A Few Questions More

So Phil came up with a list of questions for Tiff and I thought to myself ‘how can I make this more about me?’ so I figured I’d answer them as well. Because I know Tiff, and if I make it a competition, she’ll throw a tractor tire at my head.

Phil: How do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

There’s an unexamined assumption in there that I have improved, but that’s a topic for later. The shortest answer is ‘I suck a lot less.’ We all do dumb stuff when we first start writing - bad sentence structure, mary sue characters, setups without payoffs, payoffs without setups - you name it. I’ve really gotten better at expressing emotion when I write. By nature I’m a pretty private person, so it was a stretch for me to actually write an emotion evoking scene for other people to read. I still don’t think I’m good at them, but at least I’ll attempt them now.

Phil: What do you like about writing in a fantasy world?

The kind of stories it can support! Look, I know there are a lot of writers out there who are working on the next great novel that will be widely popular with a broad audience … but I’m never going to be the guy that writes that novel. But working in a completely imaginary world lets me steal from all kinds of sources of inspiration and tell cool stories that would never fly in 1880s France.

Phil: What inspiration from your own life do you put into your writing?

Well … quite a few. I’ve spent a lot of time wearing swords and armor and learning how to use them. A bit of time riding horses. Camping. And that’s just touching on the real world activities. There are a lot of life lessons that I fold into stories … how people respond to pain, or violence, or wealth. I wrote my first draft when I was twenty, and I was extremely frustrated with it because at that age I didn’t feel like I had lived enough to really write something with depth. A couple of decades later, and I don’t have that problem.

Phil: What do you like to do to recharge your creative battery?

That’s my favorite hobby! I can attribute almost any pointless goofing off as recharging my creative battery … I draw, paint, play games - board, computer, wargames, or other (games are just a story being played inside a narrow set of rules with dice rolls and player actions determining the twists and turns) … then there are the usual things like travel, blacksmithing, woodworking, sailing … there’s a lot. Sometimes I suffer from having too many interests.

OK, Tiff, I dare you to write better answers than me. (Now I just gotta watch for the flying tire)