CONTENT for your website/blog.

Use a CONTENT DISTRIBUTION strategy to spread your content all over the internet.

Everything you distribute should have a LINK back to your LANDING PAGE, where you offer a FREE “cookie” in exchange for their email address.  The “cookie” is a crash course in your subject (if you’re creating info products) or a short story (if you’re selling novels).

To market your work, you have three goals:

1. Build a list.
2. Build a relationship with your list.
3. Market (carefully) to your list.

Build a List

What is the most valuable asset in your business?  YOUR LIST.

What is the value of a lifetime customer?

Think about it.  Every time you create something new, imagine the value of having a large base of customers eager to buy it.  If you’re writing novels, imagine having 10,000 fans ready to buy everything you write?

So, building a list of customers is your first priority.

Build a Relationship with Your List

At first glance, you might think that the money is in the list.

This is only partially true.

The money is in the relationship you have with your list.

The relationship is created by GIVING AWAY FREE CONTENT that is valuable.

NEVER try to sell an item to your list without first giving something away.

Give away 200 pieces of free content for every item you pitch (try to sell).

Free content consists of:

1. Blog articles.
2. Free newsletter (bi-weekly or monthly).
3. Free PDF special reports.
4. “Top Ten Mistakes” reports.
5. Audio files of all of your articles.
6. Videos of all of your articles.
7. Free books, novellas, short stories.

Marketing to Your List

Every time you give away something, your likeability factor goes up.

Every time you pitch (try to sell) something, your likeability factor drops.

The trick is to keep you likeability factor higher than the annoyance factor.

This is done through giving away more value than you sell.

With e-books, there is no overhead, no expenses, so you can give away 90% of what you have and still make money.

Authors should write short stories and give them away to build up a fan base.

Once you’ve build up a large list of fans, launch a series of novels.

Keep your prices low.  At $2.99, you will make 70% of the list price (around $2).

This amount is similar to what you’d make from traditional publishing.

The Best Books on Marketing

1. “How I Sold A Million E-Books in 5 Months,” by John Locke.
2. “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Capers

The best way to succeed as a fiction author:

1. Write a thousand words a day.
2. Write a short story every week.
3. In three years, you will have developed the skills to succeed as a writer and you will have 156 short stories.  You’ll probably have to throw out 100 of them, but you will have 50 short stories which you can use to build up a fan base ready to purchase your work.
4. Give away short stories to build a fan base.
5. Then, launch your novels.

The best way to succeed as a non-fiction author:

1. Become an expert at something.
2. Develop a range of products for your marketing funnel:
   – A $27 e-book, a $197 audio course, a $497 DVD course, $1997 seminars and more.
3. Get a Flip Video camera and make videos that help people solve problems.
4. Give away free videos, PDF special reports, audio programs, hold webinars
   – In short, HELP PEOPLE SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS.
5. Once you’ve built a list, launch your product.

So if you want to succeed as an author, write well, write fast and market what you write.

Always remember that marketing is NOT you shouting “Buy my stuff!” over and over to people.  Marketing is about building relationships with people.

If you’d like to read that interview with Amanda Hocking, here is a link: http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/details.asp?aID=11476&

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Screenwriter Marc Scott Zicree

Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by, Marc Scott Zicree, the author of The Twilight Zone Companion and numerous television episodes.  Marc has worked on Star Trek the Next Generation, Deep Space 9, Babylon 5, and Sliders.  His newest project is Space Command, a Science Fiction show.

Life as a Writer

When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

When I was ten, I saw Ray Bradbury talk in a library.  He was incredibly inspiring and when I saw Star Trek and Twilight Zone as a kid that kind of sealed the deal.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

What time is it today?  When you realize you can earn money you start to realize you can make a go of it.  I sold my first short story and 19 and I was writing my first book at 22.  I was selling television by the time I was 22 or 23.

George Clayton Johnson told me that he decided to use his full name because many of the great writers of the past used their full names.  Is this why you use your middle name?

The reason I did that was because prior to being a writer I was a visual artist and I wanted to differentiate my writing from my art.  I was having gallery shows when I was a teenager and I went by Marc Zicree.  When I started writing professionally I started using Marc Scott Zicree.  I asked my writer friends and they said it was a better writer’s name.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

From everything.  It can be a movie or TV show it could be something that someone says to me.  Usually the best ideas come from a bunch of things converging together.  So for instance, you might say something that starts the idea and then you’ll get a variety of things that coalesces.

All of those things come together to make that idea work.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

Usually you start to look for a beginning middle and end.  You start with a problem, escalate it and then have your characters solve it.  You build it through structure and character as well.  You have to have a story that ultimately satisfies yourself first and then an audience.  It has to work for you or it won’t work for an audience.

Genre

Do you like to mix genres in your stories?

Sometimes, not always.  I like different genres.  I like Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror and Comedy.  Science Fiction is really where my heart is.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

I’m starting to write memoirs about my parents, so that’s interesting to me.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

Yes.  Particularly with scripts you have to have a plotline to know where you’re going.  I always like to have a structure in mind so definitely I like to know where I’m going.

Plot

How do you build your story?

It can vary.  Sometimes you have a character and you want to take a journey with that character.  It depends on where your starting point is.  It could be any of them.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

A distinctive voice.  Basically they’re not just cookie cutter.  They come across as a strong individual.  Usually it comes from an actor.  I like to pattern then after specific people.  If I can hear their voice in my head I can write them.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

Depends on the character.  I never ask my characters for their opinion on me.  It’s a one way street.  I tell them what to do.  Sometimes they talk to me and I go where they want to go.

Setting

How do you go about building your story world?

I like the story to take place in a big universe.  That’s why I like Science Fiction because you’re envisioning not just a world but the entire set of rules.  I like world building very much.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

In Space Command I’m exploring our solar system and the stars over a couple of centuries.  So it’s very exciting.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t but at the end of the process I should know what the point is.  It’s important for a story to have a point.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

Yes.  In World Enough in Time, Sulu’s daughter Alana says “It’s not how long we live, it’s how we live.”  I believe it’s important t o have a moral compass.

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I tend to write away from home.  I like to go where I don’t have any distractions.  So I write in a library or in Starbucks or the Writers Guild lounge – someplace where I don’t have any distractions.  I like to be away from home when I write.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I have a regular writing schedule so I don’t get stuck.  I just keep going.  Sometimes I shift to a different project – that helps too.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I’ll talk to people whose opinion I respect and get feedback.  Sometimes a solution will come to me if I go for a walk or otherwise relax.

How do you know when to stop?

I don’t have that problem.  I always know when a story is done.  The story is done when the problem you set up to solve is done.  A story is done when the problem you set up is the story is at the end when you’ve reached a satisfying solution.  A story is about someone trying to solve a problem.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Read a lot.  Experience life.  Work every day on your writing.  Get better.  Have professional writers give you feedback.  Don’t work in isolation and whatever you do don’t stop.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

To join them.  If you can’t beat them, just kind of put on rags, shuffle and blend in.

Space Command

Tell me about Space Command.

It’s a big epic story that takes place in the future.  It’s about two families that are part of the migration out of the solar system into the stars  It covers about 200 years.

Will each episode of Space Command be part of a grand storyline or will each episode be a completely separate story?

The stories will be self contained but will each be part of a larger story.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

“World enough and time,” which is an episode of Star Trek the New Voyages.

I’d like to thank today’s author, Marc Scott Zicree for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published story could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Marc Scott Zicree is a Science Fiction author, television writer, and screenwriter. He is also the author of The Twilight Zone Companion, a detailed history of Rod Serling’s series The Twilight Zone.  He has contributed to the three-novel Magic Time, which is a collaborative effort between Zicree and three other science fiction authors.

Visit Marc Scott Zicree online:

Website:  http://marczicree.com/

Blog:  http://marczicree.wordpress.com/

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/marc.zicree

Space Command:  http://pledgespacecommand.com/

Space Command on Kickstarter:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/58936338/space-command

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Scientist and Author
Jonathan Vos Post

Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by scientist Jonathan Vos Post, a professional Science Fiction writer who’s co-authored or co-edited with Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Richard Feynman, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, and many others.  He is the author of nearly 900 publications.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

My parents were book editors in New York City.  My father was Cum Laude at Harvard in English Literature, slightly interrupted by World War II, where he was the first to enlist in all of Boston, having waited on line all night after Pearl Harbor, and became the Officer Flight Instructor who taught the Free French how to fly fighters and bombers. My mother was Magna Cum Lude in English Lit, Minor in Journalism, from Northwestern University. Hence I met famous authors throughout childhood. Cocktail parties at Normal Miler’s home; living

in the same 1888 building where Arthur Miller had lived until Marilyn made him find another place. One of my usual babysitters was the only non-junkie among Andy Warhol’s actresses.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

By age three, I was dictating the text to my father, who lettered my text onto my crayon illustrations of what we would now call Graphic Novels.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

I spent 2-6 hours every day reading current publications in Mathematics and Science, often the very day that they are e-published.

I run sessions and entire tracks of international science conferences.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

Sometimes it is the background that grabs me.  What if Asteroid 21 Lutetia, a large main-belt asteroid of an unusual spectral type,  measuring about 100 kilometers in diameter (120 km along its major axis), has been captured eons ago into Earth Orbit, so our world had a Little Moon and a Big Moon? Would that mean that the US/USSR Moon Race would be to the closer body?  And what if the USA had allowed those super-qualified women to be the first astronauts?

Or

“The platinum-coated robotic probe was the first to return intact from a cosmos where life as we know it was impossible.”

Or

On the campus of the California Institute of Thaumaturgy, I found myself at the locked door protecting The Singularity. Signs warned with danger sigils, and official notice from Secretary of Magic:

“Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here… Without Good Data!”

Feynman had warned me: “Magic Spells are not something harmless, like

poems. They are beyond even life or death. Any Magic Spell must be

done correctly, and must be completed.”

“What happens if I make a mistake, or don’t finish the Spell?” I asked. “And does it matter if it’s 1-dimensional magic, 2-dimensional magic, or  3-dimensional magic?”

Sometimes it is a character, who suddenly speaks to me, as my former friend, mentor, and co-author Richard Feynman.

Sometimes the whole story comes to me, complete, in a lucid dream, and I type as fast as I can from memory as soon as I wake up.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

All.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

I have expertise in several major genres:

* Science Fiction

* Fantasy

* Horror

* Mystery/detective

* Westerns

* Poetry

My web domain, 17 years old, getting over 15,000,000 hits/year includes my encyclopedia of those genres (and of Romance, Film, TV).

Every once in a while I look at my inventory of almost 100 stories and  novels currently making the rounds and ask myself — is there ANY genre that I have not tried? Time to try it…

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

Almost never, for the same reason that my friend, co-author, editor, co-broadcaster Isaac Asimov said, when he only wrote ONE of his novels from outline.  “If I can’t surprise myself, how can I surprise my readers?”

Plot

How do you build your story?

Plot is an emergent phenomenon, crawling free from chronological list of events.  Plot is NOT Story.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

My heroes, outside my own family, were my teachers, and their teachers, and their teachers, back as far as I can uncover.

Although I am something of an autodidact, I have had some significant teachers.

When I began to trace whom the teachers were of my teachers, and who were their teachers before them, quite a number of prominent names emerge.  Albert Einstein,  Ezra Pound, Bertrand Russell…

Going back to the 1600s in Mathematics, the coinventor of Calculus (simultaneously with Newton) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz. In Astronomy, I can trace back to about 1600, with Christiaan Huygens, who discovered the Rings of Saturn, and his mentor, Descartes. Further back, to the 1400s, come the revolutionary anatomists: Vesalius and Fallopius.  Then, more than 24 generations before me, the Islamic medicine faculty at the University of Montpellier.  Quite a journey in time and imagination!

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

Underachiever.  Professor Jonathan Vos Post talks a good talk, but has not yet created artificial life, nor built a working stardrive.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

My family complains that for every story, I have a dozen papers and magazines of data stacked up.  For every novel, a hundred.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

I expect to be surprised. For example, among my Historical fictions:

Big Bang (circa 13.6 billion years ago) “Addendum to the Big Bounce”

42,000 years ago “Pelagic Fishing at 42,000 Years Before the Present”, 980 words

41,000 years ago “Denisovian Doom”, 900 words

4th millennium BC  “Sumeria to the Stars”, Draft 8.1, 30 November 2010, 57 pages, 15,650 words

c.1170 – c. 1250 Fibonacci: Super-Spy

12th-17th centuries: origins of European myths and legends of Prester John;  WaterMusic: one of my Paradena = Axiomatic Magic novels, in an alternate Earth where both Science and magic Work; this one centering on the Observatory of Prester John, in Mongolia, fighting an incursion of evil from yet another alternate Earth.  Partly set at historically accurate Uraniborg, a Danish astronomical observatory operated by Tycho Brahe; built circa 1576-1580

1300s Graphic Novel “Doctor Arcane, Hawking, and the Lucasians” – or – “Dr.Arcane Returns to Cambridge” Draft 8.0 of 21 Nov 2010 [18 pp., 6,800 words including notes]

13th Century and 1604 I AM HAMLET’S GHOST

1640s “John Dee, Peter Stuyvesant, and the New York/New Amsterdam Discontinuity” [A story in the “Oh, and Another Thing About the Universe” series] Complete Draft 21.1, 10 July 2011, 130 pp., 35,350 words.

1707-1754 “Henry ‘Golden Glove’ Fielding”, 2650 words [one of at least 4 JVP Baseball Stories, this one on the transition from cricket; “Stingball, Willie, and the Bachelors” being on the transition from amateur to semi-professional;  “Cubs Versus Hypercubes” on modern tactics such as hook-slide, relay assist...; and “Baseball White House” mentions each of the Commissioners of Baseball starting with Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1920–1944)]

1217- 1776 “George Washington and the Magic Snuff Box of Arbroath”, final draft 2.1, 17 pp., 4400 words.

1700s “Bad Shakespeare” screenplay or Treatment plus some scenes

1800 Pirates & Dinosaurs, started 3 Oct 2011, as of 21 Nov 2011: 274 pp. = 70,800 words of story, of 340 pp. total

1850s Slave-California, Complete Draft 8.1 of 4 August 2011, 72 pp., total of 20,000 words, Part of the “Oh, and Another Thing About the Universe” series

1848-1872 Influence to “Lewis Carroll” from Pasteur’s early work as a chemist, when he resolved a problem concerning the nature of tartaric acid (1848). [A solution of this compound derived from living things (specifically, wine lees) rotated the plane of polarization of light

passing through it. The mystery was that tartaric acid derived by chemical synthesis had no such effect, even though its chemical reactions were identical and its elemental composition was the same.  This was the first time anyone had demonstrated chiral molecules.  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865 and Through the Looking Glass in 1872

1894-1917 “The Time-traveling Black Monk”, adapted from The Black Monk by Anton Chekhov [The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov, 1894 , translated by Constance Garnett, New York: Macmillan Company, 1917] but brought to the present, and moved from Russia to California

1901 Cubs Versus Hypercubes, 20,000 words [one of at least 4 JVP Baseball Stories, this one on on modern tactics such as hook-slide, relay assist...;  “Henry ‘Golden Glove’ Fielding” on the transition from cricket; “Stingball, Willie, and the Bachelors” being on the transition from amateur to semi-professional; and “Baseball White House” mentions each of the Commissioners of Baseball starting with Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1920–1944)]

1903-1970s Lonelyheart Locusts, started 20 Sep 2011, completed 26 Sep 2011, 190 pp., 52,550 words

1920s-1940s “Qian Xuesen Meets Wernher Von Braun”, Draft 9.0 of 21 Dec 2009, 62 pp. of story, 17,450 words

1920s-1950s “Einstein in Paradena”

1920-Present  “Baseball White House” mentions each of the Commissioners of Baseball starting with Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1920–1944)

1934-present  “Eleanor Rigby Murders”, Some background on murderer Charles Manson (born 1934), and 1966 because “Eleanor Rigby” is a song by The Beatles, simultaneously released on the 1966 album Revolver and on a 45 rpm single.

1940s-1960s Fermi’s Oracle, mostly Manhattan Project

1950s-1960s stories loosely based on TV series of that era include: “Love is a Fallacy” [Dobie Gillis] “Sitcom Hell and Social Darwinism” [Brady Bunch, Gilligan's island]

1969 “I Was a Teen-Aged Grave-robber”, Stephen King’s take on that year, and mine, specific to background music and events

2006-2011 “Garrett Lisi’s Exceptionally Simple Theory of E8 Stardrive” recounts Lisi’s publications, first in 2006, then  online, then In December 2010 and May 2011 Lisi wrote in the popular magazine Scientific American a feature article on the E8 Theory of Everything; then I extrapolate to a future star-drive

Present  “Luck Be an LHC Tonight” contemporary description of CERN, with recent past details

2010-2017  “Exotic Smooth Manifolds and a Better World” starting with actual Mathematical Physics, discussing the real researchers

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

Sometimes.  The ultimate purpose is always Enlightenment. I discover things about the world, other people, and myself in every work.  If I find myself laughing or weeping as I type, I know that I struck gold.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

On one hand, Hemingway said that there is always a sentence that you love most on any page.  He says that you must remove it.

On the other hand, this week my favorite lines include:

The others did not notice that I followed Kentigern as he hiked uphill and into the woods. He went out to the hazel wood, because a fire was in his head, and cut and peeled a hazel wand, and hooked a berry to a thread. And when white moths were on the wing, and moth-like stars were flickering out, he dropped the berry in a stream, and caught a little silver trout. [obviously from Yeats, as I use that in "Murther by Lanthorn"]

and

Sirens howled.  “Code Violet, Code Violet” screamed the announcement, in a calm pre-recorded BBC-ish voice. In hospitals, “Code Blue” is generally used to indicate a patient requiring resuscitation or otherwise in need of immediate medical attention, most often as the result of a respiratory arrest or cardiac arrest. When called overhead, the page takes the form of  “Code Blue, (floor), (room)” to alert the resuscitation team where to respond.

A med team rushed to Ostro Nedgaard. But the problem was more widespread.  “Code Grey” meant Combative Person with no weapon, according to what began as HASC (Hospital Association of Southern California ), and “Code Silver” meant Combative Person with a weapon. “Code Black” was the Standard government reporting code for a bomb threat. But “Code Violet” sent chills along the spine.  It meant a breach of Interuniversal Protection Protocol.  It meant that there was an alien on the loose. [from "Gin & Atomic"]

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I usually deny myself breakfast until I’ve written 2,000 words of fiction.  I sit at my custom-built (by my son) PC, in Open Office, with web pages of references available (Scots dictionary for “Murther by Lanthorn” for example) or a page listing curses in Somali. I drink fresh-ground coffee. If nobody else is yet awake, I have the TV in next room cranked up on a music channel, classic rock, or baroque, or Jazz, or whatever fits the mood I want in the story at hand.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I only had that once.  Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome, after I was jailed for a few hours for uncovering major graft and corruption between local narcotics gangs and the county sheriffs.  My notes went to the FBI, who dug up the lawn of the former Town Council Chair, whose son was a Sheriffs deputy, and they found a quarter million bucks, including the marked bills from the narco sting.

It was extremely painful to be handcuffed while on live TV, asking questions at a Town Council meeting to which I’d been elected. And violative of the California and Federal Constituions’ First

Amendments.

They flipped one dirty cop, for reduced sentence, and put the other 4 away for a long time.

After that, lesser traumas, such as emergency intestinal surgery when I was 24 hours from death, or having my car, repainted, tuned, and detailed less than 24 hours earlier, totaled by the City

Attorney/City Manager of Temple City, who’d been weaving and running red lights, barely slowed me down. The cops, who followed someone who followed him to his mansion, let him go without even breath-testing.  But prosecutors jailed two ex-mayors of his town, whose graft and

corruption he masterminded.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

As Stephen King said, though I didn’t meet him face-to-face until doing him a favor in 1979:

* when you write, you tell yourself a story.

* when you edit, you take out everything which is not the story.

How do you know when to stop?

POST is an anagram for STOP.  But also for OPTS.  They story usually tells me when it’s done.  Sometimes the story lies.  “Honest, I’ll only be a short story”  Then 120,000 words later I realize it was a trilogy in disguise.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Write EVERY day.  That habit, once set, frees you from being in the mood, or being inspired.  It is not will power that puts your fingers on the keyboard.  It is simply what you do.

What would you say are the three biggest mistakes made by writers?

1. They have nothing to say.
2. They don’t rewrite enough.
3. They don’t have an interesting life (i.e. interesting enough to have a large well of experiences to draw from).

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

I already have taught Population Genetics.  I will thus have predicted

the event, and my equations will have helped to snuff it out.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

Whatever I’m writing today.

What are you working on now?

I am trying to complete the novel Batshit Crazy

Incomplete Draft of 28 July 2012,  84,700 words, adds 6,200 word Ch. 49 “Every Child Above Average”

…and the trilogy Alzheimer’s War

Ch. 371: “Subterranean Rodent” of the novel/trilogy Alzheimer’s War [draft of 8:30-8:50, Tuesday 27 June 2012, 3 pages double-spaced; 650 words]

“How old are you?” Sokol asked Jesus Mohammed Chang.

