A day in the life of the author?
It’s a day like any other. The only difference is part of that day is set aside to put words on paper,
or in a file if you will on an electronic device.
I gave up television decades ago. If I watch television now, it is only of shows I know I enjoy. In
other words, watching re-runs of Firefly, The Rockford Files, etc. Doing that liberated hours of
time that could now be spent doing “author things.”
Advice you would give new authors?
Write. Just get the idea out of your head and onto paper. It’s okay if it’s terrible. It can be
rewritten or discarded. But if you don’t write, you’ll never tell your story, share your ideas, or
improve enough as a writer that someone would actually want to read what you’ve written.
The other thing I would tell them is forget perfection. It isn’t going to happen. Get it down on
paper. Then as the idea begins to take form you can shape it, modify it, and turn it into what you
want it to be as a creative idea, or in the case of non-fiction, it will inform and tell the message in
a way that it is helpful to the reader.
Write six out of seven days a week. Take Sundays off and give yourself permission to rest.
Count your words and keep a chart. It is helpful to watch that word count grow each day. Once I
get past the first 10,000 words the rest of the words come easier. It is important to see progress
towards the end. Keep in mind, you can change those words. You don’t have to keep them, but
you do have to write them. Set a goal for a set number of words per day. Over time you will get
better and can write more.
Try your hand at fanfiction. If you are a terrible storyteller, you’ll find out quickly. Things like
grammar, style, etc. can be learned. I’m not sure story telling can. I had published a dozen non-
fiction books when I first considered trying my hand at fiction. I wrote a long story and published
it. Multiple reviewers said it was the best story about that television show they had ever read
and encouraged me to try creating my own characters and universe to go with them. When I
read those early fanfiction stories now, I cringe at some of the writing. What surprises me most
is I wrote those stories and I really enjoy reading them. It was a very safe place to try my hand
at storytelling and to learn.
Describe your writing style.
I try to use as few words as possible. It never works out that way in practice though. Writing that
is wordy gets in the way of telling the story. There are times when it’s okay to be wordy so long
as you are judicious and select the correct words. For example, I try to describe a character in
such a way that, if possible, all five of the reader’s senses are involved.
The best stories teach the reader something or at least are thought provoking in some way.
Thus, I like for my protagonist to be flawed. In my three series of stories, Sully, Paine, and Heat
are all flawed individuals but each in his own way has a strong sense of right and wrong. Paine
is the straightest arrow of the three but has his own quirks. Sully is moody, violent, opinionated,
and difficult. Heat has a temper, a broken heart, and is prone to skirting the rules. All three have
hearts of gold.
I try to introduce conflict. It doesn’t have to be obvious, but it has to be there. The Devil’s Spies
is filled with conflict. The oppression of the communists is an obvious source of conflict but
everywhere you look in the story there is some sort of conflict going on. Political conflict, family
conflict, sibling conflict, romantic conflict, conflict within individuals, and conflict between the
environment and humanity.
What makes a good story?
Conflict. Lots of conflict.
Characters that people root for or love to hate. Characters must be engaging for the readers.
Some of the best compliments I ever got were the emails from readers who were furious with
me over one of my novels in which several characters met their demise. They were so strongly
connected to these characters that my killing them off was an issue for these readers. Clearly, I
had done something right in telling my stories.
What is your writing process? For instance, do you do an outline first? Do you do the
chapters first?
I’m much more of a pantser than an outliner. Having said that, when I start a story, I know how I
want it to start, how it should end, and the point I’m trying to make. In between, the characters,
once established, tell the story.
I seldom write the story from start to finish in chronological order. Ideas pop up and have to be
written. Characters have backstory that needs to be told. Sources of conflict developed now for
future disasters to strike later.
Right before I start a story, I do make the effort to immerse myself in reading about the ideas in
the story, reading books the style of which I wish to influence the story, and doing whatever
research I think is necessary. It all sort of reaches critical mass and then the story begins to
write itself.
What are common traps for aspiring writers?
Perfectionism. The fear of what they write not being perfect the first time they put words to
paper.
Laziness. It’s not hard physical labor but writing takes effort and some days you don’t want to sit
down and write your daily word count. Discipline yourself and get it done. You can feel the pain
of discipline now or the pain of regret later.
Fear they aren’t good enough. Well, maybe that first story does stink or that first non-fiction draft
is as clear as mud. But the only way you will ever get better is to start and be willing to fail and
learn from your mistakes.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Lack of self-discipline to sit down and grind out my daily word count. I can be lazy. This is why
having a self-imposed, but flexible, deadline is essential for me. Deadlines are good.
As to authors who claim having a deadline causes them anxiety, please not I said flexible. You
have to take the deadline serious, but life happens. Give yourself permission to set a new
deadline. Then work to make the second deadline.
If you are an indie author, and you haven’t set a pre-order date this is a hard deadline, then
there is no reason to develop anxiety. You have control.
If you are a traditionally published author, you signed the contract. Set self-imposed deadlines
well in advance of the deadlines you are contractually obliged to meet.
Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
Non-fiction: I really want to deliver what the readers want. They want to learn specific skills,
content, or an understanding of ideas.
Fiction: I tell the story. I hope the readers like them and there is an audience for them. Not the
best business approach but given what drives my imagination, it’s the only way I can do it.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Start sooner. Write more. Learn the business side sooner, especially marketing.
When you get an idea for a story, or a character write it down. I have lots of legal pads with all
kinds of ideas written down. When I go through my notepads periodically, I am amazed by the
volume of good ideas that I had forgotten about. Thus, the need to write them down.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
I don’t want to fall into the trap of writing clichés or imposing my gender’s view of the opposite
sex. Given the fact males struggle to merely predict female behavior (truly understanding it is
beyond most males), it is a challenge to see things from the female worldview.
Naturally, the battle of the sexes is as old as time and makes for a fantastic source of
CONFLICT that both genders can readily identify with.
Take the two main characters in my Sullivan future noir series. Sarah frustrates Sully to no end,
and he particularly dislikes it when she succeeds in manipulating him. Sully is a source of great
resentment for Sarah. She doesn’t like needing his protection (she’s a military grade clone,
Sarah can handle herself) but takes great comfort in the fact Sully does in fact protect her as
best he can. He both fascinates her and frightens her. Sully only sees the bad in life and with
good reason but when it comes to Sarah, he wants to spare her the worst of what life can throw
at a person. Protecting Sarah, who has suffered far too much in her short life, allows him to
make up for the bad he has done in the past, It eases the pain of the losses Sully has
experienced in life. Taking care of Sully, who resents Sarah’s intrusion into his life, is of great
importance to Sarah despite the fact she doesn’t really know how to go about taking care of
anyone. The only thing the two agree on is they are terrified at the thought of losing the other.
Hopefully, the potential for humor and conflict between these two is obvious.
There! You see what I mean by being wordy? It’s a mess. But then, Sully and Sarah are a mess
when it comes to their relationship.
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
Six weeks to do the rough draft once I get serious. After that, the process of finishing the final
draft and getting it into publishable form varies.
Do you believe in writer’s block?
No. Just, no. You sit down and grind out your word count for the day. You don’t have to keep the
words. They don’t even have to be good. You just do it. Over time, this approach keeps the story
moving along.
I don’t want to hear “I’m not inspired. I can’t think of a single word to write.”
Just put words on the page. Get started. Understand and accept your first draft won’t be perfect,
not even close. But you must put words on a page.
I edit as I go and before long, the story tells itself. I just write it down.
