If you’ve seen the movie Freaky Friday, you know that its premise is about change and growth through role reversal. For my Friday Blog entry I thought it would be interesting to interview aspiring writers; the same writers who spend lots of time reading the interviews of published authors and dreaming of the day when they might get their book on the shelves…
Dean (Dean’s FB Page) is one of the illustrious members of my writing group C’RAP (Children’s ‘Riters Always Procrastinate). We don’t get a lot done. Just kidding. He has bravely volunteered to be my third Freaky Friday interview. Fasten your seatbelts…
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Did you want me to start with that question at bottom (of your email)? Sounds pretty wide-open.
Ha ha ha, yes it’s broad, but I want each interview to be a little bit different. If you tell me a little bit about yourself-what you want to share, then we can move in a natural direction. *crickets chirping* How about this,tell me a little about your day job and how you started writing.
I guess the most obvious start direction is single parenting, how it affects every aspect of my life and the total lack of time that leaves for much, but that sounds self-pitying and after a while you stop noticing. Day job varies by project at hand. I know it sounds unamerican-like, where everyone is judged by their day job and what you do is who you are, and what you earn is where you stand. But I’ve always been more of a renaissance man, with many talents and ways to earn a living, and ultimately that who you are is who you are; your actions and decisions define your time in this life, rather than your paycheck and title(side note, I think society has begun to change, charitable hours and non-profit careers are way up, I grew up in go-go eighties and may be scarred for life, including an aversion to big hair bands). In other words, I do some internet programming to pay the bills. And it’s my writing and relationships by which I hope to some day be judged.
I like this Dean. It’s nice to see that we aren’t all little cookie cutter writer wanna-be’s. I think it’s more interesting when we bring something unique to the table, and by interesting I mean can you send me a picture of you with that 80’s hair? Just kidding-unless you want to… So Mr. Renaissance Man, the name suites you by the way, do you dabble in your writing interests the way that you do with your “day job?”
As for my own writing interests, you may definitely consider them scattered (self-loathingly) or varied (kindly); I call it the curse of the gemini. I think people don’t use enough semi-colons or adverbs today. Depending on the audience or medium, I can easily revert to periodic mode of Jane Austen syntax (my poetry tends toward the iambic lilt), then bop over to hip-hop bebop rhythmic banter and draggle. I like to make up my own words way too much, or mucheasily, and see if the word processor spell-check kicks it back to me, half the time I keep it anyway.
Lately, since we’ve met by way of children’s writing groups, I have been trying to kick-start my Young Adult series, good concept and so many ideas and several chapters on paper and notebooks full of notes, but needing serious follow-through. [Aside, friend once warned me not to spend the energy of a specific project talking about it if it was still in development, best use the karmic powers on project itself, so no details here… yet] The early chapters are fast and introductory, so it’s easy to let the energy feed back into my writing. But like any relationship, the real effort and satisfaction comes from the dedication put into the project, the real body of the work past that initial fluttering and blushing stage of something new and different. Therein lies the reward of any project (or relationship), you get out what you put in.
Other very varied genre include: my short stories and contests, those come in a very adult mood, death and sex flavored, which seem to be a very American pastime; journal-type continuity entries, leaning heavily on Artist’s Way teachings; testing the internet writing waters with a couple random articles on Helium; Screenplays for an animated series, aimed at the feral teen minds and fanboy set, including music and fireworks and sophomoric jokes to turn your face red; some old poetry and lyrics and music from my young and impressionable days, currently converting old taped sessions into digital format (geek in me); and a couple of un-published children’s rhyming books, still working out the kinks and perhaps using them more as a test-bed and exercise therapy than concerning myself with publication, though it’s always nice.
No pictures of you in Members Only Wear? You are making it much harder for me to attract a blog readership LOL! I’ll let you keep your YA project under karmic wraps for now. I’ve had a taste of it and my only complaint is that you haven’t let me read more. Focus and get writing! You mentioned that we met through a children’s writing group; our local SCBWI Shop Talk to be precise. I was wondering what your thoughts are on the other components it takes to be a success in this business besides REALLY GOOD WRITING?
Components for success in the business of writing? Well that’s a self-fulfilling loaded question wrapped in a conundrum of a dilly of a pickle. I’m assuming I still fall under the ‘aspiring’ category of these interviews, so success is aspiring as well. But I’m going to go ahead and guess that the ‘business’ of writing is the hidden cost and most uninspiring and also the most overlooked by those aspiring with gumdrop dreams and lollipop wishes. It’s also the one I’m worst at and most unpracticed in so let’s just say it involves a lot legwork and paperwork and form letters and rejection letters.