The Big Enchilada laughed. “Compared to the average three year life span of a common rat,” he said, “the 10 to 30 year life of the naked mole rat, a subterranean rodent native to East Africa, is impressive.  And compared to the human body, the body of this rodent shows little decline due to aging, maintaining high activity, bone health, reproductive capacity, and cognitive ability throughout its lifetime.  About eight years ago a collaborative of researchers in Israel and the United States began to uncover the secret to the small mammal’s long – and active – lifespan.”

“Is there such a thing as a clothed mole rat?” said the Indian Billionaire, in whose suborbital they raced for UNAnTerr {United Nations Antiterrorism}.

… and Gin & Atomic, currently 10,750 words.

I’d like to thank today’s author, Jonathan Vos Post for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

In 2011, Jonathan Vos Post  sold 5 short works of fiction including:

* “Sumeria to the Stars”, Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations anthology;

* “Semi-Satyr”, Anthology: Songs of the Satyrs;

* “Zig-Zag Strikes Again”, Flash Fiction Online.

More generally, I am a scientist and author, who has appeared several times in Analog, Amazing Stories, Scientific American, Science, and hundreds of other venues, married to a scientist and author.  I have degrees in Mathematics, English Literature, and Computer Science.  I worked many years in the Space Program, was a Professor of Astronomy, Professor of Mathematics, then taught middle school and high school. I post original science fiction, fantasy or poetry on my Facebook Wall every day.  My nonfiction book on “Science Fiction and Complex Systems” was requested from me by Springer USA, a complete manuscript has been submitted, but final contract negotiations continue.

As of this morning, my 2,000 words/day fiction quota since 6 July 2010 has produced 1,623,000 words.  Last week I finished serializing “Africa 2030.” last month I began serializing my 14-th Facebook-serialized novel. I’d promised not to write the 14th such novel until I sold at least one of the first 13, but this one snuck up on me, as I thought it would only be a novelette.  I also write Math and Science research nonfiction every day, having developed that habit at Boeing, Burroughs, European Space Agency, Federal Aviation Administration, Ford, General Motors,  Hughes, JPL, Lear Astronics, NASA, Systems Development Corporation,  U.S. Army,  U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Venture Technologies, Yamaha, and my various professorships.

Jonathan Vos Post is  also:

* Co-author with Ray Bradbury (who just died last month).

* Co-author with Richard Feynman, Nobel Laureate physicist

* Co-editor with David Brin and Arthur C. Clarke

* Co-broadcaster with Isaac Asimov

* Quoted by name in Robert Heinlein’s “Expanded Universe”

* Winner of 1987 Rhysling Award for Best Science Fiction Poem of Year

* Published in Nebula Awards Anthology #23, 1989

His photo on Facebook was taken by the former U.S. Women’s Chess Champion.

Visit Jonathan Vos Post online:

Website:  http://magicdragon.com/

Facebook:  Jonathan Vos Post

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Star Trek Writer Jimmy Diggs

Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by, Jimmy Diggs, the author of nine Star Trek episodes, including one of the most popular episodes of Deep Space 9, “Dr. Bashir, I Presume” and eight Voyager episodes.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

I always thought that the writer was the most important person in the creative process.  But I never dreamed that I’d ever get the opportunity.  Then around 1992 I lost my airline job when PSA was bought by US Air.  My wife at the time told me that she didn’t want to see me turn 40 and have any regrets about the course I had taken as far as a career.  So she told me to follow my dreams – whatever it was and she’d handle the majority of the bills while I tried to find out what I wanted to do.  So, I always loved everything about space – factual or fictional, so I decided I’d either try to get a job with NASA or write science fiction.  At the time NASA had a hiring freeze.  So I deceed I’d look into writing Science Fiction screenplays.  THis led me to getting a job at Stu Segall Productions where I eventually made friends with some of the writer producers.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

One of the producers at Renegade decided to give me a break and let me pitch my ideas to the show.  I went to his studio in Burbank with my story ideas and after I told him what they were, he said the thing that changed my life forever.  He said, “Jimmy, when I invited you up here, I thought I was just doing a favor for a fellow Vietnam Vet.  I thought you’d have some crazy ideas, and I’d tell you don’t lose your day job.”  But to my surprise he said, “Jimmy, you are an artist.  and I want to do that for the first episode for the next season [of Renegade].”  That one line changed my life forever.

Where did you learn to write?

I’m largely self-taught.  I never had a class.  I read the books that made sense to me.  I’ve been blessed with good advice from mentors and I didn’t pay any attention to any of the crap out there that doesn’t make any sense.  Just about everything I wrote made me some money somehow.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

I just take a little walk out on what Ernest Hemmingway called, “A walk out on premise prairie,”  and I ask myself one important question:  “What if?”

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

I take my central character and I try to make him dance on the head of a pin.  I tear his heart out and stomp on it.  Then I torturously, painfully and agonizingly build the poor bastard up again.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

I enjoy writing stories where a new technology or a new discovery has to be reinterpreted in human terms.  It isn’t the gadget or what Hitchcock called the Macguffin that’s the most interesting part of science fiction, its what happens when we humans take that gadget gimmick or mcguffin and use it in uniquely human ways.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

I’m intrigued by the science fiction sub-genres of Steampunk, Diesel Punk, Weird West and a phrase of my own invention; “Crypto-History.”

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

Absolutely.  First I write a story, some people might call it a treatment, a beat outline or a synopsis and then I construct what I call a beat outline.  It’s the bare bones skeleton of a script.  Without the flesh of the dialogue attached.  Some writers think this is the most difficult and challenging part of the story development process.

Plot

How do you build your story?

Every central character begins the story in a state of equilibrium.  He may not be happy with that state, but he understands it, He’s accustomed to it.  He knows what to expect from one day to the next.  Some inciting incident happens to that character that propels him on a path of no return.  And the character spends the entire rest of the movie or story trying to regain the equilibrium he lost in Act I.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

A great villain.  What would Luke Skywalker be without Darth Vader?  What would Clarise Starling be without Hannibal Lecter?  What would Captain Kirk be without the Klingons?  The only way your hero can wax great is by the waning of an awesome opponent.  An opponent that is so dynamic that he’s convinced that the story’s about him.  And he has the seductive line of reasoning to prove it.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

What he doesn’t use to kill you just makes you stronger.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

The story always dictates the setting with me.  For me the original inception of the story always brings the setting with it.  Sometimes the setting is almost a character in itself.  The setting, the story, the characters are all inherently organic to each other.  One wouldn’t make sense without the other.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

I’m actually considering a Pixar like animal based animation where the dialogue will rhyme from beginning to end, like a Dr. Seuss fable.  You can almost consider it, a Hip Hop opera.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

This is going to sound very Truby but it’s very true.  The purpose of every story is to serve as a guide to teach us how to live a better life.  That’s what theme is all about.  My job as a storyteller is to use my stories as lessons for my audience to help them live a better life.

Dialogue

How do you approach writing dialogue?

I like to use something that a friend of mine calls “invisible ink.”  Sometimes it’s not so important what the characters are saying as what they’re not saying.  Some people might call it subtext but its more than that.  Its tied to the theme, the unspoken emotions and desires of the characters in the scene.

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

This is from my Gothic-Horror-Western, entitled, “Sundown:”

“The first thing you learn about common sense is that there ain’t nothin’ common about having sense.”

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I do listen to music and the most creative and productive time for me in writing is from midnight to eight in the morning.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

If you’ve got a problem in one act, it’s because you have a problem in the preceding act.  For instance, if you have a problem in Act II, it’s because you have a problem in Act I.  Solve the problem in Act I and all the pieces should fall into place.

Let’s discuss a particular scene to showcase your work…

In this scene the starship Voyager was surrounded by creatures that mistook it for a member of their species and began a courtship ritual with the ship.  This put the ship and the crew in danger.  But they didn’t want to kill these creatures just to get away.  So after noticing that the females would roll over and turn blue, the crew of Voyager decided that if they mimic that behavior by rolling over and venting plasma from their warp engines to make themselves appear to turn blue, that they would cease to be attractive to these female entities.  When the process worked, first officer Tuvok turned to his captain and said – with no pun intended, “Captain, it appears we’ve lost our sex appeal.”  When the producers for the show all laughed at that line, I knew I had them.

How did that scene come to be? 

The scene that sold my first Star Trek episode came to me like an epiphany.  There’s only one way to describe it.  It felt like a golden bullet being shot through the back of my head.

The second I envisioned the scene I knew I was going to sell the episode.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

Larry Niven once told me that story development problems are not really problems.  They’re opportunities. If you really examine the problem in your story closely, you will usually find buried deep within it is the core of your whole story.  So once you understand that, you stop being afraid of problems and you embrace them.  Sort of like real life.

How do you know when to stop?

When your central character has found that state of equilibrium that he’s looking for.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Keep your central idea short and sweet.  Remember that no matter how wonderful or complex you think your story is, that if you’re ever lucky enough to get it turned into a movie, one day some production assistante at TV Guide will be able to describe it in three simple sentences. I’ve heard it said that if you can describe your idea in ten words or less, you’ve got a guaranteed hit on your hands.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

Not too many people know this, but my father was a mortician.  I actually lived above the funeral home until I was four years old.  I remember being three years old on my tricycle inside the morgue.  I was circling my dad while he worked on a cadaver.  The arm of the deceased slipped off the embalming table and I just pushed it back up and kept cycling.

When I was four, my parents took me to a neighbor’s house for dinner.  Half way through the meal, I excused myself from the table.  After about twenty minutes the hostess came looking for me.  When she found me I was peaking under the beds and into the closets.  When she brought me back to the table, she asked, “Honey, what were you looking for?”  I responded in matter-of-fact tone, “Where do you keep your dead people?”

Considering the unique relationship I’ve had with the dead since childhood, I have no doubt that the zombies will recognize my authority and hail me as their true and rightful leader.

My first act as ruler of the undead will be to decriminalize zombie-porn and move the survivors of humanity to a safe zone where they can be properly bred – I mean protected for the benefit of living and undead alike.

The motto of my administration will be, “Whatever kills you makes you stronger.”

Final Thoughts

How important is the title of your story?

Extremely important.  The title must be thematically tied into the overall project.

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

As far as screenplays, my Steampunk adventure, “H.M.S. Victory.”

As far as print, it would be an article I wrote for Star Trek Communicator Magazine, entitled, “The Seven Deadly Sins of Star Trek,” where I explained that the villains of the Star Trek franchise were all as successful as they are because they were allegorical constructs for the seven deadly sins of man.

The Klingons represent Wrath.

The Romulans represent Pride.

The Cardassians represent Envy.

The Borg represent Gluttony.

The Pakleds represent Sloth.

The Ferengi represent Greed.

A new villain that I hope to introduce to the franchise would represent Lust.

The publishers of Simon and Schuster were so impressed with the concept that they turned it into an anthology.

Pitching

I remember one day you and I were hanging out talking with George Clayton Johnson, and he mentioned how he pitches his stories and you had a similar method.  Both of you said that you changed the direction of your story when their eyes started to glaze over. 

How do you pitch your stories?

There are as many different ways to pitch stories as there are stories itself.

It didn’t work, but once I even brought in a deck of Star Trek based game cards to a pitch.  I broke out the deck of cards in front of the producer, shuffled the deck, and like some crazy tarot card reader, I tried to construct a story on the fly by dealing the cards out and piecing the components together into some kind of coherent story.

That’s one of the techniques that George Clayton Johnson uses to invent stories.  Did you know that he’s created a deck of cards which he uses as a story generating device?  Several writers sit around a table and cards are dealt.  Each card represents a different story element or idea.  One writer throws the card down and talks about his idea.  The other writers vote on it – up or down.  If the idea is accepted, another writer throws down a card and they keep on this way until they’ve finished a story.  The cards are a brainstorming tool.

You’re kidding!  George does that?  If one of the best writers of the 20^th century employs a device like that, I think I’d better go to my storage and find those cards.

What are you working on now?

An animated series with an African American super heroine, the Gothic Horror Western that I mentioned earlier, my Steampunk action adventure franchise, an epic space opera and an original idea I’m developing for a Star Trek animated series.

I’d like to thank today’s author, Jimmy Diggs for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Jimmy Diggs is a screenwriter, best known for his work on Star Trek (Deep Space 9 and Voyager).  Jimmy Diggs has sold more episodes of Star Trek than any other freelance writer in the history of the franchise.

List of Star Trek Episodes by Jimmy Diggs:

DS9
5.16. “Doctor Bashir, I Presume”

ST Voyager
2.04. “Elogium”

3.19. “Rise”

4.11. “Concerning Flight”

4.21. “The Omega Directive”

4.25. “One”

5.07. “Infinite Regress”

5.13. “Gravity”

Eye in the Sky
(Sold but unproduced episode)

Visit Jimmy Diggs online:

Websites:  http://www.JimmyDiggs.com

http://www.HouseofDiggs.com

Blog:         http://www.JimmyDiggs.com/blog

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/Jimmy.Diggs

Twitter:     @JimmyDiggsJr

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by, World Fantasy Award Winner Tim Powers, the author of Anubis Gates,” one of the core Steampunk novels and a dozen other novels.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

Well I always wanted to be a writer, ever since I first read a book. And after discovering Heinlein and Lovecraft in grade school, I wanted specifically to be a science fiction/fantasy writer.  And luckily The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ran an editorial in 1967 that explained how to submit stories, so I immediately began doing that, and just never stopped!

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

I guess it was when an editor bought my first book! Before that I was just hopeful.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

Non-fiction reading, usually. I’ll be reading some biography or history book, and I’ll notice some oddity that seems susceptible to a supernatural explanation, and then I’ll read more on the subject, but on a “research” basis now, rather than a plain “entertainment” basis.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

I talk to myself into the keyboard. I ask myself questions having to do with what sort of plot  the research indicates, and what sort of hidden back-story might make all the enigmas and anomalies make sense.  I make sometimes hundreds of pages of notes like this! And then I decide what bits of speculation look consistent & compatible & colorful,  and I begin to put together a very detailed outline of all the events of the story.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

From the time I was eleven until I was about twenty, all I read was science fiction and fantasy. I don’t really read a whole lot in that genre anymore, but that intense exposure imprinted my imagination so deeply that I have no interest in writing anything else.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

Really I think I’ll probably just stick with science fiction and fantasy forever. It’s freer — you can write espionage, Westerns, humor, police procedurals or anything, withing the SF/fantasy genre.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

Totally. I like to make an outline so detailed that it includes bits of description and dialogue. I generally make a giant calendar, and write in each day-square the events and conversations that are to occur on that day.

Plot

How do you build your story?

I find interesting events or places or characters in history, and then I invent a story to thread as many of them together as possible. I try to put the story together in Act I, Act II and Act III structure, though in the story I generally don’t indicate when we’ve moved from one act to the next.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

I generally figure out the hero of a story after I’ve done all the research and know what the story’s situations are. I try to construct a protagonist who will arrive with certain useful qualifications or handicaps, and who knows things it’ll be useful for him to know, and doesn’t know things it would be useful to see him learn.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

I don’t know! They’d probably try to say something nice, just to keep me happy.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

About a year, really! I read every book I can find on my subject, and when they indicate side-trails I follow the side-trails as far as they continue to be interesting. It’s a very broad net!

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

I don’t know — I’ve thought a ghost story in a mountain-climbing story might be fun. But really I don’t  think past whatever the current project is!

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

No, my stories  have no purpose besides entertainment.  I never “have something to say” about current events or politics or social conditions. I suppose some of my personal opinions might filter into a story unnoticed, but if I notice any “statements” I’ll cut them out.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

None that immediately occur to me!

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I generally write from 8 PM to midnight, at my desk in my office. I don’t listen to music as I write, because if it was good I would stop writing in order to pay attention to the music.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Writer’s block really just means, “Everything I try to write is stupid.” The answer is, “First draft is supposed to be stupid. Keep going and fix it up in revision.” It’s always seemed to me that claiming “Writer’s block!” is just a way to claim to be a writer without actually doing any writing.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I re-read it and note hints that didn’t get developed, and either ditch the hints or insert developments; and I often re-do dialogue to make it sound more spontaneous and less obviously helpful; and I fill in descriptions that were clear in my head but didn’t make it into the manuscript; and I cut bits that are repetitive or slow.

How do you know when to stop?

When I can re-read the manuscript and not snag on anything, I know it’s done.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Don’t be ironic or tongue-in-cheek or satirical! Stories written in those ways are immune to being made fun of, but only because they’re already making fun of themselves.  Take your characters and their problems seriously, and give them resolutions that strike you as valid, and let readers make fun of you if they want to.

Zombie Apocalyse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

Shotguns and a full tank of gas.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

Maybe my novel, Declare.

What are you working on now?

I’m in the research phase right now, so God knows. Apparently something set in the 20th or 21st century!

I’d like to thank today’s author, Tim Powers for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Tim Powers has written thirteen novels, including On Stranger Tides, which was the basis of the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and The Anubis Gates, which is considered one of the core Steampunk novels. His books have twice won the World Fantasy Award, and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He lives in San Bernardino.

Visit Tim Powers online:

Website:  http://www.theworksoftimpowers.com/

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/AuthorTimPowers

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by New York Times Bestselling author Gail Carriger, the author of the Steampunk novel Soulless.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

My Mum used to read to me in bed and if I didn’t like the end of the book I would explain to her very carefully that the author got it wrong and then inform her of the real ending. That was the start of the madness.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

Only recently. I always wanted to be an archaeologist, writing was rather more like breathing, just something I did. It was only with Soulless that I realized I might actually have a career as a writer. I still haven’t recovered from the shock.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

Sometimes something will spark when I’m doing research for work. I also pay very close attention to my friends when they’re drunk, but usually inspiration comes to me when I’m contemplating the absurdity of the universe and at the most inconvenient time – like in the shower.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

I keep several notebooks (AKA story bibles) with timelines, chapter outlines, gadget listings, outfit & place sketches, battle scenes, historical research notes, and general ideas and inspiration. These also include cast lists and character profiles (once a character is written). Sometimes I’ll draw out a mind map. I think visually so anything visual can become inspiration for the story.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

Character driven adventures with lots of comedy.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

Historical YA, politically driven epic fantasy, contemporary set urban fantasy, historical sci-fi with a strong female protagonist.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

I’m a militant outliner, to the point where sometimes I plan for events to occur on specific page numbers. A Victorian era setting can become bogged down by social convention, so I have to watch my pace. I came to writing via YA, so I like plot to be neat, tidy, and clear. Characters are one of the few things that aren’t planned in my work. Sometimes a character will surprise me by becoming more important, or introducing himself/herself unexpectedly. They usually know what’s going on better than I do, so I let them do it in defiance of my outline.

Plot

How do you build your story?

Non-linearly. Mostly I write 2000 words a day but that doesn’t have to be chapter by chapter (although mostly is it). If I see a scene clearly in my mind then I allow myself to jump forward and write that scene.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

Integrity, wit, a firm ethical foundation, good friends who are loyal and to whom she is loyal, the ability to act alone well balanced by the courage to ask for assistance when needed. Oh, and a love of good food and fine tea.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

I believe Alexia would say something along the lines of: Gail is a demanding bit of baggage with a world perspective clouded by her unfortunately upbringing, a niggling habit of reprimanding strangers for improper dress and leg wiggling, a healthy appetite, and very decided opinions on tea.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

As much time as I spend writing them.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

1890s India and Egypt, possibly Japan, Peru, and America.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

All my stories have the same purpose: to entertain. My favorite compliment is when I embarrass a reader by making her laugh out loud on public transport. So I guess the answer is: yes, and that purpose is shameless public humiliation.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

“Lord Maccon was built like a brick outhouse, with opinions twice as unmoving and often equally full of crap.”

― Blameless

“She moved with such purpose it was as though she walked with exclamation marks.”

― Changeless

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

With a project due I write (for the rough) or edit (for the draft) from 2 to 7 every weekday – with breaks for tea. The rest of the household, with the exception of the cat, is quite respectful. I have a closed–door policy. Which is to say: if the door to my office is closed my policy is to throw the nearest moveable object at anyone who disturbs me. They’ve learned. Even the cat. I write at home or at a nearby coffee shop. If I am really struggling with distractions I go to the library. No music, I’m a dancer. If music is playing I want to dance, not write.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Read something non–fiction that relates in some way to what I’m writing. Could be anything from old medical journals to cook books. Or I’ll put a TK in the text, skip the part that is giving me trouble, and go on to the next part that interests me.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

Editing is my favorite part. I’ve learned to love the red pen and going through and eviscerating my own text. It’s kind of cathartic. I also have a team of excellent beta readers and fabulous editors.

How do you know when to stop?

I stop between 90,000 and 100,000 words. Under 70,000 if it’s YA. Fortunately I comfortably write at just about 80,000. So for adult, I go back through and add complexity, character development, and detailed descriptions and for YA I cut it back. As for stopping a series of books, well, I believe in leaving the party while I’m still enjoying it, and (more importantly) while others are still appreciating my company. The same goes for writing.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Honestly and rather crudely?

1. Sit your arse in that chair and write.

2. When you’re done writing only then do you get to edit.

3. Give it to three highly critical people to attack with red pens.

4. Fix it and submit it.

5. Let it go, sit your arse back down and write something else as different from the first as possible.

6. Wash and repeat.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

Whatever I’m writing next.

What are you working on now?

The first book in a new adult series, the Parasol Protectorate Abroad. The first one, Prudence, follows a crack team of specialists infiltrators as they fix unfixable issues around the British Empire in a steampunk 1890s.

