Write Through The Roof | For writers who want to improve their writing

Interview with writer and stand-up comic, Tim Ewins

“It’s a good thing to write every day, I just don’t do it.”

• Prefer to write and read novels
• Writes during lunch breaks at work – with a monthly word target
• Four years to write his first book
• Coffee and Bon Iver
• Themes of enduring and long-lasting love. How love changes over time.
• Having a child changed ‘We Are Animals’ and added depth to the writing.
• Influence of stand-up but not getting the pay-off
• Editing chapters as he goes.
• Embarrassing pick-ups by editors
• Loose and lose
• The luxury of writing at home with a glass of wine
• Jonas Johannsen, Roald Dahl, Andrew Kaufman
• ‘We Are Animals’ started as a travel blog

“I researched all kinds of thing but not how to spell loose and lose.”

“I do quite often think about the book Matilda”

Links

• Tim Ewins blog
• Tim on Twitter
• Tim on Instagram

The post #76 – Tim Ewins – Write Through The Roof appeared first on .

Interview with ‘dark and weird’ writer, Alison Littlewood

‘History, folklore, ghosts and spooky things.’

• Plot beginnings and endings and pants it all the rest of the way
• Word count spreadsheet – 1000 words per day
• Obsessive about edits
• Satisfies the canine overlords before she begins a writing session
• Dark and weird genre – on the edges of horror
• Themes – loss and death and love – various aspects of being human- twisted fairytales and folklore
• Perceptions of horror writers
• ‘Reading a lot. Writing a lot.’
• The benefits of working with a good editor
• Writing in the middle of the night – inspired by HP Lovecraft
• Michelle Paver, Jason Arnop, Paul Tremblay, Joe Hill, Katrina Ward, Andrew Michael Hurley, Nathan Ballingrud, Priya Sharma, Angela Slatter, Graham Joyce
• Mistletoe – ghost stories at Christmas – MR James, Victorian times – folklore and history of the plant and the season
• Historical research
• Cottingley faeries and changelings

‘Plot beginnings and endings and pants it all the rest of the way.’

‘People back away when I say I’m a horror writer.’

• Alison Littlewood
• Twitter

The post #75 – Alison Littlewood – Write Through The Roof appeared first on .

Interview with author and music journalist, Jon Black

“You can’t do a one-to-one transition of role-playing to fiction.”

• No preference for medium but a natural geography and cluster in terms of word counts
• Mix of a plotter and pantser. Influenced by role-playing games
• Environment is important – quirky 24-hour coffee house and writes throughout the night
• A music journalist but does not actively listen to music while writing
• Supernatural, historical fiction with a twist
• Themes of power of human curiosity, music, exploring the interplay between folklore, mythology and history
• Cultivating a sensate writing style: all five senses to bring the reader into the scene
• Benefits of role playing in writing fiction and pitfalls
• Experimenting with less exposition and background for characters
• Caleb Carr, Harry Turtledove, Stephen King, Garrison Keilor, Daniel Pinkwater
• Gabriel’s Trumpet – second wave of spiritualism and Jazz Age
• Expanding short stories into novel-length
• Currently editing an anthology about searches for lost books

“I’m not sure whether I have a genuine love for it or whether it’s a Stockholm syndrome thing.”

• Jon Black Writes
• Twitter
• Facebook

The post #74 – Jon Black – Write Through The Roof appeared first on .

Interview with debut steampunk author, Kristy Childs

“How to make Sleeping Beauty an active protagonist.”

• Writes seasonally – starts in November with Nanowrimo until April
• Light plot outline but generally pantsing
• Fuelled by green tea
• Themes are usually concepts to be included in the work – e.g. airship heist
• Start with character or concept first?
• Steampunk or gas lamp – genre definition
• Editing
• Changing British English into American English and difference in grammar rules
• Passive voice cut-out and strengthening word use
• Microsoft Word extra grammar features
• “I before e except after c” – exceptions
• Favourite genres to read – urban fantasy and YA – N.K. Jemisin, Tamora Pierce, Ben Aaronovitch, Warlock Holmes
• The Nightmare Detective inspired by The Maltese Falcon but set between the Wars and Sleeping Beauty retelling.
• Sleep disorders
• Current project is a Chinese fantasy for Nanowrimo. Inspired by ‘cultivation novels’ – Dragonball Z

“I want dinosaurs and I want explosions”

• Kristy on Amazon
• Kristy on Twitter

The post #73 – Kristy Childs – Write Through The Roof podcast appeared first on .

Interview with paranormal author, Violeta M. Bagia

“Whatever you do, you’re only going to get better by repeating it.”

• Writes every day without fail
• Early morning writing time is the best
• Nice pair of shoes are required to write
• Poetic and “prose-y” style. PTSD, new identity, personal transformation
• The problems with defining a genre – paranormal or urban fantasy or war fiction
• Routine is all-important to build a writing habit
• Learning to plot to meet the publisher’s expectations
• Whiteboard wall
• Stephen King, Jennifer L Armentrout
• Jack of Hart – the book came after “finishing” the series. Quick to write but then expanded to double the size.
• Taking back the rights of the Hart of Darkness series from the original publisher and republished

• Violeta M. Bagia

The post #72 – Violeta M. Bagia – Write Through The Roof appeared first on .