As for REALLY GOOD WRITING? We all got two cents and if you ask enough people for theirs you may just be able to afford that double-smoked faux-mocha grande-phat latte at Stirbucks. The first step is to think of yourself and act like a writer; do the things you think a writer would do. Buy lots of notebooks (several sizes and portability) and pens and index cards, maybe even a voice recorder, and a thinking hat of your own devolution. Then get to the bookstore and buy catalogs of publishers and editors and agents (see business malarkey above); research and collect as many online resources as you can, especially the free ones, and definitely bookmark M-W (my fast fave).
Feeling it yet? Then go out and join some groups, attend some meetings (not that kind, yet), go to some writer’s conferences and jump in the pool with your fellow wordcraft swimmers. Keep reminding yourself this is a solitary pursuit, but there are thousands of other solitary folk just like you who need to get out and talk and make sure the sun is shining and the birds are singing and that all existence does not reside somewhere between their keyboard and monitor flashing cathode rays on their poorly adjusted cornea. Get the Artists Way, it’s got some great simple advice and exercises and daily, weekly, or monthly things to do to stay fresh. And don’t get discouraged when you drop off your regimen (you will), like working out it’ll still be there and just as productive even if you slack off every now and then, but make sure you get back to it. Writers write, after all. Establish a program, your time, your writing time, even silly ideas and notes for your magnus opus, it’s your writing time, lock the door or rent a room. The mind is a muscle: build it and exercise it, run circles then jog through the woods, take it out for a night on the town, use it or lose it, take notes when it strays, the best parts are the mistakes and off-track meanderings.
Take up smoking, then quit. If you don’t have one, find yourself a reliable drink, no mojitos or flaming trendiness in a tumbler, it’s got to have straight booze and maybe a pinch of chaser. You don’t have to do or experience the actual things you want to write about, but it takes a lot less imagination if you have done them in person. Reality is overrated; fiction is underrated; biography is superfluous. Take the quest seriously, then laugh seriously at yourself in the mirror with your thinking hat and skivvies and highball trying to finish your most brilliant thoughts into a voice recorder dressed in a getup in which you’d be embarrassed to shop online at 2am. Never dangle your participles, unless you feel like it. Finally, ultimately, and most importantly… don’t quit your day job.
And as you so eloquently and often remind us, Children’s Riters Always Procrastinate (unabashed group plug, props Kim).
I’m pretty sure I need to brush up on emoticonisms, you may have just called me a semi-colon winkie thing. And I’m definitely sure this type of Q&A let’s me wander way too much, I don’t think I even came close to addressing the last question.
Influential books should be an easy one, and the first three or four came right to me. But then I got nervous I was leaving one off the love list (note to anyone reading, make rough draft of your list, at least in your head, never know when someone’s going to put you on the spot and you’re really under pressure to impress, I mean really, an aspiring writer’s list of influential books? Better be good).
So, like most people I’m going to addend and add asterisk and hedge my bets. The 2-2a are my favorite American authors, and alike. And 3-3a shows my sweet tooth for sci-fi and fantasy, think outside the cube-shaped container thing.
1. “King Lear” – the one and only Bard, majesty and tragedy, especially like the Kurosawa version “Ran” for you movie buffs.
2. “Blood Meridian” – Cormac McCarthy pens a twisted western action manhunt, beautiful and gory and primal.
2a. “The Sound and Fury” – Faulkner at his finest, taught me early on that you are not limited by what’s happening in front of you, the mind is an environment unto itself.
3. “Foundation Trilogy” – Asimov, early influence on my philosophy on nature of society and possibility, even an universe dependent on seeming minutiae.
3a. “Duncton Wood” – William Horwood, fantasy, out of print, love story, one of the best villains ever (a mole?), set in a survival-of-fittest brutish existence.
4. “Fountainhead” – Ayn Rand, the virtues of singular strife, plus I love the idea of genius breaking rocks in the hot sun, by choice. Brainiacs who know the value of toil, and don’t trust a skinny chef.
5. “Iowa Baseball Confederacy” – Kinsella, love baseball, great and thought-provoking fiction around the diamond setting.
*Honorable Mention – “1984” which scared the bejesus out of me first time I read it in college, seriously, I lost sleep. May even be more frightening the more of its dark vision comes to pass.
And before I forget, thanks so much for doing this with me, this was the real hoot. Forced me to think out some things in longhand that were previously underdeveloped principles. And furthermore, when you’ve done a ton of these and are well on your way to becoming the LiveJournal Larry King of thread-based interviewers, watch over your shoulder for a Freakier Friday Turnaround; we’re going to have to gang up on you and make you answer some questions!
You are very welcome Dean. I learned a lot about you and enjoyed every minute of the banter. Hope to see you tomorrow at our local SCBWI monthly Mid-Hudson Shop Talk Meeting http://scbwi-easternny.org/shoptalk.html *Great location for getting autographs from Freaky Friday Guests ;o)
If you want to get in contact with Dean you can find silly pictures of him on Dean’s FB Page although, rumor has it there are no pictures of him with 80’s hair and a really cool Members Only jacket.
Thanks Dean ;o)
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