I’d like to thank today’s author, Gail Carriger for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

New York Times Bestselling author Gail Carriger writes to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriate Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She escaped small town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in Higher Learning. Ms. Carriger then traveled the historic cities of Europe, subsisting entirely on biscuits secreted in her handbag. She resides in the Colonies, surrounded by fantastic shoes, where she insists on tea imported from London.

Visit Gail Carriger online:

Website:  http://www.gailcarriger.com

Blog:  Live Journal http://gailcarriger.livejournal.com/  Blogspot http://gailcarriger.blogspot.com/ Fashion Blog ttp://retrorack.blogspot.com/

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/gailcarriger Parasol Protectorate Facebook Group  https://www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_219404904739279

Twitter:   http://twitter.com/gailcarriger

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Gail-Carriger/e/B002BML6TE/ref=sr_tc_ep?qid=1340322238

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New York Times Bestselling Author
David Gerrold

Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by, David Gerrold, the author of over 50 books, including “The War Against the Chtorr” series of Science Fiction novels.

David is also the author of the most popular episode of the original Star Trek series, “Trouble with Tribbles.”

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

By accident.  I really wanted to produce and direct. But they were paying me to write, and it seemed like a fun to make money without really working. Writing is seductive. It distracts you from other, more important things.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

When I cashed the check.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

There used to be an odd little store on Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood, but since the neighborhood has been redeveloped, I’m now picking up used ideas at yard sales and flea markets. It’s amazing what a bit of rust remover and a new paint job can accomplish.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

I ask one essential question.  What’s missing that keeps me from believing it?

What would I have to see in these people for me to believe in them? What would I have to see in this situation or in this circumstance for me to believe in it?   (There are no Earthlike planets. There are only lazy writers.)

Genre

What kind of Science Fiction do you enjoy working with?

Anything that makes me gasp in surprise and say, “Wow! I didn’t know that.”  If I postulate that X is possible, the fun is in discovering the consequences, both intended and unintended.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

Wealth.  Oh, wait. That’s not a genre, is it?  I don’t think in terms of genres. I think in terms of story.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

Not anymore. That takes away the surprise of discovery. Now I just point myself in a direction and start typing.

Plot

How do you build your story?

One piece at a time.

All writing is list-making. Really. Whether you’re writing a shopping list, a to-do list, code for a computer program, a book report, an essay, or a novel. The essential question is simply, “What comes next?” Ask that question and there’s no such thing as a block.

If you don’t know what comes next, then do the opposite of the obvious. Surprise yourself. Throw a monkey wrench into the machinery. Make the situation even worse for the hero.

Spider Robinson says, and I will cheerfully steal this bit of wisdom from him because he’s stolen several of my best puns (“the shortest distance between two puns is a straight line”) that the job of the writer is to surprise the reader. There should be a surprise in every chapter, on every page, in every paragraph, even in every sentence.

I would add to that, the surprises should be truthful, elegant, and eloquent.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

Doing what’s right in the face of massive disagreement. For some people, heroism is getting out of bed and facing the day. The single mother who works two jobs so her kid can go to college is a hero. The gay guys who adopt unwanted special needs kids are heroes. The guy who refuses to compromise his integrity in business is a hero. Any person who tells the truth is a hero. These are the everyday dragons we all have to fight – and it’s so easy to just give in and give up and go along that it takes deliberate and conscientious effort to say, “No, I will not sell out, I will not give up, I will not quit.” Heroism is taking a stand and living that stand.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

Whitlaw would probably say, “He’s doing the best with what he has.”

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

So far, about sixty-eight years.

I don’t know what it’s like for other writers, but 90% of what I do in life is research. (The other 10% is lying awake nights and planning revenge. This is because 90% of all fiction is about revenge in one form or another.) I walk around the world, looking at everything, especially people, muttering “source material, it’s all source material” and then like last night’s beans in this morning’s bath tub, it bubbles up again in unexpected places.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

I’m fascinated with Luna and Mars, of course. I’ve got a planet named Hella I’m working on that’s still in its Jurassic era. And of course the homeworld (or whatever passes for it) of the Chtorran invasion is on the list.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it? 

I know the feeling of the story when I start writing, that helps me find the voice of it. But purpose? Hell, I still haven’t figured out my smartphone.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Be grateful it happens in that order.

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I had a routine, but my backup singers quit to form their own group.

I can write anywhere I can sit with a keyboard, but my big computer sits in the front room of the house so I can watch the neighbors’ big black cat stalk gophers.

I listen to music, a lot.  The Beatles, ELO, Pink Floyd, Beethoven, Saint-Saens, Gershwin, Vangelis, Tchaikovsky, Harry Nilsson. I confess to a weakness for actual melody.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Can’t say. Never had one. (Honest.) I’m genuinely puzzled by the whole phenomenon. All I have to do is ask two questions:  1) Why was I enthusiastic about writing this story in the first place—what was the feeling that got me excited about writing it?  Can I get back into that feeling?  And:  2) So, okay, what comes next?

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

Don’t break it in the first place.  But look—no story is ever really broken. A story is a palimpsest, a series of corrections one on top of another. The mistakes you make along the way are part of the process of discovering what the story isn’t about, so you can find out what it is about.

If you feel the story has bogged down, go through it and cut out every piece of bullshit you can find. Bullshit is lies—but it disguises itself as explanations, justifications, rationalizations, excuses, and everything else we do to avoid accountability, which is really about avoiding being in the moment. So take out all the explanations and let the story tell itself.  It also helps to cut adverbs and adjectives too.

Cut what doesn’t work and see what’s left.

How do you know when to stop?

There’s an old joke. Why did God invent the orgasm?  So writers would know when to stop masturbating.  Does that help?

You stop when there’s nothing left to say. An occasional, “God, I’m good,” is allowable. But wash your hands afterward.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers? 

Quit. If you can be discouraged, you will be discouraged – so quit now and save yourself a lot of time and energy and anguish. If hearing this pisses you off then you might actually have enough determination to finish something and send it out.

But there’s another reason why I think quitting should be considered as an option:

There are a lot of great writers in the world, they write because they have something important to say and they can say it in an entertaining way – but there are a lot more, a multitude more, of writers who write because they just don’t know how to do anything else. The world doesn’t need any more second-rate writers.  We’re already up to our ass in dreadful books. (Some of them are mine.) What this world does need is good plumbers, good doctors, good scientists, good people rolling up their sleeves and making a difference for others. A good writer can do that, but a second-rate writer just wastes people’s time.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

The Martian Child.  First I lived it, then I reported what I’d lived.

What are you working on now?

I have a dozen short stories I want to finish, three novels, two screenplays, and some updates to previous work. I also have a twice-a-month column for SD Times and I’ll be doing “metatorials” for a new online radio station.  It’s a good thing I’m retired or I wouldn’t have the time for any of it.

And yes, I am working on that book too.

I’d like to thank today’s author, David Gerrold for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

David Gerrold is a Science Fiction author who started his career in 1966 while a college student by submitting an unsolicited story outline for the TV series Star Trek. He was invited to submit several premises, and the one chosen by Star Trek was filmed as”The Trouble with Tribbles”  and became one of the most popular episodes of the original series. Gerrold’s novelette “The Martian Child” won both Hugo and Nebula Awards.

Visit David Gerrold online:

Website:  http://www.gerrold.com/

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/david.gerrold

Twitter:  @DavidGerrold

Got Tribbles?  http://www.TribbleToys.com

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New York Times Bestselling Author
Raymond Feist

Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by, Raymond Feist, the author of “Magician,” which began a series of novels in the Riftwar Universe.  Raymond Feist has sold over 15 million books and his novels have been translated into several languages.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

By accident.  I was involved in a fantasy role playing game in college and started dabbling in silly stories set in that universe, then one day got a bug to tell a serious story, which evolved into my first book, Magician.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

I was half way through Magician when I got laid off of work.  My friends took me to dinner and volunteered to help me pay my rent and buy food so I could finish the novel.  That’s when I realized other people thought I had what it took.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

One of the most asked annoying questions out there.  Everyone has ideas.  Everyone daydreams a little now and again.  But writers take odd ideas and thoughts, random stuff, and grab it and wrestle it into stories.  That’s why we’re writings.  I think it was Ted Sturgeon who told me to answer, “Tell them it’s a service in Des Moines, and they send you three ideas a month; you get to keep one but must send the other two back.”

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

Well, that’s the process isn’t it?  That’s what makes a writer a storyteller and not a bank clerk.  Mostly I start with “OK, who’s the point of view character(s)?  How’d they get where they are?  Why should I care about them?  And how is this all going to turn out?”

Too many young writers think there’s a one size fits all answer, and it’s unique to every one of us.  You work how you work.  If you need to dress up in a hoodie, sweat pants, and play meditative new age stuff to write, it’s no help that some other writer is naked, with the air conditioning cranked up to high, drinking pots of coffee while listening to heavy metal rock.  Every aspect of the writing process is personal and unique.  There are no tricks or shortcuts.  This is what it means to learn one’s craft.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

Mine are always character driven.  I don’t care what sort of nonsense the character is facing, the character has to be someone I care about, so the reader cares about him/her.  I like stories that explore the human condition, what it is to make tough choices, about the price paid for sacrifice and serving the greater good.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

I’d love to do an Elmore Leonard “Get Shorty” type farce/crime novel.  I have a couple of science fiction ideas, and I would love to do an historical.  I most likely will never get time to do it, and as long as I’m successful writing fantasy, that’s most likely what I’ll continue to do.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

No.  I tried it once and threw it away half way through the third chapter.  I have to know how the story is going to end.  Then I start with that goal in mind, but along the way I often surprise myself.  I find my sub-conscious does the really heavy lifting that way.

Plot

How do you build your story?

Each story is unique. And it’s easy to confuse plot and story.  A lot of young writers don’t understand the difference. “King dies, queen dies,” is a plot.  “King dies, queen dies of a broken heart,” is a story.   My father was in film & TV, director, producer, writer.  He would say things to me that stuck.  Here are two I’ll pass along: 1) you’ve got to give the reader someone to root for.  2) if it’s not action, you’re writing about talking heads; if they’re talking heads, they better be saying something important.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

I’m assuming you mean hero and not protagonist?  Because a protagonist can be a villain or non-entity.   A hero is, as Hemingway opined, someone who shows “grace under pressure.”  I’d go father and say it’s someone who does what needs to be done despite fear.  A fearless character really isn’t a hero; he/she is actually sort of stupid if without fear.  There is no consequence if there is no fear.  A hero needs to know what the stakes are and make the choice that’s the right choice, irrespective of consequences.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

Opinionated know-it-all, but a snappy dresser.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

Little,really.  At a certain age you’ve traveled enough, seen enough National Geographic travelogs, read enough books, that you have some sense of setting.  You know you’re not going to find cactus at the beach, unless over the hill is sand dunes and desert.  You know you’re not going to find pine trees in the tropics, or orchids in the Arctic.  And if you need details, back in the day was the encyclopedia, and today the internet.  It only takes a few minutes to find out just where you mine copper, but fans won’t forgive you if you claim something true they know to be wrong.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

I’m not entirely sure what that question means?  If I were doing historicals or police procedure I’d name a country or city, but for fantasy, I build the wold, not explore it.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

It’s to entertain.  Any “theme” is a happy accident.  If there’s a moral message, a life lesson, an insight to the human condition or any meme, trope, or cliché, it’s by accident.  Sometimes I’ll look back and say, “Oh, I just made a comment on moral consequences!”  but I never plan that.  Anyone who is about messages should be writing op-ed pieces or Sunday homilies, not adventure fiction.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

I’ve written 30 novels and a dozen stories.  No one line stands out.

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I like writing first thing in the morning.  I like to get out and do stuff in the afternoon.  And on nights like this one, I like to be in my favorite sports bar with a cigar and a scotch as the game starts on their giant flat screen TV–a beautiful bartender or waitress is a value added.

I think for me, mornings are when I’m sharpest.  I’ve had my all day/all night marathons on deadline and the work’s OK, but I enjoy it more in the morning.  I’m rested, fresh, and the ideas come.  My ex-wife was also a writer and she preferred working from midnight until 4 or 5 am, then she’s sleep ’til noon (this was before kids).

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I don’t believe in it.  I think it’s romanticizing personal angst or some other issue and needs to be debunked.  Harlan Ellison had years of “writers block” then got his health in order, and suddenly he was writing again.  I think “writers block” is your brain saying, “Hey, dummy, you’ve got some other stuff to take care of and I’m not going to let you create until you do.”  So if it’s personal finances, a bad relationship, a horrible boss, clinical depression, physical health issues, whatever it is, deal with it first.  Now, to be clear, I have written through all of the above, so I’m not suggesting you spend a year with Doctor Phil and join a macro biotic lunch club and get a gym membership, move to the top of a hill, and win the Lotto (thought that would be lovely).  I’m suggesting that when you hit that wall you think of as block, there’s something you absolutely need to deal with NOW.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I don’t.  Just don’t break it in the first place.

How do you know when to stop?

You MUST where that is before you start.  Else you’re going to wander like Moses and the Israelites for forty years looking for the end.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Just write.  Writing is the only art form where most people have the vanity to think they can be effective.  No one looks at a canvas and paints and thinks they can paint a masterpiece without training or study.  No one picks up a violin and plays brilliantly.  No one gets a part in a broadway play just walking in off the street.  You need practice.  If you want to play piano, practice.  If you want to play Chopin well, practice a lot.  If you want to play Chopin in Carnegie Hall, practice a lot for years. If you want to be a pro writer, practice a lot (the years are flexible depending on your talent level).

No short cuts.  No secret pro writer tricks.  No magic in the box.  Just practice writing.  I have what I call “30 years of writer’s muscle memory,” so I can pound out as much as 30 pages a day if I need to, and they’ll mostly be pretty good.  But you notice the 30 years part?

Practice.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

Hmm.  Hadn’t thought of that one.  I guess lots of shotgun shells, bags of potato chips and beef jerky, many cases of scotch, and at least one seriously hot lady who doesn’t want to have her face eaten.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

My next book.

What are you working on now?

Magician’s End, the last book in my Riftwar Cycle, Book III of the Chaoswar Saga.

I’d like to thank today’s author, Raymond Feist for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Raymond E. Feist is a Californian by birth, a San Diegan by choice.  He was educated at the University of California, San Diego, holding a BA in Communication Arts: Mass Market and Public Opinion.  Feist is the author of thirty novels, have appeared repeatedly on the New York Times Bestseller List, the Times (London) Bestseller List, Publishers Weekly Bestseller list, and numerous regional bestseller lists.  He is the father of two children he adores, and enjoys football of all times in several countries, collecting wine, reading history and biography, and the company of intelligent, beautiful women.

Visit Raymond Feist online:

Website:  www.crydee.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/refeist

Twitter:  @refeist

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Paranormal Author
Mary Janice Davidson

Better Storytelling Secrets
Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’m joined by New York Times bestselling Paranormal Romance author MaryJanice Davidson, the creator of the Boffo series and the Undead series.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

I was an Air Force brat, so we were always moving and I was always the new kid.  Rather than put myself out there and make friends I knew I’d leave in less than a year, I wrote stories.  When I was 13, we moved to Minnesota and I went to the same school for the next four years…long enough for people to get to know me, to ask why I was always writing in class.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

When kids started waiting for me by my locker to ask how the stories ended!

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

Everywhere!  From my every day life, from magazines and books.  My story ideas breed pretty easily; I can be working on one book and get ideas for four more while researching the first one.  The world is full of weirdness; it’s not hard for me to find stuff to write about.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

I do a lot of “what if…?” until things make some sense.  What if…an ordinary woman with an ordinary life got fired and killed on the same day, and came back as not just a vampire, but as the queen of the vampires?  And what if she has a lot of the problems that come from being a vampire  as well as the everyday problems of being unemployed (“Will my social security number still work even though I’m dead?”)?  And what if…?  And I keep doing that until I can answer them all.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

Right now my preference is paranormal romance as well as suspense.  I’m contracted for two different series right now, and the nice thing about the Undead series is that there’s very little police procedural happening, and the nice thing about my FBI/BOFFO series is that there’s absolutely no paranormal in it.  If I get stuck on a chapter in one universe, I can skip over to the other one and work on it for a while until I’m un-stuck.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

I’ve always been tempted to do a historical, especially a fish out of water story (modern hero or heroine finds themselves back in sixteenth century England, or what-have-you), but the amount of research would be daunting!  I’d also love to write a non-fiction book about writing…how to write a query letter, how to pitch an editor, deciding if you need an agent or an editor or both, how to sell your book to the movies…like that.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

Yeah, I have to…it’s in my contract! J  I’ll usually write a three to five page outline so my editors know what the story’s about and where it’s going.  The funny thing is, I’ll be halfway through actually writing the book and will get a much better idea of who the villain is or their motivations, and I’ll finish the book accordingly.  So often my outline and my book have different endings.  D’oh!

Plot

How do you build your story?

I follow the “what if…?” questions; they’re like my bricks, and one gets stacked on top of another and another and another until the house is done.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

To me, a hero is someone who manages to do the right thing even when they’re terrified.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

Um…”power hungry asshat”?

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

It depends on the setting—I spend months and months researching my BOFFO trilogy because I’m not only not in law enforcement, I don’t have a psychiatric background.  I know just enough to understand I don’t know anything.  The UNDEAD books don’t need as much because I make the rules (Betsy can handle crosses, holy water doesn’t bother her, etc.).  Though I do get the occasional disgruntled fan mail that begins, “In real life, vampires wouldn’t do that” or, “Your werewolves defy all laws of physics!”  Um…thanks for setting me straight?

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

Hell!  No, really: literally hell.  One of my characters is the Anti-Christ, and…

SPOILER FOR UNDEAD AND UNSTABLE

SPOILER

SPOILER

SPOILER

…and Betsy, the vampire queen, actually kills Satan at the end of UNSTABLE.  So the Anti-Christ, Laura, inherits hell.  I’d love to do a spinoff from the Undead books with Laura as the heroine.  As with the Undead series, Laura would have real-world problems as well as paranormal problems.  Also, who can’t relate to the nightmare of starting a job which you have no training or aptitude for?

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

Naw.  Don’t get me right, it’s nice to know the purpose, but often I’m not quite sure where things are going until I get there.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

“Get away from her, you bitch!”  No, wait.  That’s Ripley, from Aliens.  I guess one fave line would be the closing line from Undead and Unwed:  I’m still waiting on the red Beverly Feldman pumps.  Beverly Feldman is a wonderful shoe designer, and her assistant reads the Undead books.  That line led to Beverly sending me a dozen of her designer shoes…for free!

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I write most afternoons…mornings are spent answering reader mail, giving interviews, reading galleys…like that.  In the afternoon I edit whatever I wrote the day before, and try to add at least ten new pages.

The sad thing is, I’m lucky enough to have two houses, and a beautiful office in each, and in both I usually write in the living room on my laptop.  D’oh!  I don’t usually listen to music, but I’ll often have an old movie or show on as background…it’s my white noise.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

By writing two books at the same time (see above).

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I pay strict attention to my editor’s advice!  What also helps is being able to set the manuscript aside for several weeks, then re-read it with fresh eyes.  I recommend that every single writer do that, all the time.  You’ll be amazed at what you missed a month earlier, when you were sick of the sight of the thing.

How do you know when to stop?

When I’ve answered all my “what if…?” questions.  Okay, when I’ve answered most of them.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Besides the set your manuscript aside for weeks or months, I’d advise any writer to never give up.  I had over a decade’s worth of rejection slips…my twenties were all about rejection, frankly.  I didn’t get a book contract until I was 32, UNDEAD AND UNWED came out when I was 33, and I’m 42 now.  The years of rejection were worth it, and vital to improve my writing, but if I’d quit trying to get published in my twenties, you’d be interviewing someone else right now. J

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

A bottle of prescription sleeping pills?  I’d just as soon miss the whole thing.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

I have no idea.  At all.

What are you working on now?

I’m finishing my paranormal anthology, UNDEAD AND UNDERWATER, as well as YOU AND ME, ME AND YOU, the third book in my FBI/BOFFO series.

I’d like to thank today’s author, MaryJanice Davidson for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

MaryJanice Davidson invented a) her children, and b) the vampire chick lit genre. Also the Internet. She is kind to (some) children and (occasional) small animals, and enjoys referring to herself in the third person. Appearing several times a year on the best-seller list, as well as occasional Federal “person of interest” sheets, she takes time from the living hell that is being paid to do what she loves best to seek out the nearest Cinnabon franchise. Her goals include working for world peace, figuring out how to make potstickers, and speaking at writer and reader conferences around the world. (Australia is still recovering.)

Visit MaryJanice Davidson Online:

Website:  http://maryjanicedavidson.net/

Blog:  http://maryjanicedavidson.blogspot.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/maryjanicedavidson

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/MaryJaniceD

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Better Storytelling Secrets — William F. Nolan

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’m joined by William F. Nolan, the award winning author of more than 2000 works of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Western and Mystery.  He is perhaps best known as the co-author of Logan’s Run (along with George Clayton Johnson).

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

I began “serious” writing in 1951, when I compiled and edited the Ray Bradbury Review (out Jan ’52) but I have been writing since age 10 – starting in lined school notebooks. I wrote all through high school (never sending out my work) and in 1954 made my first story sale. Have sold 200 short stories since. (I have no “trunk” stories; all have sold.)

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

When I sold a story to Playboy for $500 written in an hour one Sunday. Until then, writing was mainly a “hobby.”

