Welcome to The Writing Coach. On this podcast, I speak with the instructors, editors, coaches, and mentors who help writers and authors create their art, build their audience, and sell their work.

In episode #106 of The Writing Coach podcast, I speak with author and writing coach J. Thorn.

J. Thorn has published two million words and has sold more than 185,000 books worldwide. In March of 2014 Thorn held the #5 position in Horror alongside his childhood idols Dean Koontz and Stephen King (at #4 and #2 respectively). He is an official member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Horror Writers Association, and the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers.

J. earned a B.A. in American History from the University of Pittsburgh and a M.A. from Duquesne University. He is a full-time writer, part-time professor at John Carroll University, co-owner of Molten Universe Media, podcaster, FM radio DJ, musician, and a certified Story Grid nerd.

During our discussion, J. describes:

* How he has approached work and productivity throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

* Why writing a novel is like having a baby

* The way music has influenced his writing

* How he approaches each writing and publishing project as an experiment

* Why he made the decision to leave his day job to pursue writing full-time

* And much more!

Click below to listen now:

 

The Writing Coach Episode #106 Show Notes

Get all the details about J. Thorn’s Super Charge Your Scene challenge right here!

Episode Transcript

Today on the show, I have J. Thorn. Welcome to the show.

Kevin, how are you doing man?

I am doing good. These are crazy times. It made me think as someone who has written dystopian literature and has spent some time thinking creatively about how mankind continues on after major disruptions, I’m wondering, do you think that helped prepare you at all for the craziness that we’re currently living through?

Oh, I wish I could say it had. Uh, definitely not. I mean, I’m not, I’m not a prepper or a survivalist. Uh, even though I write dystopian and, and post-apocalyptic fiction, but, um, man, this is way worse than, than a story I got to say. It’s, it’s crazy. You know, you’re like, uh, every day you’re sort of locale like what’s next? Like, what am I going to face today? And I think what’s, what’s hard about this compared to, you know, uh, the fiction side is like in those stories there, there’s usually an arc and like an end. And, and right now they’re feeling like there’s just no end in sight to all of this instability. Absolutely.

Well, J., I was thinking about how to do your introduction here and I don’t even know how to do it. You’ve got so much going on, right? You’re an author, you’re a writing instructor, you’re a podcaster. You’re an entrepreneur. You have a background in music. Maybe I’ll throw it to you. How do you introduce yourself these days?

A great question. I don’t have to because I’m not interacting with too manypeople right now, but, uh, I usually say I’m a writer and publisher. Um, anduh, that, that covers a lot in, in some circles. I’ll say I helped transformstruggling writers into career authors and that kind of covers the ...