Monday Motivational: Writing as Obsession

When you step back and think about all the work involved in creating a three hundred page book, from thin air we build characters, worlds, and the interactions that bring them all to life, one begins to realize there has to be a degree of obsessiveness in each of us. It's what drives us every day to the key board, note pad, or typewriter.

But sometimes we let that obsession rule our lives.

A comment made by Christopher Matson in his Fridays 5 interview got me to thinking about the obsessive nature of writers, artists, and athletes, anyone really who works in the public eye who creates or performs.

"There is, after all a delicate balance between dedication and obsession. Isn’t there?"

-Christopher Matson..

Thomas, one of my regular visitors, a writer himself, responded with a comment that quoted Isaac Asimov.

Someone once told Isaac Asimov it must take enormous discipline to sit at the typewriter for long periods of time. To which he responded (paraphrased) "Nonsense. If I had any discipline, I would move away from the typewriter once in a while."

This from the same writer who once said: "I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't I would die."

Sort of a ying and yang look at the two faces of a writer. The compulsion needed to create the work, balanced with the understanding that one must always be disciplined enough to step away from the keyboard.

There are no easy answers, no real cure, if you will, for the writers gift (curse). I use curse in the same context as gift because it is a gift that comes with its own set of problems. Is it the desire for fame and riches that push us onward, like compulsion that drives the lottery ticket buyer to purchase the same number every week, in the hope of one day hitting it big.

Are we kidding ourselves?

What do you think?

What drives you to the keyboard every day?

Inspiration

I grew up watching westerns every Saturday morning. Some of you may remember the old black and white weekly television shows featuring characters like Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, and the singing cowboy Gene Autry. Did you know Gene Autry was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in WWII?

I’m full of odd little tid-bits of information like that.

As I grew older my tastes matured, yet my love of Westerns remained strong. I became an early fan of Clint Eastwood when he appeared in the Rawhide series. I know, we’re getting into ancient history here. I’ve followed Clint’s career through the spaghetti westerns of the late sixties early seventies, his Dirty Harry phase, “Make my day.” And beyond. In my mind his best western will always be The Outlaw Josey Wales. “Hell is coming to breakfast.”

But what does all this have to do with Zombies and post apocalyptic fiction? You may be asking.

I’m getting to that.

The biggest reason I liked westerns, and I feel confident enough to say it may be a major reason why post apocalyptic fiction is so popular, is that feeling of being an explorer in a new world. A place of wide open spaces that offered elbow room to roam, a lawless land where the strong backed their words with the firepower they carried as they carved out a new life for themselves.

One of my favorite western movies is Tomstone with Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp. “I’m bringing hell with me!”  He played along side Bill Paxton and Sam Elliot who portrayed brothers Virgil and ????. The last member of this quartet was Doc Holiday played by Val Kilmer. “Who’s your huckleberry?

 

When I first started writing the story that has become All Roads Lead To Terror I envisioned my main character Meat as a blend of the ruthlessness of Clint Eastwood,  with the courage of John Wayne, and the wisdom of James Arness who portrayed sheriff Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke. Meat was born at the height of the Zombie apocalypse, upon his birth his mother took one look at him and pronounced him meat before she abandoned him with the man that would raise him. He grew up in a reality where they were all nothing more than walking bags of meat, so in his mind the name fit perfectly.

Window, his best friend, is pure Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday. Very quiet, studious with an ever watchful eye and a quick hand. To him friendship was the most important thing in the world. His family had perished in the ruthless times after the awakening and his temperament had been forged in the fire that took them from him. His friends were all he had left so he watched over them with a jealously protective nature strengthened by the sense of invulnerability all boys his age embraced. Backed by a quick hand with the .44 he’d used to kill the men who had raped and killed his mother.

The remaining members of this quartet are Einstein who had been born within the compound at Bremo Bluff after the apocalypse occurred. Having spent his life behind the fence he has no first hand knowledge of how brutal the world has become beyond the fence. As his name implies he’s the smartest in the group, as well the most innocent. While that innocence helps to soften the ruthlessness of the other three, it also serves to drive a wedge into their friendship. But he will discover just how terrifying the world beyond the fence has become.

The final member is Billie-Bob, one half of a set of twins who appeared outside the fence several years earlier. Your typical class clown his mouth runs a mile a minute, if he isn’t sharing overused jokes about Zombies, he’s whispering the passages from a book his mother used to read to him when he was younger, a chant that provides him with a degree of comfort. Billie-Bob is unique in that at the tender age of eleven he has proven himself to be a natural born sniper with a willingness to use his special talent to protect his friends.

All of them had been born during the apocalypse, growing up in the time after, surviving in a world that had little sympathy for those unable to defend themselves. It is said we are  the product of our environment, these four boys have shouldered the responsibilities of an adult long before their pre-awakening counterparts would have been required to. They became survivors in a ruthless world that had as yet to reveal the true depths of its depravity.

I believe post-apocalyptic fiction is the modern western. But unlike the westerns of old, where the ability to go back and experience it first hand would require a time machine. These modern tales of strong characters surviving in a wide open places has the potential to become reality.

Falling into a hole.

A little more than a month ago I finished my last project. Since then I've found myself skirting the edges of my next project, unable to dive right in like I used to. I'm hesitating. It's not like I don't have enough work to do, or ideas to pursue.

My goal is to have two more releases out before the end of the year, and one full length manuscript submitted to a publisher. Yes, I'm going to try the traditional route again, I'm not going all in mind you, but I believe there are some works that deserve a better chance at grabbing the brass ring by opening channels that are currently closed to me as a self published writer.

 But first I have to step off that edge.

And that's where I'm hesitating. I know what it takes to complete a work, my wife knows what it takes for me to complete a work. When I told her recently I was about to start another book she said, "well I guess I'll see you in a couploe of months."