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

Ideas are everywhere. In comments from friends, in the newspaper, on TV, and so on, but mainly they spring, unbidden, from my imagination. You either have a strong imagination or you don’t.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

I start with an opening line and then add the last line – then fill in the middle. Once I have a plot concept, the rest flows naturally onto the paper.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

I enjoy all types of stories: S-F, horror, humor, mainstream, etc. I like working with dark fantasy or with mystery fiction, or straight character studies.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

None. I have written horror, poetry, Westerns, mystery, fantasy, sports, technical writing, science fiction, and humor. I never limit myself to any one genre.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

For a novel, yes, a “loose” basic outline. Never for short fiction, though I make a lot of notes as to the direction each story should take.

Plot

How do you build your story?

You always (or should) build from an arc of suspense, with a “payoff” (a climax) at story’s end. Each story should have a beginning, middle, and end. I don’t write “fragments.”

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

A great hero is a character who overcomes a great enemy, or performs a truly heroic act.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

“That Nolan guy has written a ton of stuff. He is compelled to write. It is in his blood and bones. And still gets a kick out of seeing his name in print.”

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

Depends on the story. Some require no research. Others a lot. I always double-check my facts.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

The human mind. This is an area that offers endless variations.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

Yes. Otherwise you end up with empty prose. Each story has its own form and shape. I never begin to write unless I know where I’ll end up.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

Every writer can come up with favorite lines. I like many lines in many of my tales, but none I care to quote here. Read my stuff and pick your own!

Writing

Do you have a routine? A certain place to write? Do you listen to music?

I have no routine. I write (always by hand in a first draft) at my desk in my apartment, or at coffee shops. I never listen to music when writing. It’s a distraction.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I don’t have to worry about it since I jump around so much I’ve always got something to write about.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

You cut, tighten, revise – but never in a first “hot” draft. I go over each draft fixing problems as I find them. A first draft is always “rough.”

How do you know when to stop?

My gut tells me when to stop. Actually, once you reach your climax in a tale, then stop.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Write every day. Read other good writers constantly. Read a lot in a variety of fields. Learn from the masters.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

Logan’s Run

What are you working on now?

Eleven books (which will bring my book total past 100). Collections, biographies, verse, anthologies, two novels, etc. Great fun!!

I’d like to thank today’s author, William F. Nolan for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

William F. Nolan writes mostly in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Though best known for co-authoring the classic dystopian science fiction novel Logan’s Run with George Clayton Johnson, Nolan is the author of more than 2000 pieces (fiction, non-fiction, articles and books), and has edited 26 anthologies in his 50+ year career.

An artist, Nolan was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and worked at Hallmark Cards, Inc. and in comic books before becoming an author. In the 1950s, Nolan was an integral part of the writing ensemble known as “The Group,” which included many well-known genre writers, such as Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, John Tomerlin, Richard Matheson, Johnson and others, many of whom wrote for Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Nolan is considered a leading expert on Dashiell Hammett, pulps such as Black Mask and Western Stories, and is the world authority on the works of prolific scribe Max Brand.

Of his numerous awards, there are a few of which he is most proud: being voted a Living Legend in Dark Fantasy by the International Horror Guild in 2002; twice winning the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America; being awarded the honorary title of Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. in 2006, and receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association in 2010.

Visit William F. Nolan online:

Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Nolan

Website:  http://www.williamfnolan.com

Blog:  http://www.williamfnolan.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/williamfnolan

Twitter:  @william_f_nolan

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’m joined by New York Times bestselling author Maria V. Snyder, the author of the Study Series (Poison Study, Magic Study and Fire Study).

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

What started me writing was boredom at work (shhh…don’t tell .  My work was either crazy busy or dead dull – it was during those dull times that I started jotting down the stories that had been swirling around my head.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

After my first novel, Poison Study sold. Up until then I wasn’t sure I knew what I was doing.  I’m still not sure – when I start each novel, it is like a leap of faith, but now when I get stuck, I look at my books and remember I did it before, I can do it again.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?
I get ideas from every where.  And everything I do is all fodder for my writing. All my experiences, all the people I’ve met, all the classes I take, all the books I read, movies I watch, newspapers, magazines, etc…  It is all fuel for the fire of my imagination. I advise aspiring writers to go out and experience life, take classes on anything that interests them and talk to people. I have a notebook full of notes and ideas from my various experiences. I don’t lack for ideas, but for time.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

I usually start with a character in a bad situation, figure out what motivates them and what they want more than anything else.  Then I decide who or what is going to get in her way and then sit down and write.  I discover the rest of the story as I go.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

I’ve been writing mostly fantasy and science fiction stories for both adults and young adults.  My stories all feature a strong female protagonist, have action, adventure and a touch of romance.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?
I grew up reading mysteries, so I would like to write one someday.  I also like romantic suspense and think that would be fun.  And I would like to write a picture book for kids as well.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

Nope.  I’m a pure seat-of-your-pants writer.

Plot

How do you build your story?

I give my main protagonists and antagonists goals and then put obstacles in their way.  How they deal with these obstacles and the consequences of their actions determine how the story will go.  My poor editor has realized by now, that the synopsis I send her before the book is written is my best guess at the time, and the story I write won’t match it at all.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

Someone who is willing to make sacrifices for others.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

Evil and sadistic ;>  My characters face danger and betrayal and horrible situations.  They suffer and are frequently asked to go the distance.  I’m sure they hate me.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

For my fantasy novels, I don’t do a lot of research.  I create my worlds from my imagination.  For my YA dystopian novels, Inside Out and Outside In, the characters are living in an enclosed space, basically a huge metal cube, so I needed to make sure they had the right type of machinery, like air cleaners and waste-water handling systems in places so they could live Inside. For those books, I had to do more research so I had the science and engineering right.  Otherwise, I’d hear about it

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

I’d like to set a story in an inner city environment, and would like to do one set in space.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

Nope.  I discover as I go and sometimes don’t know the purpose until I finish or until I’ve read the book a dozen times.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

Yes.  I have a couple.

From Poison Study – Valek uses darts laced with a sleeping potion to knock out two opponents instead of fighting them and he says, “It’s a dirty way to fight, but I’m late for lunch.”

Also from Poison Study – Yelena asks Valek what happened to the prior food taster and he says, “He didn’t have the stomach for it.”

Valek got all the great lines

And this from Touch of Power – Belen is warning Kerrick to be careful, “…things happen that are out of your control.”
Kerrick gave him a tight smile. “You mean I’m not omnipotent?”
“You’re not even semi-potent.” [Belen]
“Is that even a word?” Kerrick asked.
“He probably means you’re impotent,” I offered.” [Avry]

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I do have a routine.  I write from 10 p.m. at night until 3 or 4 a.m., then sleep until 10 or 11 a.m.  I have an office in my house where I do most of my writing and I do listen to music. Before my dog passed away, I didn’t listen to music as it was too distracting, but when she was gone, it was so quiet in my office (she snored!), so I started listening to music.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I do a variety of things.  First, I take a break – sometimes all I need is some distance from the story.  Second – I take either a long walk or a long shower.  If those don’t work, then I send my pages to my agent.  He reads them and then calls me.  We talk about the story and brainstorm.  Usually during that phone call, I’ll get an idea on what is going to happen next.  I don’t have a fourth as I haven’t needed it yet!

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

The same way I deal with writer’s block.  If I know something is wrong, I’ll ruminate about it and if I still can’t figure out how to fix it, I’ll call my agent.  When I receive comments from my editor and I don’t know what to do, I’ll call her and ask what she is looking for.  Usually when she explains why she wasn’t happy with a certain section or twist, I can see her point and fix the problem.

How do you know when to stop?

For me, ending a story is an instinctual thing.  I’ll get to a certain point or action and just know that’s it.  It’s hard to explain.  As for knowing when to stop revisions, deadlines play a big part in that.  I only have so much time to work on a novel and when my deadline arrives, then I send it in.  I do get a chance to revise a couple more times before the book is printed.  For new writers you have to remember it’s never going to be perfect and after five or six revisions that is enough and it’s time to start submitting.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Persistence!  I’d been writing for ten years and submitting for eight before I sold anything. Learn the craft of writing as well as the business of writing and attend writer’s conferences and classes if you can. Consider that time an apprenticeship. Be wary of predators, if someone is asking you for money it’s a bad sign! Get feedback on your stories from fellow writers before submitting. Joining a critique group is very helpful. I also find that if I let a story sit on my desk for a few weeks I can pick out all the problems, typos and inconsistencies easier. And I agree whole heartily with Stephen King’s advice in his book, On Writing. He wrote, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” And don’t give up! Ever!

I have writing articles on my website for anyone who’s interested in learning more.  Here’s the link: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/advice.php

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

I’m heading to North Carolina with my family. My friend Judi has a farm and a walk-in gun safe loaded with weapons.  She and her husband are both sharp-shooters

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

The main protagonist in my first book, Poison Study inspired a young lady so much she decided not to kill herself.  For that act alone, I’d say that was the best thing I wrote and no award or best-selling title can ever beat that.

What are you working on now?

I just finished revisions for the second book in my Healer series, Scent of Magic.  This fall, I’ll be started the third book, Taste of Death.  Right now I’m on vacation at the beach

I’d like to thank today’s author, Maria V. Snyder for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Maria V. Snyder switched careers from meteorologist to novelist when she began writing the New York Times best-selling Study Series (Poison Study, Magic Study and Fire Study) about a young woman who becomes a poison taster. Born in Pennsylvania, Maria earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Meteorology from Pennsylvania State University.  She worked as an environmental meteorologist until boredom and children drove her to write down the stories that had been swirling around in her head. Writing proved to be more enjoyable, and Maria returned to school to earn a Master of Arts degree in writing from Seton Hill University. Unable to part company with Seton Hill’s excellent writing program, Maria is currently a teacher and mentor for the MFA program.

However, Maria’s past meteorological experiences were put to use writing her award-winning Glass Series (Storm Glass, Sea Glass, and Spy Glass), and her environmental experiences with her Insider books (Inside Out and Outside In).

Maria lives with her family and a black cat name Valek (a.k.a. the bug assassin!) in Pennsylvania where she is hard at work on the second book of her Healer Series, Scent of Magic.

Visit Maria V. Snyder online:

Website:  http://www.mariavsnyder.com

Blog:  http://officialmariavsnyder.blogspot.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook/mvsfans

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/maria_v_snyder

Readers are welcome to check out her website for book excerpts, free short stories, maps, blog, and her schedule at http://www.MariaVSnyder.com.

Maria also loves hearing from her readers and can be contacted at: maria@mariavsnyder.com.

For a list (and links) of all Maria’s books and to read the first chapter of them, go to: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/books.php

To read free short stories and for excerpts of Maria’s stories in various anthologies, go to: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/shortstories.php

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’m joined by New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn, who wrote the Kitty Norville urban fantasy series.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

I’ve been writing since I was a kid, I wrote my first story when I was about eight.  In high school I decided that’s what I wanted to do for a living and started trying to get published.  It took awhile, but the whole time I was writing, working at getting better, and working to break in.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

I’m not sure I’ve realized it yet.  I’m making a living, which is great and was always my goal.  But I still have a lot to learn and am still working to get better.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

Everywhere.  Things that make me angry, things that make me happy, things I love, things I hate, music, the outdoors, news, history, everything.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

I just keep pecking away at it.  I figure out who the characters involved are, I figure out how they got into the situation and how they’re going to get out of it.  I smoosh several ideas together at once to see what happens.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

Science fiction and fantasy, big epic settings, the fantastic, anything that makes me think, “Wow.”

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

I’d like to write a novel-length love story at some point, just because it’s something I haven’t tackled yet.  Also, space opera.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

I try to, though the outline never reveals as much as I’d like it do.  I always make new discoveries as I write.

Plot

How do you build your story?

I just keep asking questions.  What happens next?  Why?  How does it tie back to what happened before?  Then what?

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

Heart.  They don’t need to be great, or the most powerful, or the chosen one, or whatever.  They have to have a good heart.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

No clue.  It depends on the character, I suppose.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

It depends on the story.  Quite a bit, because the better picture of the setting I have in my head, the clearer it will be on the page.  And I like to travel.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

As I said earlier, space opera, and I’d like it to be semi-accurate, which will require a bit of astronomy research, which I enjoy so it isn’t a hardship.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

Maybe in a general sense, but the threads more often reveal themselves in the course of writing.  Theme usually comes through more strongly in the revision.  I usually know the end of a story before I start.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

Pretty much anything Kitty says is awesome, I think.

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I do listen to music.  I try to write every day, but I don’t always write at the same time of day.  I’m usually at my desk and computer, though I’ll wander off with a notebook and pen every now and then.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

If I’m blocked it usually means the story has taken a wrong turn.  Usually, I’ll set that project aside and work on something else for a few days.  By the time I come back to the blocked piece, I’ve had a chance to work out what’s wrong and what I need to do next to get it started again.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I listen to my gut.  If something’s boring or not working right, my gut will usually tell me.  I try to rework the outline and make sure what the story is actually saying matches what I want it to say.  You’d be surprised how often that isn’t the case.  I try to read from the point of view of a reader, not a writer.

How do you know when to stop?

When it looks right.  When I can’t think of anything else to do to it.  When I stop thinking, “Oh, no one will notice if I leave this broken bit there…”

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Write a lot.  Read a lot.  Analyze what you read.  Try to do the stuff you like in other books, avoid doing the stuff you hate in other books.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

Antibiotics.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

My opinion on that keeps changing.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on the sequel to my superhero novel, After the Golden Age, as well as various short stories and planning the next Kitty books.

I’d like to thank today’s author, Carrie Vaughn for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Carrie Vaughn is the author of the New York Times bestselling series of novels about a werewolf named Kitty, the most recent of which is Kitty Steals the Show.  She also wrote the young adult novels Voices of Dragons and Steel, and the novels Discord’s Apple and After the Golden Age.  She’s a contributor to the Wild Cards series of shared world superhero books edited by George R. R. Martin, and her short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies.  An Air Force brat, she survived her nomadic childhood and managed to put down roots in Boulder, Colorado.

Visit Carrie Vaughn online:

Website:  www.carrievaughn.com

Blog:  carriev.wordpress.com

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’m joined by Trudi Canavan, the bestselling author of the Black Magician Trilogy.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

Somewhere between seeing The Empire Strikes Back as a child and reading The Lord of the Rings as a teen. The first gave me a desire to make up world and characters and tell stories about them, and the second focused that into a desire to write those stories.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

I guess when you’re a child or teenager you simple assume you have what it takes, reinforced by adults who say you can do anything if you work hard enough. But the first real confirmation was when my first short story was accepted for publication by Aurealis magazine.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

Inspiration, for me, comes from both the real world and other peoples’ invented ones. I see how things are or were in this world and try to imagine how a fantasy element might have influenced them. I examine at what other storytellers – writers, film and tv show makers, etc. – have done to see if it could be taken further, or sideways. And perhaps more importantly, what they haven’t done or haven’t done recently.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

First I take notes and let it evolve in my head and perhaps do some research. Then once the story arc is fully formed I’ll write an outline. After that it depends on the length of the story. If it’s a short story or novella I wait until I get the time and inclination to write it. If it’s a book, well, unless it’s the one I’m next contracted to write it has to sit and wait its turn.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

Fantasy mostly. Fantasy set in other worlds to this one. But when I write short stories I’m as likely to write fantasy set in the modern world, or horror, or science fiction. I’ve even found myself writing a fantasy romance knitting lit short story.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

I have an idea for a young adult horror novel waiting for me to find the time to write it. Horror is the genre I’d be most likely to explore, though I had so much fun writing that fantasy romance knit lit story that I might also head in that direction one day.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

Yes.

Plot

How do you build your story?

I start from the start and write on through to the end. So long as my outline has all the essential prompts, I don’t feel the need to write later scenes before I get to them. There’s room in it to deviate a little, and I once inserted a new character when I felt there was a perspective not well covered, but the main events in the main plot don’t usually change. Also, if I have several point of view characters I keep track of how their stories keep pace with each other by setting up a table.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

That they’re a character you can sympathise with, despite their flaws.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

They’d probably find me a bit boring. Or they’d resent me for all the nasty things I’ve done to them.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

That’s impossible to calculate, since I am always sucking in information that could be useful or inspiring. There will always be subjects that I need to look into specifically for a particular book, but that will only be a small portion of information gathering compared to what I seek and absorb every day. One piece of advice I give new writers is to maintain a constant state of curiosity about everything. Read, watch documentaries, talk to people, try things out for yourself. Never stop learning.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

All of them.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

The main purpose of a story is to entertain and stimulate the reader. You might hope to get them thinking about something they hadn’t thought about before, but that’s best done by raising questions, not preaching answers at them.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

Plenty – though I suspect some mean more to me than to anyone else. I designed some badges to give away at signings last year, and picked a few quotes from my books that even people who hadn’t read them might find amusing. My favourite is: “I can’t lie around all day, I’m on a Quest.” And then there’s ‘that’ line from the end of The High Lord (which is a spoiler, so I won’t repeat it here).

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I have a big studio at home, where I write as well as practice art and various hobbies (never stop learning). Mornings are generally for all the non-writing writing tasks like interviews, blog posts, email, etc. Afternoons suit me best for writing. I don’t play music much any more, as I find the mood of the music doesn’t always follow the mood of the scene I’m writing. Instead I might play certain tracks before writing, to get me into a particular frame of mind to write a specific scene.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I don’t get writers blog; I get writers procrastination. You see, I can always think of something to write, but it isn’t always the thing I’m supposed to be writing. The solution is discipline. Making myself sit down and start is usually all it takes.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I get feedback and compare it, come up with possible solutions, do more outlining to see which ones will work, then get stuck into the hard work of applying it. Often the solution is already there, in a peripheral character or plot strand or detail about the world.

How do you know when to stop?

When I’ve reached the end. I don’t start writing a story – I don’t even write an outline – until I know how it will end.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Write. It’s said it takes ten thousand hours to be good at something, so get to work. Write what you enjoy, because readers can tell if you aren’t, and most writers don’t make enough money from it to make it worthwhile if they don’t. Seek to improve constantly. Never stop learning. Oh – and read my Writing Advice page on my website.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

Find a little secret island paradise where my friends and I will grow and catch our own food – assuming zombies can’t swim.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

The last really cool scene I wrote, before I go back and start polishing.

What are you working on now?

A new fantasy trilogy called Millennium’s Rule. It’s set in a multiple-world scenario, which allows me to have diverse cultures and technology, from primitive to medieval to post-industrial. Particularly powerful sorcerers can travel between worlds, and some make a living by trading between them. But not every sorcerer’s motivations are as peaceful and beneficial as trade.

I’d like to thank today’s author, Trudi Canavan for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Trudi Canavan lives in Melbourne, Australia. She has been making up stories about people and places that don’t exist for as long as she can remember. Her first short story, “Whispers of the Mist Children”, received an Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Short Story in 1999. Soon after, her bestselling Black Magician Trilogy was published, and in 2010 was named an ‘Evergreen’ by The Bookseller. The Age of the Five trilogy followed, then a prequel and sequel to Black Magician Trilogy. The prequel, The Magician’s Apprentice won the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2009.

Website/Blog:  www.trudicanavan.com

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/TrudiCanavan

Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/trudicanavan/

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’d like to feature an Urban Fantasy writer, Karen Chance, the author of numerous books and short stories, including “Touch in the Dark,” and “Midnight’s Daughter.”

Karen has a very instinctive approach to writing.

Here’s an excerpt from an online Q&A series on her views on writing for her readers (used with the author’s permission):

QUESTION 6:         

“My sister is in the second year of her GCSE and is interested in becoming a writer, could you give me some advice to help her on the steps she needs to take to be able to do this?”

Okay, so this question came up on the wall, and there was no way to answer it there (as you can see if you scroll down, the answer is stupidly long, and that’s the condensed version.)  But I wanted to answer it somewhere because I get this pretty often. And although it won’t interest most people in the slightest, for those contemplating a writing career, it might be somewhat useful.

So.  There are two answers to your question, depending on what you meant by “steps.” If you’re asking how someone submits something they’ve written to a publisher, the answer is fairly simple.

I usually suggest that people pick up The Writer’s Market  (http://www.amazon.com/2012-Writers-Market-Robert-Brewer/dp/1599632268), which can also often be found at your local library (in case you just want a quick reference.) It explains the basics, like how to write a decent cover letter and what to include in a submission packet, and has names and addresses for agents, editors and most publishing houses. It helps to send your manuscript only to those editors who handle the kind of work you do (fantasy, mystery, romance, etc.) as otherwise you’re wasting their time and your postage. It also helps to pay attention to which houses read unsolicited manuscripts (those without an agent’s recommendation) and which do not. The process is pretty straightforward, and while it may help to attend a few writers’ conferences to pick up additional tips or to meet editors in person, it’s not really necessary.  Basically, you will get published if your writing engages an editor’s interest and happens to be what he or she is looking for at the time.

Okay, then.  That was pretty easy, right?  And if all you’re looking for is technical advice, you can stop reading right there.  If, however, you are actually asking not how to get published, but how to write, then the answer is a little more complicated.

There are tons of guides online that promise to teach you how to write (some freebies are here: http://diplomaguide.com/articles/Online_Creative_Writing_Courses_Offered_Free_by_Top_Universities_and_Educational_Websites.html ) and there are plenty of other people who will be happy to sell you a writing course, magazine, or book purporting to do the same. And, of course, you can also go to university and specialize in fiction writing.  But will any of this really help?