Interview with cosy mystery writer Debbie Young

“Cosy mysteries are an antidote to the strains of modern life”

• Short novels are her favourite form
• Journalistic background but mainly a pantser
• Writes a chapter a day in the writing phase
• Doesn’t always write every day. Needs to recharge the batteries and think
• Themes of celebrating community and nurturing understanding between people
• The mystery provides the framework to flesh out with characters and comedy
• Based on her real village life and her community
• Closed communities in a mystery; village and classic English boarding school
• Cosy mystery popularity – an antidote to modern life, resolution and happy ever after
• Writing without stopping – experiment with the next novel with a little light editing to begin each writing session
• Different technologies for writing – Word, using Scrivener for plotting, writing by hand with a fountain pen
• Touch typing
• Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers
• Sophie Sayers mysteries are not always murder stories and veer more to romantic and situational comedy.
• Experimenting with crossing over between the Sayers and St.Brides series and writing more novellas

“I’m an organised pantser.”

“Sometimes I feel I’m writing situation comedy sketches.”

• https://authordebbieyoung.com/

The post #71 – Debbie Young – Write Through The Roof appeared first on .

Episode 70 – interview with sci-fi author, podcaster and writing coach, RR Campbell.

“There’s no Twitter, no email. The coffee is here. The time has come.”

• Meticulous planner rather than pantser – with scene by scene outlines. This means every morning he wakes up and knows exactly what he’s going to write
• Analytical approach to writing – informed by linguistics background
• Daily writing ritual – coffee pot on a timer and ready to go
• Re-reading a favourite author as writing fuel
• Empathy between characters. Epistolary novel form.
• Five core components to any scene: setting, goal, conflict, resolution, cliffhanger/pivot/change
• Margaret Atwood. David Mitchell
• Empathy series – internet access brain implants inspired by smartphones
• Taking time away from a manuscript to get perspective before retooling
• Multiple points of view, dimensions and shout-outs

“Finding the best way to create empathy between the character and the reader.”

“There are five core components to any scene.”

• RR Campbell’s website
• RR Campbell on Twitter
• RR Campbell on Facebook
• Writescast Network of podcasts

The post #70 – R.R. Campbell – Write Through The Roof appeared first on .

Interview with Alan Baxter, writer of dark weird shit

‘Write caffeinated and edit drunk’

• Baxter believes plotting and pantsing is a sliding scale.
• Vomit drafter but often edits a little before starting each day’s writing session
• Has a target of 5000 words per week when writing first drafts but doesn’t try to write every day
• Coffee in the day, whiskey in the evening
• Genre is ‘dark weird shit’ – soup of urban fantasy, horror and the weird plus crime and noir
• Themes of justice and consequences
• Time is the most important thing
• Martial arts mindset – time and commitment – developing a practice and striving for improvement
• Stepping away from the manuscript to let the brain to work out the problems
• Short stories can shake up the process, like cross-training
• Clive Barker, Stephen King, Lovecraft, Poe, Kaaron Warren, Margo Lanegan and comics
• Short story collection Served Cold leans more into horror and explores Australian identity

• Alan Baxter – website
• Alan on Twitter

The post #69 – Alan Baxter – Write Through The Roof appeared first on .

Interview with Lee Kofman – author and writing teacher

‘In each draft I try to get one or two things right rather than everything.’

• Creative non-fiction is her current favourite medium. Closer to poetry than non-fiction. It is a fresher and younger experimental genre.
• Multi-tasking with children
• Prepare for writing session by thinking about the current project before sitting down at the desk.
• Gerald Murnane – three types of writers: curious, preachy and possessed/obsessed.
• Themes – doomed loves.
• Memoir-writing and Russian poets
• All writing is rewriting.
• Working on plotting skills but not plotting too much. Needs a sense of tension to keep the writing process interesting
• Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gogol, Helen Garner, Robert Dessaix, Zadie Smith, Geoff Dyer, Joan Didion, Karl Ove Knausgaard
• Imperfect – scars and haunted by shame. Inspired by her child’s diagnosis of albinism

‘Writing is layering.’

‘What it’s like to have a body which deviates from the so-called norm.’

• Lee’s website
• Lee on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Linkedin

The post #68 – Lee Kofman – Write Through The Roof appeared first on .

Interview with Afro-futurist writer Agnes Gomillion

“I wanted people to reflect on their relative state of freedom.”

• Writes something every day – maybe poetry or notes but not necessarily her ‘work-in-progress’
• Poetry, songs and lyrical writing
• Sleep is writing fuel of choice
• Afrofuturism – lift the audience from reality for the purpose of looking back and better understanding African-American culture.
• Humanity with an African-American lens.
• Writing about the underlying person brings different people together.
• Perseverance
• ‘Story’ by Robert McKee – how to create a character and how to use structure to ‘show, don’t tell’.
• Having to incorporate more structure in the writing day with children
• Jesmyn Ward – Salvage the Bones, Stephen King
• Frederick Douglass inspired The Record Keeper with his spirit of freedom. The story of how someone overcomes their fear set in a dystopia after World War 3.
• Octavia Butler comparisons
• Working on the sequel – The Seed of Cain.

“Humanity with an afro-futurist bent.”

“Slavery is more than physical chains.”

• Agnes on Facebook
• Agnes on Twitter
• Agnes on Instagram

The post #67 – Agnes Gomillion – Write Through The Roof appeared first on .