No one's going anywhere, not physically at least, whenever I become focused solely on the story I'm writing I tend to go away to my own little place until I'm done. A quiet place in my mind where the story is all there is.

I still go to work every day, and deal with an increasingly frustrating public, I still take care of the dogs when I get home. I still eat dinner, bathe, and sleep regularly. I even still interact with my wife every evening during the one to two hours I give her my undivided attention, but that's a lie really. For when I'm writing a book I'm physically present to handle the day to day functions, but mentally I'm working on the story, fleshing out a character,  or probing the plot for holes.

I'm, on autopilot. 

It's during the writing of the story that time compresses upon itself and I'll wake up one day, several months later, wondering where all the time went. The task will be completed, the work will be done, till next time, and the next, giving a little of myself to each project. Putting everything I have into the story.

It's what writing is all about, at least for me.

Are you the same way?

A New Beginning

I finished my last project, Parasite around mid-October after spending over five months in the belly of the beast, so to speak, as I wrote, and rewrote the story to create the finished product. I was at that point many writers speak of, that lull between projects that for most writers, especially myself, left me feeling aimless as I cast about for the next thing to do. Not for a lack of ideas as there are currently several different stories vying for my attention.

I had spent over five months fully invested in the story and the characters, their individual hopes and dreams, theirs fears had become my own. I rode the emotional roller coaster that was my assorted characters lives. Not once, twice, or even three times, but many times as I strove to bring them to life. I believe I succeeded, but truthfully that remains for the reader to decide.

You see once I hit the publish button, and released my creation into the world, the characters I had created were no longer my own. They now belong to anyone who picks up a copy and opens the story to take a peek inside. They now wait for the reader to give them life, and I worry incessantly that maybe I wasn't honest enough to the tale. Only time will tell.

Now I find myself upon the brink of embarking on another adventure. You see when you write in the long form, such as novels and novellas, these are not things you nibble at a little here and there while you work towards completion. No, for me at least, writing a novel requires me to dive headlong into the story, to fully immerse myself in the characters, the place, the reason for the story's whole existence.To become one with the story and the characters, to feel what they feel, to experience, if only in my mind, what they have experienced. To live as they live.

While it may sound exciting, there is a downside, and that is the loss of self during the process of creation, I'm still there, physically, as I go through the motions of daily life as a model husband and dedicated worker (don't let my boss see this, he might loose it laughing at the idea), but then again I'm not really there. I'm in the story, and though I'm not sitting at my desk pounding on the keyboard, I'm still writing even if it's only in my mind. Thankfully I have an understanding wife for those moments when it seems I'm a million miles away, I'd do anything for her, short of giving up writing, but she'd never ask me to do that. 

Writing Process Blog tour.

Thomas Kleaton, a talented new writer who is showing a great deal of promise, recently asked me to participate in a writer’s blog tour. The requirement was simple enough, answer four questions, and tag several other writers that you know to answer the same four questions on their blog.

Thomas maintains a blog here: http://thomaskleaton.wordpress.com/

I don’t like to tag anyone for one of these unless I’ve spoken with them before hand and the three I intended to tag have not as yet gotten back to me. So I’m going to change things up here a bit and give a shout out to those tireless souls who help us writers get the word out about our new releases.

They are the readers who have taken their obsession one step further and publicly post reviews on their own personal blogs. So stop by their site after you’re done here, check out their reviews, interviews, new release announcement, you never know you might just find a new writer or two to follow.

What am I working on?
Shadows of the Past Part II Parasite. The creature Sam Hardin though he had killed in Shadows of the Past Part I has returned. But the problem is no longer isolated in the hills of Western Maryland. In Washington State a young man discovers an alien craft beneath his basement floor, inside is a parasite that is tied to what Sam killed and threatens the future of all mankind.

How does my work differ from others in the genre?
Very little blood and guts. I believe real tension is created by the perception in the readers mind of what is about to happen versus a blow-by-blow description of what does happen.
 
Why do I write what I do? 
That’s like asking someone why they breath. All my life I’ve been drawn to the macabre.
 
How does my writing process work?
I allow the idea to incubate, to explore its myriad possibilities, then I start running the gauntlet of questions. Who, What, When, Where, Why, and of course how. Once I have these firmly in mind it is only then that I put pen to paper.


Jim McLeod at Ginger Nuts of Horror: For any and all of your horror fiction needs, Ginger Nuts of Horror is your number one source! Through the many pages that this site has to offer, you will be given the chance to view the absolutely best in horror fiction news, horror fiction reviews, and exclusive interviews with both up and coming stars as well as established horror actors. In fact, Google has recently ranked Ginger Nuts of Horror as the number one website for horror news and horror author interviews, as well as ranking us in the top ten horror fiction review websites. Currently, the site  averages about 90,000 views every month with  over 18,000 unique visitors! Now, it’s time to get into the meat of our website: exactly what makes Ginger Nuts of Horror your number one horror website.

Anthony Seravante at Servante of Darkness: I critique, review, and discuss current trends in literature, especially works of Horror, SF, Fantasy, Crime Noir, and related subjects. I also review film, music, and TV programs. I compile monthly poetry columns and continue ongoing discussions on the Zombie Apocalypse, Cybernocturnalism (ebook publishing, good and bad), and Off Kilter TV: Where Horror Rears its Ugly Head on Family Television. And I publish a Horror Short Story of the Month every first of the month.


Shana Festa at Bookie Monster: Shay Festa A.K.A. The Bookie Monster reviews horror and paranormal books, with an emphasis (but not limited to) zombie fiction. With a background in Psych Nursing, Shay brings her unique perspective to the online reading community. Her highly anticipated zombie novel, Time of Death: Induction, is now available!