Um.

Here’s the thing.  My personal opinion is that writing courses (the better ones, anyway) are useful for certain things: improving your grammar, giving you the motivation to write, and/or providing you with practice.  And therefore I certainly wouldn’t call them useless.  But what they can teach you is going to be limited.

You see, I took some creative writing classes in college.  And while they were fun, I can’t honestly say that they taught me anything. The problem is that writing isn’t a science, it’s an art. And art isn’t about a set of formulae that you can memorize or rules that you can learn. Art doesn’t follow the rules. Art bends the rules, shatters them, breaks them into tiny pieces and stomps on the bits, and then (hopefully) builds something new out of the rubble. And it tends to be more instinctive than learned, which makes it very hard to teach.

So giving useful advice to the would-be artist is tough.  Not that that is going to stop me from trying, of course. To keep this from being ridiculously long (too late), I’m going to boil my advice down to three main points.

So you want to be a writer?  First ask yourself three things:

A. Do you have the talent?

And no, it isn’t always that easy to tell.  For example, my first novel (which was never published, thank God) was actually written a number of years ago. And it was bad.  So bad, that it probably doesn’t even deserve the name of “novel.”  Even book is too good for it.  Waste of paper might be edging up on the truth, but still misses the mark by quite a bit.  Not to put too fine a point on it, it blew. But did that incredibly bad first book stop me from inflicting my “talent” on others?  No. No, it did not.

Now, this could have ended several different ways.  I know this because I was also passionate about something else, namely music.  I was going to be a great pianist.  Or possibly a flute player (that’s flautist to us in-the-know musical types.)  Or possibly the guitar…

I wasn’t real clear on the instrument, but damn, did I want to play something.  Until, at long last, I finally realized that there was a slight problem with this plan: namely, that I have no musical talent.  And I don’t mean I have a little but was too lazy to develop it.  I mean I do not have the skills.  Not mad skills; not any skills.  I am the musical equivalent of Forrest Gump.

The difference between these two things was that, with a lot of practice and effort, I did get better at writing.  I was practicing on history papers, of course, not fiction, but certain things carry over.  But if I hadn’t stuck with both of my dreams, I would never have known which was feasible and which was so very not.  And neither will you.

B.  Do you have the knowledge? 

Because, yeah, that grammar stuff? You kind of need that.  Not that writers don’t break the rules all the time–like I said before, that’s even kind of the point.  But you do need to know the basics before you start amending them á la Shakespeare.  And how long does that take?

Well, according to Learning from Wonderful Lives by Nick Baylis, becoming proficient at something—to the point that people will pay you to do it—takes around ten thousand hours.  And that’s assuming you have the aptitude we talked about above.  He examined the lives of successful professionals from a number of fields, added up the study/practice time it took for them to master their craft, and it always seemed to work out to the same thing.

So how much is that?  Roughly speaking, ten thousand hours is ten years of practicing three hours a day, every day. And if that seems like a lot…well, that’s because it is.  But that seems to be about how long it takes for most people to become truly proficient at something, at least according to Baylis. Do I agree with him?  I don’t know that I do entirely, because people are all different, and making hard and fast rules for humanity is always problematic. But I will say this: I scoffed when I first heard that ridiculous number, until I did a little math.  And figured out that the amount of writing I did in my graduate work was probably something around…ten thousand hours.

Coincidence?  Possibly.  But remember my first book?  The one that was so bad it is actually painful for me to recall it today? Because the same person who wrote that, ten thousand hours later, wrote some essays that earned me a rather nice scholarship during my Ph.D. A rather nice scholarship that funded a year of my education and came from the English department at my university.

Yeah. There are English grad students who still haven’t gotten over that. A historian beat them at their own game, at their own university, in their own department.  But it didn’t come easy.  And it didn’t come fast.

Want to be a writer?  Practice.

C.  Do you have the drive?

This is last, because it’s probably the one that gets the most people in trouble. It doesn’t do any good to have all the talent and proficiency in the world if you never use it. Of course, people have good reasons for why they don’t write that book they’re always talking about: they have jobs that take up most of their time; they have kids they prioritize above their hobbies; they just don’t ever seem to be in the mood.  And so they don’t write.  Or they write, but they put out a short story now and again, or some fan fiction, and call it a day.  But to be a professional writer, you have to write all the time.

Unless you’re one of the lucky few who gets published in hardback, you will need to put out at least a book a year, every year, just to make a living.  For example, this year I published a 142,000-word novel, an 8,000-word short story, and a 25,000-word novella. That’s 175,000 words, and the year isn’t over yet.  And those are just the words I deemed good enough to make the cut.  The real total…well, let’s just say it was higher. Last year, I put out a little over 200,000 words.  I will probably do about the same next year, or maybe a bit more.

So what’s my point?  That when it’s a job, it’s a little different than when it’s a hobby.  It isn’t possible just to write when you’re in the mood or when inspiration strikes.  You have to hunt inspiration down and make it your bitch. You have to do this each and every day, and often for longer hours than if you had a nine-to-five job.  And you have to do it well. Writing, despite what people sometimes think, actually is hard work, and yet you don’t get a pension plan, or medical insurance, or even have your employer chip in on your SSI (that’s social security taxes, for those outside the U.S.)  So your tax rate is considerably higher than usual.

Still want to be a writer?

Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do. Okay, most days I do. But I think prospective writers need to know the truth before they decide on this as a career path. It has some wonderful rewards—little is ever as satisfying as having people get enjoyment from one of your books.  Just make sure you investigate the downside, too, and that it is something you can live with.

So, after all that, if you still want to write, what do you do?  You write.  Take classes if they help you, study your craft, and practice, practice, practice.  Then tell your stories, the ones you’re passionate about, the ones that just have to come out whether you get paid for them or not. And submit them.  And maybe one day, I’ll be reading your books.

Note:  If you’d like to read the entire article, here is a link:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=175284052552717

Also, are a few more words of advice from Karen Chance:

http://www.karenchance.com/author.html

I’d like to thank today’s author, Karen Chance, for permission to reprint her comments on writing.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Karen Chance is a New York Times bestselling Urban Fantasy author.  She has created two series of books:  The Cassandra Palmer series and the Dorina Basarab series.

Visit Karen Chance online:

Website: http://www.karenchance.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/KarenChanceBooks?sk=notes

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’m joined by, Steven Erikson, the author of the epic fantasy series, “The Malazan Book of the Fallen,” which begins with the novel, “The Gardens of the Moon.”

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

A:  In my early twenties, while at university, I worked for a time writing on a faculty newspaper, which was good fun; but I was primarily involved as an illustrator, doing editorial cartoons and a couple strips.  Increasingly, I found that the narrative implicit in my art began to override the drawing element.  I then took an elective course in Creative Writing, and that set me on my way.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

A:  Hard to say.  I worked a lot of other jobs, but never stopped writing, never stopped trying to crack the publishing wall.  Even doing archaeology, which I loved, was never quite as fulfilling as writing.  As with most writers, I suspect, it’s all down to doing as much writing as possible, and never giving up.  So, what ‘it takes’ is nothing more than stubbornness.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

A:  Most early works in an author’s career possess autobiographical elements (this is often why a first novel makes a serious impact, only for subsequent novels to struggle, as the author mines him or herself out).  I made full use of my archaeology/travel experiences when writing my first collection, and a subsequent novel was a coming of age story drawn heavily from my own youth.  That said, there was always a wild side to my writing, an urge to push a story into outrageous realms, so I did a fair bit of what’s normally called ‘Magic Realism’ but which were, for me, more tall tales than anything else.  I think you have to leave your own backyard (inspiration-wise) as quickly as possible.

Ideas are easy – what one needs to learn is to be ruthless in weighing their worth, before plunging into an enormous exercise in writing them out.  For beginning writers, this is very much a hit or miss exercise, but I would always advise a beginning writer to go easy on themselves, should an idea not pan out.  The effort has value, and some aspect of all that you have done will show up later, in some other work, like a last piece to a jigsaw puzzle.  The important thing is to keep writing, keep hammering away at the craft of narrative – most discoveries are initially stumbled upon, and that’s fine and very much part of the process.  The whole cliché of being one’s own harshest critic is one of dubious worth: sure, you need to have a clear eye when looking upon your own stuff, but pay attention to what that clear eye achieves.  If you lock into a pattern of trashing yourself after every line, every paragraph, every page or every story, what is that inner critic achieving?  Does it leave you depressed?  Ready to quit?  Does it crash your self-esteem?  If so, then the critic has ulterior motives which have nothing to do with writing: it plays mind-game that digs a deep rut and likes cycling you through bouts of sheer misery.  Well, that critic is not your friend, does not have your best interest at heart, and is only out to prove you’re not good enough and never will be.

Conversely, if that critic says ‘all right, it’s okay, I suppose, but you can do better, and here’s how,’ then you have with you a most valuable friend.  If being harsh drives you to work harder, perfect.  That’s a direction with value.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

A:  I look for resonance in an idea.  If it makes ripples on deep water, if it offers up mystery and only the barest hints of what that mystery might be; if it’s daunting, audacious; if it’s challenging to my own cherished set of beliefs and attitudes; if it rears up to challenge all my assumptions – about how the world works, about how people are; if it looks me in the eye and calls me a damned liar, and then sets out to prove it.  That’s my notion of a decent idea.

So, how to develop it into a story?  Throw people at it.  By that, I mean, characters.  Characters who are prepared to challenge the idea, sometimes on your behalf, sometimes just to spite you by being the devil’s advocate – both types need to be in there, otherwise you are at risk of writing propaganda (if every line of your story comforts you, you’re in trouble; if you write to convince yourself and presumably many others, of the truth of your opinions, then you’re being dishonest, not just to your readers, but also to yourself).

Ideas need lots of room (rather, the best ones do).  They need to be ornery, cussing creatures, as likely to snarl at you as smile (and never trust the smile).  They should feel too big, too heavy, so you totter and stumble with it in your arms.  It should scare the crap out of you, and keep scaring you till the very end.  Small ideas?  Really, why bother?  Go for the biggest throat you can wrap your hands around, and start squeezing.

As you might imagine, I’m not one for modest little stories, not one for the barest whiff of epiphany – all that stuff the literary critics cream over.  Sure, subtle is good, but not for its own sake – there needs to be resonance, reverberations that can, potentially, reach through to the soul.  Your soul, as writer, first; then the soul of the reader, and you can’t achieve the latter without first achieving the former.

I recall fighting against the tide when at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop: that attitude that sniffed and said ‘drama?  Hmph, melodrama, you mean!’  As if the two were synonymous.  They aren’t, and the former is damned hard to achieve (which is why the trend was veering away from it in literature at the time.  Maybe still is – I admit to having stopped paying much attention to that genre these days).

The idea has to haunt you.  Writing is the art of grappling with it, and not letting go until at least one of you is down on the ground, gasping, exhausted, worn out.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

A: You can’t have stories without characters, and for me, it’s in characters that I draw the most pleasure.  The plot has function – it is the machine that propels those characters – but it is there for context, for physical manifestations of what matters to the characters (and, by extension, to the writer her or himself).  If a writer ends up manipulating characters to serve the plot, they’ve ended up on the wrong end of the beast.  You devise a plot to manipulate the characters, to drive them ever forward.

So, what I love the most is forcing characters into impossible situations (not impossible plot-wise, but impossible emotionally, spiritually, intellectually), and then watch them fight their way out.  This is the human condition, and the sole purpose for writing anything is to explore the human condition.  There are all kinds of triumph, after all: and some of them feel like defeat, like utter failure.  Some of them can be reduced to merely surviving, pressing on, not giving up.

In a way, every fictional character is recreating the author’s own struggle for meaning, and worth, and fiction is the exercise whereby authors find new and ever-fascinating ways of tracking that spiritual journey.  Readers, witnessing this, come away with a sense of recognition (even if unpleasantly so for some characters, for some paths revealed by the story), and this is at the core of the dialogue between writer and reader: the only honest dialogue available to us (since usually writer and reader are complete strangers to each other, and likely will never meet).

People often ask me if, in the writing of tragic or emotionally charged scenes, I feel the same distress that they did when reading them.  I have always answered that I as the author have to go through the wringer as well – if I don’t, then why would I ever expect my reader to?  All writing is, in this narrative sense, is the author going through hell one step in front of the reader.  Whatever you feel as writer, chances are the reader will feel the same.  Use this as a guiding principle.  Even when you set out to mess with the reader’s head, you have to mess with your own first.

Is it all worth it?  Who knows.  But then, does that question even matter?

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

A:  I leave genre distinctions to critics, academics and whoever else finds the distinctions important.  Though I write Fantasy, and Epic Fantasy at that, I make use of many other genres in the process (mystery, horror, romance, comedy, tragedy, literary, etc).  I’ve done some Science Fiction and enjoyed it, so I may do more, someday.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

A:  My outlines are works-in-progress throughout the period in which I’m writing.  I adjust as I go along, although I usually have a fair idea of where it all ends, and where certain characters need to be, and the things that need to happen on the way there.  But I’m not obsessive about outlines – they’re notes for guidance, and always malleable.  Characters can take charge of scenes and they need to be free to do so – in a novel you can always steer them back eventually.  In a short story, less so, but the idea behind the story needs to remain protean anyway, so a character taking up the pace and running off the track might be a sign that the idea you thought you were working with isn’t the idea exploding on the page in front of you.  Humbling, but always enlightening.

Plot

How do you build your story?

A:  I have closing scenes, and I work them in my head until they haunt me day and night, and writing is just the task of getting my characters to those closing scenes: and the more care I take in precisely how they get there, the more emotional impact I should achieve when those scenes finally arrive.  This notion can be extended across very big novels, and indeed, across an entire series.  The key, for me, is to not rush things, because without all that groundwork laid out before those final scenes, the emotional impact would be less, even non-existent.

I advise inhuman patience as a virtue to strive towards, as a writer.  That, and serious cagey-ness – a reluctance to reveal too much of anything, an aversion to explaining too much, either in expositional narrative or through the mouths of characters.  Every scene needs a sense of mystery, of things barely in focus on the edge of peripheral vision, things just off-stage (this all relates to resonance that ripples right off the page, floating around the head of writer and the head of reader both).  So, what does that inhuman patience achieve?

Pressure.  You want to build pressure, in you as writer, and in everyone who reads.  You as writer want to lead the reader along a cliff’s edge, skirting it, edging along as if you were both blindfolded.  You whisper to your friend, ‘Trust me,’ but even you aren’t sure that’s a wise thing to do (though you’d never admit as much to anyone).  There’s a frisson of frustration to build in that reader, kept barely appeased by doling out tidbits along the way, just enough to get by on, until it’s time to step into those final, killer scenes.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

A:  heroism is a theme I explored at length in my Fantasy novels, posing the question: if someone does something heroic, is it heroic if no-one else sees it?  Is not heroism a value judgement?  Does it not require a witness?  An audience?  Is not fiction the presentation of deeds, imagined deeds, to an invisible audience?  An audience the characters cannot be aware of?  Or, do people imagine an audience – invisible, godly – in every act they do, in every gesture they make?  What of the godless?  The non-believer?  The person who must face the notion of true, absolute, solitude?  Solitude in an indifferent world?

The notion of heroism obsesses me, because something about it is relentless, and so terribly human – in a sad, piteous way, and in a stunning, breathtakingly beautiful way.  If it has a secret, that secret lies in the gesture made – by character, by author (perhaps), by the reader: by the fusion of all three.

In a way I cannot answer your question, because I’m still exploring the notion, and I might continue exploring it, in my fiction, until I tap out my last word.  For me, however, and off the cuff, I would suggest there can be no hero, no heroic act, without the risk of failure.  Which makes Superman a ridiculous hero, in my mind (and why they needed to create Green Kryptonite).  And so, if one thinks of the two notions intertwined: heroism and failure, then it should become clear, eventually, that in this world or in any other, there is no shortage of heroes in the world.  Which I find heartening.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

A: “That manipulative, vicious bastard.”

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

A: I read nonfiction, of all sorts, and so the ‘research’ is kind of ongoing, kind of amorphic (A word my computer doesn’t recognise, but sod it, I won’t bow to a damned machine), and potentially random.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

A:  Well, they’re all internal in the end, aren’t they?  I can’t predict or even iterate the next setting I’ll stumble into.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

A: Yes, and I use those themes to unify the story, via the language, imagery, tone and so on.  That said, from what I’ve been told by other writers, my approach is kind of uncommon.  Most people, writers and otherwise, have only a vague sense of theme as an integral element of narrative structure.  In writing-workshops worldwide teachers and students both will often run for the hills at the mere mention of the word.  Others hold it to be sacrosanct, as if to invoke the word will send the muse flying away never to return.  To my mind, this is all nonsense.  What is more often the case (and I see this when I teach writing), the author of a certain work is woefully unaware of whatever theme they happen to be exploring in their piece.  It’s not down to ‘what’s at stake?’ either.  Theme courses like blood in the veins and arteries of the work.  It’s always implicit, and only erroneously made explicit.  But just because it hides under the skin of the story, doesn’t mean it’s somehow sacred, or vulnerable, or even hand’s off when it comes to analysis and critique.  So: theme is nothing more than some aspect of the human condition unified by a story.  And good stories can hold more than one, like feeder roots reaching out from the tap-root.

A writer should be prepared to be challenged on their themes – it’s all fair game.  Accordingly, it’s probably a good idea for the writer to a) be able to identify the themes their work is exploring; b) have already thought through the theme/themes and its/their implications (what exactly is it that you’re saying about humanity?); and c) be prepared to defend those positions (aesthetically and/or ethically).

I gather that most writers, if they bother, tend to identify themes after the fact – by looking back on their story; as part, perhaps, of the editing process when they’re thinking in terms of symbols, foreshadowing, and subtle tinkering here and there.  Oddly enough, I do the opposite: I think about it first.  Not in terms of conclusions, or bold statements, or assertions or whatever, but in terms of ‘here’s what I want to explore … wonder what I’ll find?’  Once the seeds are lodged in my brain, I begin writing, knowing that what I write will in some way feed those notions; that the language I use, the rhythm, pacing, sentence structure, settings and so on, will all in some way hover round those thematic notions.

I suspect that this may be rather atypical.  Or not.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

A: Well, dialogue is like the cocaine of writing – it can fall madly in love with itself, and is never aware of the moment when it becomes the most boorish guest at the party.

I don’t really look back at my stuff for the purpose of plucking out favourite lines: sensibilities change over time, and what might have worked then (for me, creatively) might not work now.  I know that dialogue from my novels and novellas get quoted by fans, and all that, but even there it’s mostly the one-liners that get trotted out.

The dialogue that I have written that I remain pleased about is generally the tersest kind.  The massive understatement.  The line with a hundred volumes hiding under it, pages ready to explode but all, somehow, held back, contained.  Exchanges where all parties skirt around what’s really going on.  Evasions and the like.

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

A:  I write in cafes, four hours a day, five or six days a week.  I used to write to music but I don’t anymore (not sure why that is).

How do you deal with writer’s block?

A:  I have no idea since I’ve never experienced it.  I had enough obstacles getting in my way getting to this point, why would I invent a new one?

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

A:  When I teach in workshops, I begin with listing and defining the terms of narrative structure (plot, setting, dialogue, exposition, pace, atmosphere, theme, tone, diction level, psychic distance, sentence rhythm, character, foreshadowing, subtext, point-of-view, style, voice…).  And I go on to advise that, when composing, all these things need to be deliberately forgotten, as bearing them all in mind when composing will tie you up in knots.  Instead, use your understanding of those terms whenever something goes wrong, when in the editing stage, or when reading someone else’s work (critically).

Seat-of-the-pants, gut-instinct writing is all very well, but if something goes wrong, you don’t know how to fix it.  The elements of narrative structure will help you find out what went wrong, and will guide you toward fixing it.  It will also, alas, alter your reading for the rest of your life, as long-held favourite works can suddenly pall on re-read (this has happened to me all too often).  Once your eyes have been opened, you can’t close them again.  Fair warning.

How do you know when to stop?

A:  That’s a tough one.  Make use of your inbuilt shit-detector.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

A:        1: Finish what you start.

2: When a scene drags, when it gets brutally hard to get out the next line, the next word; when blood starts beading on your forehead, don’t switch scenes, don’t shift characters, don’t do any of the running-away things you might be inclined to.  Push through.  Everything up to that point was the lead-up to this moment, and this moment is when you learn – you learn how to write, what it is to be a writer, and all the reasons you possess for being one.  That tight, claustrophobic place, is your call to courage.  Don’t evade, don’t back away, don’t shift laterally.  Keep going, until it hurts.

3: Finish what you start.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?

A: Up and running at the moment.  What, it hasn’t happened yet?  That’s what you think, mate.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

A: The last thing I wrote.  When that stops being the case, I’ll quit.

What are you working on now?

A: Stuff I can’t talk about (NDA).  After that, the second book of the trilogy.

I’d like to thank today’s author, Steven Erikson for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Steven Erikson is the pen-name for Steve Lundin.  Born in Toronto, he now lives in either Canada or the UK, depending on where he is in the Five Year Plan that seems to alternate between the two.  He is the author of the ten-volume Fantasy series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen, as well as numerous novellas.  His next novel, Forge of Darkness, is the first in a new trilogy, and is out in August, 2012.

Websites:  www.StevenErikson.com, www.Malazanempire.com.

Essays on Writing:  www.Lifeasahuman.com

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’m joined by, Jason Brock, the writer of the documentary film, Charles Beaumont: The Life of Twilight Zone’s Magic Man, as well as numerous anthologies, graphic novels and novellas.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

I was always a strong reader, even though I suffer from dyslexia. In fact, I completed reading at the 12^th grade level in the 3^rd grade! I remember writing stories as a kid, and poetry. My father, James Brock, was a professional writer, artist, and designer, and we would sometimes collaborate on little pieces.

I am an artist/designer, too, and I was drawing, painting, and sculpting from an even earlier age. There are many people that start as artists and go into writing – Ray Bradbury, Greg Bear, Clive Barker, Dan O’Bannon, William F. Nolan. . . Seems a natural progression and augmentation of the creative impulse, and the desire to reach others with your ideas, thoughts, and philosophies.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

When one of my Junior High School teachers cried over something I wrote; later, another said that I would become a professional writer. Of course, one of my college art professors said the same thing about my artwork!

Another time was when a woman wrote to me about a poem I wrote (“Murder”) and said that it had helped her through a rough time, as she’d had a relative recently murdered. She thanked me for the poem, which was pretty stunning.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

My ideas are usually psychological, complex, and character-driven. It’s hard to say. . . I suppose a lot of them are part of me, but also they come from current events, especially medicine and technology. I read very little fiction, and when I do, it’s usually classics, or older stuff, though I do have to read some fiction as an editor for various projects.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

It takes me a long time to germinate my stories, and I do massive amounts of research when I write them. I am a chronic rewriter, and have literally done twenty or thirty drafts of some of them to get the correct tone, idea, and so on to my satisfaction. All writing is rewriting, and I am a ruthless editor. That stated, I have huge arsenal of story concepts and half-written ideas. Once I get to the actual execution of writing, I can pound it out very quickly, even if it’s rather involved, or has multiple layers.

I also like to stretch myself with regard to form; many of my stories have an experimental quality, and I have some peculiar things that are inherent to my style that I won’t list here, as it’s rather dull, but I have them to challenge myself and to keep things interesting for me. Probably a carryover from my poetry background. I like my stories to span a wide gamut, and I see no value in writing the same tale over and over without something to say or reveal. Subtext and ideology are important aspects of my work; I want to share my worldview, and communicate what is important to me, but never in a boring or gimmicky fashion. I also feel that riding trends or imitating other authors is debasing and valueless.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

I enjoy all types, from horror, to science fiction, to fables, to poetry.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

Any and all. I enjoy writing comics and screenplays, too, and have done so quite a bit.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

In a way. I use more of an index card setup for novels, and extensive notes, scraps, and so on for short stories or poetry. It’s very loose, though, and more just for plotting. I approach my nonfiction exactly like I do stories. I usually start in longhand, then jump to computer – I think it’s a holdover from drawing; I like to feel that tactile, physical connection to the paper. Also, I doodle.

Plot

How do you build your story?

Painfully! I have to be invested, or it won’t be good. I let the tale dictate character, point-of-view, and setting. I do like to be surprised by what unfolds in a story, so I don’t like to over-think any one aspect, especially in the early stages. I don’t believe in having everything be too “beginning, middle, end” as it can be repetitive. I love to play with unreliable narrator, or cut up the linearity of a story.

I am a filmmaker, musician, and songwriter, so I like to bring certain things from other disciplines – whether art, music, or cinema – to bear when creating a story. My work can be intensely character-bound, but some stories have been described as “cinematic” and I feel that stems from my interest in other fields. It helps to bring a fresh viewpoint or working perspective to a piece. What I mean is that I might write something, then decide to use another character’s POV instead of the one I had been using, or do something unexpected to the character, sometimes even unpleasant. I like to confound a reader’s expectations to a degree, I suppose.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

Conflict, and whether they are up to the task before them. Sometimes they aren’t and the “hero” dies, just like real life. I don’t like neat resolutions, and prefer to disturb a reader, or at least to get them thinking.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

That I am fair and easygoing, but intense. And organized.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

Vast amounts. It makes everything more real. I like world building to a limited degree.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

“Off world” more, but realistically.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

Always. I am not a “it’s just a cool idea” type of writer. I have to have something to say.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

Usually the openers, as I believe in setting the hook early and hard. Nothing pops to mind, but it would likely be an opening line.

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I write every day for the most part. I have no “set” word count, but strive to at least knock out one or two thousand a day between other commitments. I write in my office at home, and on the road when travelling. I always listen to an enormous variety of music, am surrounded by my herps (three lizards and four tortoises), and sit right beside my wife, Sunni.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I approach that with the “who, how, when, where, what” mindset, but I add “why” to it. . . and I get stimulation from research, and sometimes word association. Or I go do something else. I dream stories on a regular basis, and keep a notepad on my nightstand. I also like this these self-questioning prompts: “What if?,” “If only. . .,” “If this goes on. . .”.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I work on keeping the characters real, and subtly enhancing the dialogue, engaging the senses more fully. I also double-check any plot flaws or dodgy motivations. It also needs to have emotion, and a certain rhythm, a certain amount of poetry in the actual verbiage. I try to kep excessive description to a minimum. I buy into the whole “unity of effect” idea, so a story sets the terms on how it will come out to a degree. Best to keep the mind open until the polishing stages.

How do you know when to stop?

When I detect that I’ve said all that there is to say. It’s a feel more than anything.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Regarding horror, keep the supernatural elements vague, and limit unusual ideas to one per short story. Avoid clichés, stock characters, and excessive wordage. Drop the tropes and create something you like. If you like it, even if it’s unconventional, there’s a high likelihood that others will, too. Watch the gore and torture – it’s repellent, not frightening.

Regarding S-F, make your science believable and your characters sympathetic.

Regarding publishing in general, get a good editor, preferably several. Learn to appreciate the craft of writing, and develop a taste for the editing process, as well as the stomach for it. Read a lot, and widely. Read nonfiction, poetry, classics, scripts, and have a life. Use fewer words more effectively, and don’t venerate other creators. You are competing only with your own work. Do the very best you are capable of, and don’t rush things. Hold off on print-on-demand or e-book, and try to get published in as many markets – paying or not – as you can. Preferably print, but also online. Also, go to some conventions and network, but use caution with online networking – don’t over promote your stuff, as that gets tiresome rather quickly. Don’t chase the market. Edit at least one anthology, you’ll learn a lot.

Remember this axiom – A novel must hook the reader in the first paragraph, a short story in the first sentence, and a poem in the first word. In other words don’t take forever to build up, as editors will stop reading. It’s a fact. Deal with facts, not beliefs.

Show your readers something new, something interesting.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

Hard to pick a favorite. Many of my poems, a few stories, some nonfiction.

What are you working on now?

Finishing my first novel, and prepping for its follow up. The next anthology, called “A Darke Phantastique,” getting [NameL3ss] magazine off the ground, a few comic book things, getting our next film edited with my wife, and some music stuff. I have about eight books in the hopper, and many short fiction promises to complete. Lots coming out in 2013, including sundry anthology appearances, and my first short story collection from Hippocampus Press, titled Simulacrum and Other Possible Realities.

About the Author

Jason V Brock has been widely published in magazines, comics, and anthologies such as Butcher Knives & Body Counts; Calliope; The Weird Fiction Review; Black Wings II; Like Water for Quarks; Fangoria and other venues. He is currently finishing several novels.

Brock served as coeditor/contributor to the award-winning Cycatrix Press anthology The Bleeding Edge: Dark Barriers, Dark Frontiers with William F. Nolan (Logan’s Run). Brock and Nolan also teamed for the follow-up anthology, The Devil’s Coattails: More Dispatches from the Dark Frontier.

Brock’s films include the highly regarded documentaries Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone’s Magic Man; The AckerMonster Chronicles! (about legendary agent and editor Forrest J Ackerman), and the forthcoming Image, Reflection, Shadow: Artists of the Fantastic.

A health nut and gadget freak, he lives in the Portland, OR area, and loves his wife Sunni, their family of reptiles/amphibians, and practicing vegan/vegetarianism. Visit his website at http://www.JaSunni.com 

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_V_Brock

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Author Ray Garton

Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’m joined by, Ray Garton, the author of over 60 books and the recipient of the 2006 World Horror Convention Grand Master Award.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?

I think I started plotting in the womb.  As far back as I can remember, I’ve had this drive to make up stories.  Before I was able to read or write, I would draw stories in comic book-like panels.  Then when I started school and began to learn to read and write, I just switched from pictures to words, and I read like a fiend.  By the time I got to the seventh grade, I was writing novel-length manuscripts.  They were terrible, of course, but I was learning.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?

I wanted to be a writer from the time I was about eight years old.  Writing wasn’t something I consciously chose to do, it was something I seemed to have to do and I just did it.  All the time.  In college, my girlfriend’s family had a friend who was a literary agent.  He specialized in science fiction and fantasy, and I wrote horror, but I thought I’d send him a few stories and see what he thought of them.  Up to that point, the only people who’d read my work were my friends, but I didn’t think they were very good judges.  I’d gone to Seventh-day Adventist schools from first grade on, and Sadventists (as I call them) believe that all fiction is evil, and horror fiction is unspeakable, so they had no reference.  They didn’t read fiction, and they certainly didn’t read horror fiction.  So I thought it would be a good idea to get the opinion of someone who actually worked in the publishing business.

The agent told me he liked the stories, but he couldn’t do anything with short stories.  Did I have a novel?  I told him I was halfway through one and would send it to him as soon as it was done.  That was a lie.  I had some novel-length manuscripts written, but I knew none of them were good enough.  So I decided to write a novel to send to the agent.  I quickly wrote Seductions, sent it to him, and a couple of weeks later, he told me he’d sold it.  That was when I knew I had what it takes to be a writer.  And no one was more surprised than I.  I was 20 at the time and had figured I’d have a long wait before I was published.  But the early sale made me over-confident, which is a huge mistake.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?

Anywhere I can.  And they really do come from all directions.  I think the best ideas aren’t sought out, they just sort of fall into your lap.  You discover them unexpectedly.  For me, writing is always discovery, from beginning to end.  Each writing project is different, new, unknown, and each one is like starting all over again, so it’s difficult for me to talk about writing as a process that I repeat over and over, or even a process that can be accurately and clearly described.  I find it’s a process that’s difficult to repeat because it’s different every time for me.  And to be honest, I’m still not entirely sure how it works, and I’m afraid if I examine it too closely, it’ll all fall apart.

I have always been bombarded by ideas, probably because I’ve always been on the lookout for stories.  I get more than I could ever use.  They’re floating around all over the place, and they all seem very appealing at first glance.  But not all of them are workable, and after a closer look, some of them aren’t even very good.  The ones that stick, though, are the ones I write.  The ones I can’t get rid of, that get lodged in my head and stay there.  When it becomes obvious the idea isn’t going away, then I start working it to see what comes out of it.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?

It depends on the idea.  If it involves something I know little or nothing about, I start by doing some research.  The research might make the idea look even better, or it might reveal that the idea won’t work in its current state.  Some ideas hit me in one whole piece, and I start writing immediately.  That happened with Live Girls, for example.  But an idea alone does not a novel make, so you have to start attaching things to the idea — a location, characters, backstories for those characters, what their relationships are to each other and to the central idea.  Sometimes the first thing that comes to you is simply a particular character, or a location, or a single scene.  An entire novel can come from any one of those things, as long as you’re willing to massage it for a while.

Now, as I write this answer to your question, I begin to see how complicated, how intricate this process is, and quite frankly, that scares the hell out of me.  I begin saying to myself, This sounds terribly difficult.  This isn’t what I do.  It can’t be.  I’m not smart enough, I don’t have a long enough attention span, and here I am telling people that this is what I do when it can’t be!  But that’s only because I never give this stuff any thought — except when I’m interviewed or asked these questions by aspiring writers.  Then I start thinking about it too much and I feel like a fraud and want to run and hide.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?

I look for two things.  First, anything with the potential to reach inside a reader, grab a handful of emotions and/or viscera, and squeeze a reaction out of it.  Only one thing makes me happier than being told by a reader that he or she had to set a book aside and take a little break because it was so disturbing, and that’s being told by a reader that something I wrote made him or her laugh out loud, because I think that laugh is harder to get.  That’s the kind of thing I think horror fiction should do.  It should disturb you or frighten you or make you think upsetting thoughts, or even make you laugh at something that makes you feel guilty, or even shocked by yourself, an instant later.  And that kind of segues into the other thing I look for.

I like to mess with a reader’s mind.  I also write suspense and crime fiction, and you can slap your readers around in all kinds of ways in those genres.  I enjoy supernatural horror, but as a writer, I’ve always had this secret feeling that, in a technical way, using the supernatural in a story is kind of cheating.  None of it is real and you can do anything you want with it because you just make it up as you go along.  When I say it’s not real, I mean it’s not something with which your readers will have had any personal experience.  It’s not likely I have readers who’ve dealt with vampires or werewolves or succubi.  I don’t mean anything negative by that, I’m just saying that as a writer and a storyteller, the supernatural makes it a lot easier to get from point A to point Z when you need to.  You make up your own rules.  Maybe you borrow some mythology, pluck a few things from an urban legend, but nobody’s going to gasp while reading it and cry, “Oh, my god, that’s exactly like the time I had to exorcize demons from my house!”

Over the years, I’ve found that, every now and then, I have to write something without any supernatural elements in it.  A thriller, some kind of noir-ish crime novel, a dark, suspenseful comedy.  It’s like getting some cold water in the face.  That kind of story presents a lot of challenges that hardly ever arise in traditional horror fiction.  I find that it’s more work, it usually requires more research, and when your story is grounded in reality with no help from the supernatural, you can’t cheat that reality, or you’ll be cheating your reader.  But they’re always fun challenges, and suspense and crime fiction provide many more ways to mess with your reader, because the buffer of the supernatural is gone and there is no safety zone.  The reader doesn’t have the escape of pointing to the ghost or the zombie and saying, “That couldn’t really happen.”

I enjoy making readers sympathize with and maybe even like a character they otherwise might dismiss in a negative way.  Even the people we see as monsters are human beings and usually have many of the same life experiences and hopes and disappointments and traumas that we’ve all had — they’ve just handled it differently and made different choices and haven’t adhered to the same laws and moral structure that we live by.  That does not excuse what they do, of course, but it reminds us that we’re all the same animal.  That’s a lot scarier than simply seeing them as monsters, and I think in that way, the genres of horror, suspense and crime often overlap in significant ways.

There was a time when my answer to this question would have included sex.  In the beginning of my professional career, I gravitated toward stories in which sex played a big role.  I figured sex sold, and I’ve always thought that sex is one thing we all have in common and it’s a vulnerable area, so it’s a great way to horrify and disturb in the horror genre.  Those things are still true, but I look at it differently now.  I think all fiction should reflect life, the human experience, no matter what the genre.  Sex is a big part of that.  I think it should always be included in some way as part of what makes a character whole.  And sex can be a great way to reveal character.  And I like to write sex.  And people like to read it.  Even the ones who won’t admit it.  In fact, probably especially the ones who won’t admit it.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?

I would like to write more humorous stuff.  I’ve been working on a novel for more years than I want to remember about my two years at a Seventh-day Adventist boarding academy.  There were only two ways I could write about that experience, either as horror or as comedy, and I thought it would be more fun to play it for laughs.  It’s not quite finished, it needs work, but every now and then, I go back to it and do a little work on it.

A lot of writers resist being labeled, but the great majority of what I’ve written has been in the horror genre, and I don’t have a problem with being called a horror writer, because that’s what I am.  It’s just that hardly anybody in mainstream publishing will publish horror anymore, and if they do, they don’t call it “horror.”  They don’t even use the word. I’m surprised the New York publishers haven’t lobbied to make it illegal to say the word “horror” out loud within the city limits.  That’s fine, I really have no attachment to the label, but if what you write can’t be called “horror” anymore, it has to be called something else, and if it doesn’t slide easily into one of the pre-existing categories, a lot of publishers lose interest fast.  That was a big problem with Sex and Violence in Hollywood — editors praised the book, but they didn’t know what to do with it, how to market it, so they rejected it.

Most of what I write probably will continue to fit into the horror genre, but I’m less interested in the traditional stuff these days.  I don’t think the horror genre is very relevant anymore.  It’s not saying much to people living right now, in this mess we’re in.  It’s great escapism, but it’s not connecting with its time, something the genre has done beautifully in the past.  I think the most relevant subgenre in horror right now is the zombie apocalypse story because it taps into the fear that civilization is collapsing, that it’s all falling apart.  But zombies reached the point of parody some time ago.  If they were alive today, Abbott and Costello would have done a trilogy of zombie movies by now.  It has a fan base, but it doesn’t really reach beyond that.  I think horror is going to have to start finding a way to seriously address the anxieties people are feeling right now in order to catch on again in any kind of important way.  That’s something I’m interested in doing, or at least attempting, because there’s a whole lot of fear in the air right now that’s not being talked about much, and it’s the kind of fear that rolls its eyes at zombies and werewolves.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?

For years, other writers used to tell me, “Are you crazy?  You can’t write a novel without outlining it first!  What are you thinking?  You’re doing it wrong!”  I heard it so often that I came to believe it and started trying to outline novels.  I nearly went insane.  But it was a learning experience.  I learned what works for me, and what doesn’t work.  And outlining in the traditional sense just doesn’t work for me.

I can’t find the story unless I’m writing it.  It has to unfold in front of me.  I can’t make up the story in outline form and then write it as a book.  Again, I have to discover it.  It’s a messy, chaotic process, but it’s the only way I know how to do it, the only way that works for me.  I do some outlining at times, but only chunks of the novel — maybe three or four chapters — and only while I’m writing the book, not before.  If I outline a whole book, I go crazy trying to stick to the outline, because as I write, I tend to discover things that are a lot more interesting than the stuff in the outline.  And I always follow that — whenever something unexpected pops up in a story that opens new possibilities, I always take a trip down that road to see where it leads.  Sometimes it goes off a cliff or into a swamp, and sometimes it leads into a completely different book that has nothing to do with the one I’m writing, so I turn around and go back.  But sometimes it enriches the book.  Sometimes it can make the book better in a host of ways.

My method of doing this, of course, would make some writers murder their spouses and eat a gun.  It would drive them insane.  That’s because it simply wouldn’t work for them.  More on that later.

Plot

How do you build your story?

I rely a lot on my characters and try to let as much of the story as possible come from them.  I follow them around a lot to see what they’ll do next, see where they lead.  This often results in the need to backtrack and rewrite, often more than once, but like I said, I don’t know how else to do this.  Building the story is what I find most distracting about writing.

By distracting, I mean it usually gets in the way of the rest of my life.  The story almost never stops unfolding in my head.  The characters are always in there, doing things, and sometimes I have to stop what I’m doing and pay attention to them.  This sometimes makes me look, for all the world, like a crazy person.  I lose track of a conversation, or I forget why I went into the kitchen, or I’ll sort of zone out during a movie and get confused and have to rewind it.  One of the hardest things for non-writers to understand about writers is that most of the work does not involve typing.  Most of it is just thinking.  But try to convince them you’re working while you’re doing that.  Go ahead, I dare you.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?

I’m fond of the everyman or everywoman.  I have a few characters who are kind of exotic.  I seem to write about professional killers frequently — Serpent Girl, Loveless, and most recently, Meds, and maybe in a couple of short stories.  But I think most of my protagonists have pretty regular, recognizable lives.  They tend to have mundane problems, which really aren’t mundane at all when in context.  Things like being broke or having cancer are pretty common, but that in no way makes them less devastating.

A lot of my protagonists — most, probably — are damaged in some way.  Some suffer from addiction.  Every protagonist needs obstacles to overcome, and I think most of mine face obstacles that are within themselves, that are a part of them, as well as whatever external menace they’re facing in the story.  Sometimes those internal obstacles, those lumps of scar tissue that have developed over time, can be a lot harder to overcome and a lot scarier than a vampire or a werewolf.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?

Holy crap, that’s a great question!  No one’s ever asked that before.  I think most of my protagonists would get along with me if we were to meet as strangers and get to know each other in the normal way, although there are some I probably would rub the wrong way.  But if they were asked to describe me, knowing who I am and what I do and what role I play in their lives, they probably would say that I’m a sadistic monster.

Protagonists don’t fare well in most of my fiction.  I do terrible things to them.  If you want to write a good horror novel, you can’t have just a bunch of happy people who do happy things and go on being happy throughout the book.  I make them happy, and then I fuck it all up for them.  I kill their kids, or I ruin their marriages with infidelity or something worse, or I get them addicted to drugs, or I might even wipe out their whole family.  And then I usually throw some kind of supernatural menace into that mix.  My characters probably would say the same things about me that atheists say about the Old Testament god.  They’d say I was a horrible monster.  Yep, that’s me — Yahweh, the horror novelist.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?

I’m always afraid to write about places I don’t know.  As a result, most of my fiction is set in locations with which I’m familiar, places where I’ve lived or spent time.  A lot of my fiction takes place in the Napa Valley, some of it takes place on the California coast in the area of Eureka, some of it takes place in far northern California in Shasta County, where I live — all places I know well.  Some may think that’s laziness, but honestly, it makes me nervous to write about places I don’t know because inevitably, I will screw up and get something wrong.  It might be a small something that very few will notice, or it might be something big enough to be so embarrassing that I want the ground to open up and swallow me.  That’s happened.

Live Girls was set in New York City.  It was the result of my first visit to the Big Apple, particularly my first visit to Times Square, which was very different in 1986 than it is now.  My visit was pretty short, but I started writing Live Girls while I was there.  I continued after returning home on the other side of the country.  I’d never written about a place that unfamiliar to me before, but I thought I could get away with it.  I wrote the book, turned it in, and later, my editor pointed out a problem to me.  It was during a telephone conversation.

“You’ve got Walter Benedek in Times Square,” he said, “and suddenly he has to get back to his office at the New York Times as soon as possible.  So he gets into a cab and the drive goes on for a little while, then he gets out and goes up to his office.”  I waited for him to get to the problem, but he paused then and waited for me to say something.  Finally, he said, “The newspaper is right in front of him before he gets into the cab.  Why do you think they call it Times Square?”  I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me.

That was a mistake big enough to be caught before the book was published, but you’d be surprised by what can slip through.  So I’m more comfortable to write about locations I know whenever possible.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?

I don’t usually think about places I’d like to write about — the location is something that the story itself dictates or that I choose after I have the story.  But there is one place I’d like to write about.  I would like to write something set in Las Vegas.  Dawn and I went there for the first time last year to attend KillerCon and it’s the kind of place that really got my creative juices flowing.  It’s surreal.  Going to Vegas is like vacationing off-world, like being on another planet.  One of these days I’m going to set something there.  It’ll give me a good reason to go back and soak up more of the local color.  And there’s a lot of that.  You just have to make sure none of it gets on your clothes.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?

With a novel, no.  I never know what’s really going on in a novel until I’m done, or at least until I’m well into a book.  Then there’s sometimes a point when I sit back in my chair and think, So that’s what this book is about.  If it’s saying something or commenting on something, I usually don’t know until it’s done.  There are exceptions.  I knew exactly what Sex and Violence in Hollywood was about, I knew exactly what Meds was up to.

Then there are the times when others see things in my books that I didn’t intend to put there.  Some critics admired the fact that Live Girls used vampires as a metaphor for AIDS.  Hell, I didn’t know I’d done that.  I’d written a horny vampire novel inspired by my first and last visit to a Times Square peep show.  Of course, I didn’t admit that at the time.  If somebody thought I was using vampires as a metaphor for AIDS, hey, who the hell was I to pop their bubble?  With a short story, I usually know a lot more going in simply because a story is much shorter, more compact.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?

I wish I could remember a few, or even know where to look for them in the books.  When I write something, I am always completely, totally involved in it.  But when I’m done, I tend to move on to the next project pretty quickly, and in my head, I jettison the previous project to make room for the new one.  I don’t retain the stuff I write.  This is often unfortunate, because sometimes at conventions or signings, readers will make a reference to something in a novel I wrote, or they’ll quote a line — and I have no idea what the hell they’re talking about.  It’s embarrassing.

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?

I’ve had various routines over the years, and at times, no routine at all.  There was a time when I could write anywhere, at any time.  Writing was an escape for me.  I was escaping my life, myself, and I could immerse myself in whatever I was writing instantly, no matter what was going on around me.  These days, I have no desire to escape my life or myself and I find it takes longer to get into the work and I’m much more easily distracted.  I don’t like working in a closed room, but I often close the door of my office now.

My mood determines a good deal of my day.  Sometimes I have music playing while I’m writing, and sometimes the TV is on, or I have a movie running.  It’s always a movie I’m very familiar with and fond of, so I don’t have to pay much attention to it.  I can glance at it anytime and know exactly what’s going on.  Those things are merely background.  And sometimes, there’s no background at all and the office is silent.  It depends on my mood, how I feel.

Sometimes when I get up in the morning, I go straight to the office and get things started.  Other days, I’ll spend an hour reading and do a couple of other things before I go into the office.  I’ve been doing this my whole life.  I write every day, but I don’t follow a rigid schedule because I don’t need to.  It comes naturally enough so that I don’t need that kind of schedule to keep myself in line.  But if I continue to grow more easily distracted as I get older, I may have to give that a try!

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I don’t believe in writer’s block.  Whenever a writer says he or she is “suffering from writer’s block,” I have to bite my lips together to keep from speaking my mind about it.  There is no such thing as “writer’s block.”  It’s a catch-all term for times when a writer is, for whatever reason, unable to write or simply doesn’t feel like writing.  It means nothing and always makes me wince because it’s such an emo thing to say.  But a lot of writers refer to it like it’s a bout with the flu, like it’s an actual ailment that comes and goes, like arthritis pain.  Makes me want to pull my hair out.

If you can’t write whatever you’re working on, there’s a reason for it, and it’s got nothing to do with “writer’s block.”  You may not know what the reason is, but it’s there.  You have some choices.  You can find out what that reason is, which might take a little time, but it might be worthwhile.  Or you can work on something else for a while and then go back to it.  Or you can give up that particular project altogether because it is keeping you from working.  Or maybe writing just isn’t for you.  Writers write.  People who say they’re writers but whine about battling “writer’s block” are poseurs.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?

I honestly don’t know how to answer that question.  Every story needs fixing, but the how of fixing it varies from story to story depending on what’s wrong with it.

How do you know when to stop?

This is one of the many ways that writing overlaps with masturbating — you have to know when to stop!  It sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.  It’s one of those things that you either know instinctively or you have get a feel for over time.  I think most of us have to get a feel for it.  And that will come with time.  You’ll develop a sense for that sort of thing.  To accomplish that, you’ve got to keep doing it.  Just keep at it, no matter what.  If you do, this is one of the many things you’ll learn to do so well that it’ll become second nature.  Writing isn’t one of those things that you learn before you do it.  You learn it while you do it.  That’s the only way to learn it and the only way to get better at it.  Ray Bradbury once said that if you write a thousand words a day for three years, you’ll be a writer.  I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that if you write a thousand words a day for three years, you’ll be a lot better at it than you were when you started.  I can guarantee that.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?

Earlier, I said that my method of writing would drive other writers insane — just as trying to outline a novel and follow that outline from beginning to end nearly drove me crazy.  That’s because there is no right way or wrong way to write.  There is no single secret to it — there are as many secrets to writing successfully as there are successful writers.

There are a lot of people out there who will tell you, with a straight face, that you have to do it their way or you will fail.  They’re wrong.  Every new writer will listen to those people, read their books, attend their classes, and a lot of them will believe that crap, and when that way doesn’t work for them, they’ll think they have failed, that they don’t have what it takes to be a writer, and maybe they’ll give it up.  Don’t believe it.  Read the books, attend the classes, gather as much information as you can, but only keep what works for you.  The rest can be forgotten.  Ignore the huckster bullshit.  Nobody has the secret to writing or to getting published because that secret doesn’t exist.  Find out how working writers do it, try to see what their techniques are.  If you do, you’ll begin to see that everyone does it a little differently.  Always keep in mind that none of it is absolutely right, and all you’re doing is figuring out what works for you — everything else is irrelevant.  There is no secret to success.

Every writer needs a good editor.  If you ever come to think that this does not apply to you, it’s time to stop and reflect.  A lot of writers become wildly successful and reach a point where they have the power to refuse to let anyone touch their work before it’s published.  The point at which that happens is almost always glaringly obvious in their work — and not in a good way.  Don’t make that mistake.

Develop a thick skin.  It’s impossible for anyone to predict who will succeed as a writer, but there are strong signs as to who will not succeed.  Among that group is the writer who falls to pieces at the slightest criticism.  I taught a creative writing course for a while at the local college and one of the things I discovered is that the great majority of the students weren’t interested in learning anything — they just wanted to be told how brilliant they were.  Their brilliance was a foregone conclusion and all that was left was for me to confirm it.  When that didn’t happen, they lost their shit.  I’m serious, there were tantrums in that class.  They were thrown by people who did not need any criticism and were simply awaiting publication.  Looking back on it now, I see there were moments during that class that strongly resembled outbursts during the auditioning process of American Idol.  It’s one of the reasons I stopped teaching.

Don’t be one of those writers, because if you are, chances are great that you won’t get anywhere.  No one is brilliant out of the gate.  Some people show great promise, but there’s work to be done before that promise is realized.  Do not look at criticism as an attack on your work!  Look at criticism as a chance to improve your work.  Pay attention to the criticism.  Some of it will be bullshit because an appalling percentage of everything is bullshit.  There are plenty of criticisms that can be dismissed.  “Women are always getting killed in your books so you must hate women!”  Bullshit.  You can quickly learn to spot the useless stuff.  Just as you learn to pick and choose the information you need as you’re discovering your own writing process, you have to learn to do the same with criticism.  You have to be able to embrace the criticism that is genuine, that honestly applies to your work and could improve it.  This means you must be honest with yourself about your work.  If you think you don’t need any criticism, or if you see all criticism as an attack, you are not being honest with yourself about your work.  I guess what I’m saying here can be boiled down to a couple of words:  Eschew delusion.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

I think it’s a toss-up between Sex and Violence in Hollywood and my most recent novel Meds.

What are you working on now?

A number of things.  I’m working on another thriller novel, I have a couple of short stories in different states of development, and I’m doing some work for hire.

I’d like to thank today’s author, Ray Garton for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Ray Garton is the author of over 60 novels, novellas, short story collections and movie and TV tie-ins.  His 1987 erotic horror novel Live Girls, called “artful” by the New York Times, brought the vampire into a modern urban setting and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award.  His novel Sex and Violence in Hollywood is being developed as a motion picture.  In the 1990s, he wrote several young adult horror novels under the pseudonym Joseph Locke.  He has written a number of movie and TV tie-ins, including novelizations such as Invaders from Mars, Warlock and Can’t Hardly Wait, and books in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Secret World of Alex Mack.  In 2006, he received the Grand Master of Horror Award at the World Horror Convention.  He lives in northern California with his wife and their cats and is currently at work on multiple projects.

Visit Ray Garton online:

Website:  http://www.raygartononline.com

Blog:  http://www.preposteroustwaddlecock.blogspot.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/ray.garton.3

Twitter:  @RayGarton

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/raygarton

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by, Terry Brooks, the author of the Sword of Shannara and twenty six best-selling novels.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?
Who can remember?  I always loved storytelling and role-playing back before anyone had a name for it, and I was maybe 5 or 6 and organizing the neighborhood kids.  I wrote my first important short story when I was 10.  It was about some kids staying overnight in a haunted house.  My 4^th grade teacher gave me an A+.  I kept at it.  When I was 13, I published a short piece in one of the Illinois historical journals.  Another 20 years and Sword of Shannara was published.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?
Oh, I think just about the time I was deep into my second Shannara book and my editor told me it wasn’t any good and I had to start over.  That was a wake-up call.  The first book seemed so easy, but I had to rewrite the second from scratch.  So I learned that what you need is perseverance and a good work ethic and a strong stomach.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?
Ideas are easy.  Developing them into a full-blown book is what’s hard.  I get most of my ideas from reading the newspaper.  One thing suggests another, and when I reach a point where I am deeply troubled or irritated or not sure what I believe about something, I am ready to sit down and write about it.  Not everything I start out with leads to a book, but sooner or later something or other does.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?
I think about it first.  For a long time, if I have a chance.  Sometimes for years.  You can think about one thing and write about another.  Eventually, I start making notes.  That usually leads to an outline, character sketches, a working up of a thematic structure and various other considerations.  When I can’t stand it anymore, I start writing.  But, really, ideas are the easiest part of the process.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?
Big, long, sweeping sagas.  I don’t like writing short fiction.  It is a discipline with which I do not have a comfortable fit.  Give me a story I can carry over into 2, 3 or 4 books.  Much better.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?
Fantasy.  Still.  Always.  Maybe.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?
See above.  I used to spend more time on outlines than I do now.  Some of that comes from experience.  I don’t need the structure like I used to.  Some of it comes from wanting to experiment a bit with plot construction.  The longer you are in this business – 35 years for me – the more you need to work to find ways to challenge yourself.

Plot

How do you build your story?
Wow.  Got 25 pages of space for me?  Doesn’t matter.  I don’t have that kind of energy.  So how about 25 words or less?  First, find a hook.  Something that intrigues you enough that you can’t let go of it.  Remember you have to dedicate a year to a book, roughly, and if it doesn’t remain as interesting at the end as it started out, you won’t write a good book.  So you need to build your story around a premise or issue or complex question about which you want your readers to give their full and undivided attention.  My first editor, Lester del Rey, always told me that a fiction writer’s first and primary obligation to a reader is to tell a good story.  Nothing matters so much as that.  But a hook is important, too.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?
Coming out of the Tolkien tradition, I like my protagonists to be flawed.  I like them to be everyman, just people like you and me, trying to do the right thing, beset by something not of their making which is large and threatening and which they must find a way to banish.  They do not give up, although they could.  They accept a moral responsibility for themselves and others.  They push on through everything.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?
What a terrific writer!  Look how real he made me!  Or, why do I have to suffer so much in order to be in this story?  Can’t I just have a little easier time of it?

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?
Well, I don’t research setting as such.  I travel a lot, and while traveling my wife and I take pictures and make notes of interesting, different places.  Sometimes the setting will be powerful enough that it will suggest the story.  For me, setting is a character in the book.  This is true of much of fantasy fiction.  A foreign world or imaginary place has to be experienced by the reader in the telling of the story.  I work hard to make that happen.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?
Still working on that one.  I will finish the Shannara cycle, both past and present, so those settings will be fully developed.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?
Anyone who doesn’t know the purpose of a story before writing it is playing with fire.  I am always appalled by stories where the ending seems to come out of left field.  I think a writer should have a firm grip on beginnings and endings and on what it is that he or she is writing about.  I know this doesn’t always happen, but it gives me chills just thinking about it.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?
All my words are golden.  Except for the ones cut out by my wife, my editor, my proofreaders and many others.  I would have a favorite line if I could remember it.  Then, again, once a book is written, I don’t think about it much afterwards.  My satisfaction comes from the next book, and then the next and the next . . .

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?
I do have a routine and I do have a writing space, and I only work there.  I have two venues, in fact, in two different states.  Anyway, I am like Monk.  Everything has to be just so.  No changes are allowed.  I don’t listen to music when I work.  I don’t like sounds of any sort.  Except the sound of the ocean.  Concentration is important.  Especially as you get older and your mental capabilities deteriorate.  So I hear.

How do you deal with writer’s block?
It doesn’t exist.  If you are suddenly stymied, it means one of two things – either you need a break and should go down out of the attic and reintroduce yourself to your wife and children or you made a wrong turn somewhere in your writing and need to back up and change things around so you are on the right road again.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?
Depends on how much fixing it needs.  If it needs a whole lot, I start over.  It’s like remodeling a house.  It is more expensive and time-consuming to remodel than to build from scratch.  Mostly, I try to avoid difficult, extensive fixes by getting it right the first time.  Experience helps.

How do you know when to stop?
If you know your ending in advance – which I always do – you write until you reach it and then you stop.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?
If writing isn’t the most important thing in your life, quit now.  If the writing process isn’t more important than being published, quit now.  If money matters to you, quit now.  If you feel incomplete and dissatisfied when you are not writing, you should stick with it.  For theraputic reasons if for nothing else.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?
I have moved beyond zombies.  I am worried about werewolves this week.  I think zombies are over.  I think vampires are really over.  Virals, maybe not.  That’s next week’s concern.  Mostly, I am worried about other people.  All the time.  Still working on a plan for that.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?
That’s like asking me to choose among my children.  I love them all for different reasons and in different ways.  My books, that is.  So I can’t pick one.  I just can’t!  Okay, I can.  Running With The Demon.

What are you working on now?
A trilogy (what else) called Shannara’s Dark Legacy.  The first book, The Wards of Faerie, will publish in late August 2012.  The second book will publish in late March 2013, the third in late August 2013.  All three are written.  Mostly.

About the Author
|A writer since the age of ten, Terry Brooks published his first novel, The Sword of Shannara, in 1977.  It became the first work of fiction ever to appear on the New York Times Trade Paperback Bestseller List, where it remained for over five months.  He has written twenty-six bestselling novels, movie adaptations of Hook and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and a memoir on his writing life titled Sometimes the Magic Works.  He has sold over thirty million copies of his books domestically and is published worldwide.  His Shannara series is currently under option at Warner Brothers.  His next book, The Wards of Faerie, will be published in late August 2012.  The author lives with his wife Judine in the Pacific Northwest.

Website:  www.terrybrooks.net

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’m joined by, Kate Forsyth, the bestselling and award-winning author of 25 books, including “The Witches of Eileanan” series.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?
I have always wanted to be a writer, for as long as I can remember. I began writing stories and poems as soon as I could hold a pencil, and wrote my first novel when I was seven. I’ve been working on one novel or another ever since. I began to be published in my late teens and early twenties – poems and stories and articles – and worked as a journalist for most of my 20s. My first novel was published when I was 30, and I’ve been a full-time writer ever since.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?
I guess it having that first novel published. I’d always believed fervently that it was my destiny to be a writer, but I had bad days of doubts and fears. I still do! However, now I know it’s part of the creative process and perhaps a prompt to make sure you are always stretching yourself creatively.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?
The world is brimming over with story ideas. I have more than I could ever write! I think everything that interests you, or worries you, or badgers away at you, is a story idea. You just need to recognise it and use it.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?
I like the very basic planning tool Who, What, Where, When & Why. It contains everything you need to begin building a story.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?
I draw my inspiration from the past – old stories, old beliefs, old superstitions – and so my books tend to be a blend of the historical and the fantastical. Some are very firmly grounded in the world as we know it, others are set in an imaginary realm, but I like to think they are all filled with history, suspense, romance and adventure.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?
Many of the ideas I have books at the moment seem more historical than fantastical, but I get new ideas every day.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?
I always have a strong sense of the story shape before I start writing. I don’t do a chapter by chapter breakdown usually, and if I do, its very brief. However, I can’t start writing until I have my beginning, middle and end – plus a few key scenes along the way.

Plot

How do you build your story?
First I think about it and daydream about it, and write notes to myself, and start my research, then slowly the story takes shape in my mind. When I have a strong sense of the story arc, and my characters, I begin to write. I start at the beginning and work my way methodically towards the end, often stopping to edit and rewrite and reshape.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?
A character that comes alive on the page, someone who is vivid and believable and full of verve, and someone that grows and changes as a result of his or her experiences.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?
That I was a control freak J

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?
I spend a lot of time researching – I think it makes all the difference. It can help you conceive the story, as well as make the story ring true. Luckily for me I love research – its simply reading with a purpose.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?
I have ideas for books set in Cornwall, Germany, France and Spain

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?
I am always more interested in the story – theme is what grows naturally out of telling the story.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?
Oh, absolutely! Dialogue always adds zing and sparkle and humour. Here’s a favourite passage from my most recent book, ‘Bitter Greens’:

‘I am speechless,’ I said, staring around.

He smiled. ‘Not a word I usually associate with you.’

I pouted. ‘I know, I know. Maidens should be mild and meek, swift to hear and slow to speak. Such a shame I’m not like that, isn’t it?’

‘A shame you’re not mild and meek, or a shame you’re not a maiden?’

I tilted my head. ‘That doesn’t seem a very gentlemanly question, sir.’

‘Won’t you call me Louis?’

I gave an internal shudder. I could not bear to call him that. It was the King’s name and seemed laden with menace to me. ‘That seems a little familiar, don’t you think? We’ve only known each other a few days.’

‘It seems like much longer.’

I repressed a smile. ‘Is that a compliment or an insult?’

‘Oh, absolutely a compliment.’

‘Perhaps it could be more prettily phrased?’ I suggested.

‘I’m sorry. I’ll try and do better next time.’

‘Perhaps a rondeau to my eyes?’

‘I don’t even know what a rondeau is. Some sort of poem, I’m guessing.’

‘Oh, ignorant man. It’s a poem of fifteen lines with a rhyming scheme of two. And “eyes” is so easy to rhyme with. Skies and pies and guise . . .’

‘And thighs,’ he suggested.

‘How about “unwise”,’ I returned swiftly.

‘How about “tries”?’

‘There’s always “despise”.’

‘Or “implies”.’

‘You’re really rather good at this. I fully expect a rondeau to my eyes next time we meet.’

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?
I have a very strong writing routine that I hate to have disturbed. Basically my days begins with a cup of tea and some quite thinking time in bed, then the rush to get my kids to school, then an hour’s walk with my dog by the ocean, and then a cup of tea and my computer on. I work from 10 through to around 12.30pm, when I break for lunch, then I’m back working till my kids get home – usually around 5pm. I cook dinner and clean up and help with homework, and then I either read or I go back to work for another 2 hours. I try not to work weekends, but towards the end of a novel I usually work for 2-3 hours a day on the weekends too.

How do you deal with writer’s block?
Because I am such a disciplined writer, I rarely get any type of block. I’m sometimes unsure of how to proceed, but then I sit down and work it out. If I’m still struggling to find the answer, I go for a walk, and let my subconscious mind mull it over. Sometimes I’ll leave that scene a few days and work on something else. There’s always something to do.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?
I write lists of things I need to do, and then I go and do them.

How do you know when to stop?
I always know my end-point before I start writing and so I always know what I’m working towards. I’m also very conscious of my word count. I tend to write big, complicated novels and so I’m always trying to keep my word count under control. I’ll think to myself ‘do I really need this scene?’ before I write it, so I’m not wasting time writing unnecessary scenes.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?
Be bold, have courage, take joy in your writing.

Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?
Hide?

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?
I think my latest book, ‘Bitter Greens’ is the best thing I’ve ever written. It was a big risk for me, and technically very challenging, but I think my risk has paid off.

What are you working on now?
I’ve just finished a historical novel for adults called ‘The Wild Girl’, which tells the story of Dortchen Wild who grew up next door to the Grimm Brothers and told them many of their most compelling stories. Dortchen Wild and Wilhelm Grimm fell in love, but were kept apart by war, tyranny, terror and famine. It’s a beautiful and poignant love story, filled with drama and darkness as their lives are played otu against the background of the Napoleonic Wars.

I’d like to thank today’s author, Kate Forsyth for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.
– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author
Kate Forsyth is the bestselling and award-winning author of 25 books, translated into 10 languages. Her latest book for adults, Bitter Greens, interweaves a retelling of the Rapunzel fairytale with the scandalous life story of the woman who first told the tale, the 17th century French writer Charlotte-Rose de la Force. Her latest book for children is The Starkin’s Curse, a tale of high adventure and true love set in the same world as her bestselling novels The Starthorn Tree and The Wildkin’s Curse. Kate is currently studying a doctorate in fairytales at UTS. Her website is www.kateforsyth.com.au

Visit Kate Forsyth online:

Website:  www.kateforsyth.com.au

Blog:  http://www.kateforsyth.com.au/_blog/Kate%27s_Blog/

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/kate.forsyth.79

Twitter:  @KateForsyth

Adult books: http://www.kateforsyth.com.au/adultbook

Children’s books: http://www.kateforsyth.com.au/childrenbook

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Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’m joined by, Horror writer Robert Devereaux, the author of Santa Steps Out, along with many other novels and short story collections.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?
It’s always a nice dance between reading and writing, isn’t it? For me, fourth grade was the turning point. It was then that I found the local library, less than fifty yards from Newbridge Road School. There lay in wait the works of Heinlein, Bradbury, and so many others. In fourth grade too, I wrote “The Monstery, Monstery, Monster Story” for my teacher—who also read “The Monkey’s Paw” to us—and probably read it out loud to the class.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?
You always really know from the very beginning. Doubts? Aplenty. But you forge ahead, even at a very young age. You may well imitate those writers you admire, but your voice in all its uniqueness is emerging even as you do so. Then come attempts at publication, your best most polished stuff of course, and as you find acceptance, perhaps even praise, from one editor, then another and another, the assurance you always had at your core is reinforced and you ease into that ever developing creative voice, taking risks, always growing.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?
From unchained imagination roving free in the rich garden of experience, both of the “real” and the fantastic varieties. Ideas are legion. An idea book or the equivalent is probably to be preferred. An idea that takes hold of you and won’t let go—that’s the sort of idea to be prized and teased into fiction. And if you can get two such ideas to dance together in one work, you’ve passed through the gates of paradise.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?
I know enough about the characters and what they want that I can feel the shape and tonality of the story. Choose a point of view, sense the grand direction, and strike out for the territories: that typically works for me.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?
Stories that touch real emotions every reader has experienced, and always with something marvelously wonderfully fantastical to stimulate the dreamer in us all.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?
At this point on my career, I stay away from genres, unless they are being used as a hook into more interesting material.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?
For stories, only the barest outline. For novels, most definitely yes, using top-down programming, such that I know how the chapters break and what happens in each scene. As I press on into the writing, there’s always a need for new scenes, or the dropping of planned scenes which turn out to add little. But in general, I have my roadmap from the outset, which frees me up to go wild in each scene.

Plot

How do you build your story?
Word by word, trusting to the magic of spontaneity and revision.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?
Someone with plenty of weaknesses, a secret untapped power, and the unforced ability to turn someone, or many someones, on sexually. A big fat wallet and a generous hand with its contents are a bonus.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?
Robert is a fine chap; one who grieves for humankind’s myriad missed opportunities to save itself; a friend to all, though too cautious by half; a risk taker in his writing, but not so much in life. If people could peer inside his mind, they would either nod in sympathy, run screaming into the night, bow down and worship him, or start peeling off their clothes.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?
Not much. I set the scene as I go, using just the right detail to let the reader fill in the surroundings.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?
For starters, the place settings of extravagant gourmands.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?
Stories have a purpose? But seriously, there is always a core of thematic continuity, with unexpected sparks of anything-goes spinning out of it as the pinwheel whirls.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?
Not really. Dialogue should be simple or savory. Otherwise, characters ought to shut up and act. Those that don’t, I fire.

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?
Music? None but the wild improvised songs of my muse. I write these days on our white leather couch in the front room, as birds sing outside. Soon, though, I expect to hear the call of a coffeehouse.

How do you deal with writer’s block?
I smash though it one damned word at a time. And I pray that I never get breather’s block, eater’s block, or swiver’s block. Only sun block is okay in my book. All others can go hang!

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?
If the fixes are major, I abandon the story. If minor, I polish until the story shines with the illusion of perfection. I don’t want to waste my precious time only to end up with ramshackle patchwork limping and galumphing along, springing leaks from scads of badly welded seams.

How do you know when to stop?
When my lover signals that she has had enough orgasms for the moment and her smile is as broad as the mountain vistas of Colorado. Oh, you’re asking about writing. Honed instinct tells me when I’ve inflicted as much psychic damage on my readers as the present narrative vessel can hold.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?
Turn off the interior editor and let ‘er rip. Your voice is and will always be unique, though part of your job is to hone its output, toss out the time wasters, layer in the stemwinders, trim the sails, sculpt the prose, surprise us with the inevitable, find your brand of magic and practice it. Above all, I beg you to save the world. It’s the best thing you can do with your writing.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?
Santa Steps Out: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups

What are you working on now?
The third and possibly final Santa novel. The second one is Santa Claus Conquers the Homophobes.

I’d like to thank today’s author, Robert Devereaux for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.
– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author

Robert Devereaux lives on an unreasonable facsimile of Planet Earth with an utterly insane conglomeration of supposedly intelligent creatures who continue to squander nearly every chance to do the real right thing, choosing instead to beat their chests, exchange fire, let blood, and mostly stand by agog and agape while power-mad sociopaths shove crapola up everyone’s wazoo. In his spare time, he writes fiction. Among his novels are A Flight of Storks and Angels, Deadweight, Santa Steps Out, and Santa Claus Conquers the Homophobes. You won’t want to miss his short story collection, Baby’s First Book of Seriously Fucked-Up Shit, but if you do, that’s okay too.

Visit Robert Devereaux online:

Website:  www.robertdevereaux.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/robert.devereaux

Books by Robert Devereaux

Baby’s First Book of Seriously Fucked-Up Shit

Santa Steps Out: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups

Santa Claus Conquers the Homophobes

Slaughterhouse High

Walking Wounded

Deadweight

A Flight of Storks and Angels

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Larry Niven

Better Storytelling Secrets

Authors discuss their writing techniques. Answers are by Larry Niven.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.

Today, I’m joined by, Larry Niven, the author of Ringworld, the co-author of The Mote in God’s Eye and Lucifer’s Hammer, the editor of the Man-Kzin War series.  Larry Niven has written or co-authored over 50 books. He is a five-time winner of the Hugo Award, along with a Nebula and numerous other awards.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?
Brute force.  I wrote and mailed out stories until somebody bought one.  It was Frederik Pohl.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?
When I got that check for $25.00.  Look, I knew I had stories to tell; I didn’t know anyone was listening.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?
I do a lot of reading.  Sometimes that generates a story.  Truth is, I never know.  I was shopping at a market when I realized that asking for a demon/wizard/mad scientist’s wisdom would get you the whole mind.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?
Sit down and start writing—usually with an outline.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?
Whatever seems to have the shape of a story.

What genres would you like to explore in the future?
I’ve touched most of what calls itself science fiction  or fantasy.  I have no interest in zombies…or westerns or romance or self help.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?
Usually yes.

Plot

How do you build your story?
Superbly.  (Kidding.  Its hard work and it’s an art form, difficult to lay out rules for.)

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?
For me, he’s a bit of a tourist.  Doesn’t get motion sickness.  He’s not smart enough to stay out of trouble, but he’s smart and lucky and agile enough to get out of it.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?
Spends too much of his time sitting around. Sleeps too much.  Needs to look around him, to notice things.  Needs to write more. And any time he gets sick, so do I.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?
I generally do the research for fun, and then that generates the story.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?|New exoplanets.  Pluto (after 2015.)  Earth entering an ice age.  And Steven Barnes and I are exploring the time of Conan the Cimmerian.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?
Absolutely.  In fact, I prefer to know the ending.  Even if I have to change it later.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?
Sure. These are just from memory–

“Then my willing suspension of disbelief went all to Hell.”

“Dawson set his foot on the Herdmaster’s Advisor’s chest.”

“Let’s hit the Earth with a cubic mile of hot fudge sundae!”

“Think of it as evolution in action.”

“And all I could see were limits.”

“No bigger than a small moon is the Ftokteek computer.”

Writing

Do you have a routine?  A certain place to write?  Do you listen to music?
I sit in front of a computer.  No, no music.

How do you deal with writer’s block?
Badly.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?
Fixing it is easier than writing it. I read it over, rewriting as I go, until there’s nothing left to fix.

How do you know when to stop?
When I’m running short of things to fix, that’s when I send it to an editor.  That doesn’t mean I’ve stopped; he/she usually suggests things to change.  I finish a story many times.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?
Have a story to tell.  If you can tell it at a party, it’s good to go.

The Zombie Apocalypse

So, what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?
Ignore it.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?
Depends on who I’m talking to.  LUCIFER’S HAMMER for mundanes, RINGWORLD for science fiction fans, THE INTEGRAL TREES for pure hard science, DESTINY’S ROAD for an English teacher, RAINBOW MARS for a laugh.

What are you working on now?
LUCIFER’S ANVILwith Jerry Pournelle,  publicity for THE BOWL OF HEAVEN with Gregory Benford,  SHIPSTAR with Gregory to finish a set of two, polishing THE GOLIATH STONE with Matthew Harrington, a novella about teleportation, and that heroic fantasy with Steven Barnes.

About the Author
Larry Niven is the author of Ringworld, the co-author of The Mote in God’s Eye and Lucifer’s Hammer, the editor of the Man-Kzin War series, and has written or co-authored over 50 books. He is a five-time winner of the Hugo Award, along with a Nebula and numerous others.

Website:  http://www.larryniven.net/
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/larry.niven.54

The Niven File

Born April 30, 1938, in Los Angeles, California, USA, to Waldemar Van Cott Niven and Lucy Estelle Doheny Niven (now Washington.)

Raised in Beverly Hills, California. Hawthorne Public School (Beverly Hills,) Cate School (Carpinteria.)

California Institute of Technology, September 1956 to February 1958. Flunked out after discovering a book store jammed with used science fiction magazines.

Honest employment: gas station attendant, summer 1960.

Graduated Washburn University, Kansas, June 1962: BA in Mathematics with a Minor in Psychology. Half the university was scattered to the winds by a tornado a month after I left. They later gave me a D. Litt., an honorary doctorate in Letters.

First story publication: “The Coldest Place”, Worlds of If, December 1964.

Met Marilyn Joyce Wisowaty at the Nycon World Science Fiction Convention, 1967. Married September 6, 1969. No children. We reside in Chatsworth, California.

I have written fiction at every length, and speculative articles, speeches for high schools and colleges and conventions, television scripts, political action in support of the conquest of space, graphic novels, and a couple of comic book universes. I’ve collaborated with a wide variety of writers.

My interests:
Science fiction conventions. Role playing games, live and computer. AAAS meetings and other gatherings of people at the cutting edges of science. Comics. Filk singing. Yoga and other approaches to longevity.  Hiking and racquetball.

Saving civilization and making a little money. The defense of Earth against incoming giant meteoroid impacts.  Moving mankind into space by any means, but particularly by making space endeavors attractive to commercial interests.

In 1980 Jerry Pournelle talked me and Marilyn into hosting a gathering of the top minds in the space industry in an attempt to write a space program for the Reagan government, with goals, timetables, and costs. The Citizens Advisory Council for a National Space Policy met four times during the Reagan Administration, and twice since, for harrowing three day weekends. Attendees have included spacecraft designers, businessmen, NASA personnel, astronauts, lawyers. Adding science fiction writers turns out to be stunningly effective. We can translate! We can force these guys to speak English.

We’ve had some effect on the space program. SDI (Space Defense Initiative, or Star Wars) was drafted at our house in Tarzana. In ’93 we watched the DC-X fly. It was a toy version of a single-stage ground-to-orbit spacecraft, and the Council generated it. Our design lost out to the Skunk Works’ X-33, but the Council caused the revival of the X Program itself.

I grew up with dogs: Keeshonds, the breed my mother raised and shaped for sixty years. I live with a cat, and borrow dogs to hike with. I have passing acquaintance with raccoons and ferrets. Associating with nonhumans has certainly gained me insight into alien intelligences.

I’ve written on computers since 1978.

Awards

Hugos (or Science Fiction Achievement Awards) for “Neutron Star”, 1966; RINGWORLD, 1970; “Inconstant Moon”, 1971; “The Hole Man”, 1974; and “The Borderland of Sol”, 1975. Nebula for Best Novel: RINGWORLD, 1970. Ditmars (Best International Science Fiction, Australian) for RINGWORLD, 1972, and PROTECTOR, 1974. Japanese awards for RINGWORLD and “Inconstant Moon”, both 1979. Inkpot, 1979, from the San Diego Comic Convention.

On the Stands:

THE DRACO TAVERN, 21 ultrashort stories

FLEET OF WORLDS with Edward M. Lerner

JUGGLER OF WORLDS with Edward M. Lerner

INFERNO, with Jerry Pournelle, re-issue

INFERNO II: ESCAPE FROM HELL with Jerry Pournelle

In progress:

THE BOWL OF HEAVEN with Gregory Benford

THE MOON MAZE GAME with Steven Barnes

STRANGE LIGHT with Lisa Snellings-Clark

Other work clamors to be written, as if I had the time.  Greg Benford has challenged me to return to short stories, and I’ve done that.

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Author C.J. Cherryh

Better Storytelling Secrets
Authors discuss their writing techniques.

Hi, I’m Mark O’Bannon.  Welcome to this rare look into the secrets of storytelling from published authors.  Today, I’m joined by, C.J. Cherryh, the author of over 60 SF/F books.

Life as a Writer

How did you get into writing?
I ran out of stories to read, and they took Flash Gordon off the air: I was 10.

When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?
I never asked myself that. I just have always done it; it cost me a social life as a teen, but I couldn’t stop doing it. And college was a pain because I didn’t have time to do it. When I got a career and a life, I started it again. Writing isn’t a calling, it’s an addiction, closely related to reading.

Premise

Where do you get your ideas from?
Living, traveling, studying history, studying the future, and just sitting by the pond thinking.

How do you develop your ideas into a story?
Put two characters who won’t get along into the same room and lock the door.

Genre

What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?
Sf and fantasy.

Structure

Do you work from an outline?
I make an outline only because I have an actual life and get interrupted so often I have to outline so I remember what I was going to do. Methodology varies wildly from book to book—any time you ask me ‘how’, I’ll say “On which book?” but I’ve even just added dialogue into one outline and had a novel, once I changed the tenses.

Plot

How do you build your story?
Plot isn’t events. It’s tension between the characters. You can move events around quite easily. What triggers what when isn’t it…eminently replaceable, and reorganizeable. It’s all in the constellation of characters and the lines of tension and obligation between them.

Character

For you, what makes a great hero?
I’m not sure ‘hero’ describes all my protagonists, or that they’d be happy with the title: some have a bit of a dark side. But if you want to know what makes a good lead, it’s the person whose thoughts and actions make the best story to follow. It’s the one that makes things happen.

If one of your characters were to describe you, what would he/she say?
Bitch.

Setting

How much time do you spend researching the setting for your stories?
I make it up. I collect things. I study history. I can make one up as I sit here. That’s easy.

What settings would you like to explore in the future?
Dunno. Jane and I have talked about using an ancient Egyptian in one of her vampire novels, which is set in Seattle: we might collaborate.

Theme

Do you like to know the purpose of your story before you sit down to write it?
Something important to remember is “What is this story ABOUT, anyway?” If you don’t know, you’re in trouble.

Dialogue

Do you have any favorite lines from your stories?
“Ignorance killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.”

Writing

Do you have a routine?
A certain place to write? Do you listen to music? Yes: I write fulltime, mostly in the morning and early afternoon; and I watch the science channels.

How do you deal with writer’s block?
It’s not an external problem: it’s a writer letting the external world into that area a writer needs to keep private. My advice is—back the world off. Do what you have to do, then reclaim your time, your mind, your attention, and calm down so you feel the idea flow happen.

Story Development

How do you go about fixing a story?
? As if it’s broke? I slice off the part with the problem go back before the problem and write forward, avoiding that incident and creating a new one: see answer above—re incidents are replaceable.

How do you know when to stop?
At 110,000 words if you don’t remotely have an end in sight you’d better find one and call it a trilogy.

Words of Advice

What words of advice would you give to new writers?
Write. Classes are not as good as practice. Theory will do you no good. I never had a writer’s course, but ended up teaching one, and heckifI know what they needed. Experience, mostly. If they were looking for me to supply the drive, clear their time for them, keep their kids out of their writing space, or deal with their social life, I couldn’t help.

Final Thoughts

What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?
Whatever I’m working on at the moment. I try to, anyway. One of the works of mine I like best is my first, Gate of Ivrel, and one that I am really proud of is Cyteen. But I’m fond of every one of my universes.

What are you working on now?
A Foreigner book, which is also very good! 

I’d like to thank today’s author, C.J. Cherryh for being with us today.

I’d like to thank you as well.  Please check out the other great interviews in this series with authors, and remember to keep writing!  The next published book could be yours.

– Mark O’Bannon

About the Author
C.J. Cherryth is a four-time winner of the coveted Hugo Award and is one of today’s best-selling and most critically acclaimed writers of fantasy and science fiction.

C.J. Cherryh writes full-time, she travels with another writer and 2 patient cats, and agrees with the Emperor Marcus Aurelius:  “Humanus sum; nihil mihi alienum est.” “I am a human being: there is nothing I call alien.”

Visit C.J. Cherryh online:

Website: http://www.cherryh.com/

Blog:  http://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cj.cherryh

Twitter: @CJCherryh

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B000APR80U

Purchase books directly from C.J. Cherryh: http://www.closed-circle.net/

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Ray Bradbury, Mark O’Bannon, Charles Holloway and William F. Nolan (George Clayton Johnson is taking the picture).

Ray Bradbury
A Tribute

One of the greatest lights in the world has gone out:  Ray Bradbury passed away.

Why was Ray Bradbury such a great writer?  What made his stories so good?

Many writers have struggled with how to turn an average story into a great story.  Some read books (like I do), some refuse to study, thinking that tightly organized stories will kill their creativity.  Some people quit the quest altogether, thinking that greatness is to be found only in those to whom God has chosen – as if a bolt of lightning flashes down from heaven to strike random people.  This is a myth.

To be great, all you need is focus – a goal.  My friend, George Clayton Johnson (author of Logan’s Run, Ocean’s Eleven and eight Twilight Zone episodes) once told me that he has spent much of his life on a quest to discover the magic of storytelling.  What is it, that quality which turns an average story into a truly fantastic tale?

When he was nine years old, succumbing to peer pressure, Ray Bradbury threw away his comic books.  Over the succeeding days, he discovered that he was miserable.  Everything that he loved was gone.  He realized the people who made fun of him were stupid.  So he returned to collecting comics.

Here is an excerpt from the speech Ray Bradbury gave at the first Comic-Con:

“My love for comic books and collecting them goes back to a time when I was nine years old. . . What impact – Buck Rogers hit my life so that I was madness maddened, I was super inspired by him and began to collect those daily strips every day of my life and then some of my friends came along and made fun of me and I threw them all away.  About eight or nine weeks later I said, ‘Wait a minute!  What’s this?  These people don’t know what they’re doing.  They’re stupid.  They’re idiots.  They don’t.  They’re saps.  I hate them,’ and I started collecting Buck Rogers again and I didn’t give it up.  I still have all those daily strips from 1929, ‘30 up through ’37.  All the daily Sunday color panels.  I have 32 years of Prince Valiant put away. . . I had everything – you name it.  I saved everything since I was three years old.  Thank God I’m this sort of compulsive person who refuses to give up his loves.  In the light of all the other people saying, ‘You are a stupid boy, why are you doing this?’ The best answer is love of course, it’s just great – it’s beautiful stuff.  There’s something about these comic strips that we love with all our hearts.  So I still have them.”

Ray Bradbury never lost his passion, his love for what he did.

In his book, “Zen and the Art of Writing,” Ray Bradbury said that he was not born with talent as a writer.  He was born with passion for writing.

Passion is what made Ray Bradbury’s work great.

A great fire has gone out, but you can see it burning still, like a candle in the night.
Read some of Ray Bradbury’s stories  sometime.

Realize that you too, can take a placid and pedestrian story and turn it into something great.
Your stories can also walk with the gods:  Heinlein, Asimov, Twain, Shakespeare, Bradbury.

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