Ask the Author: Stephen J. Smith
Answered Questions (7)
Stephen J. Smith
Hi Ken,
Thanks for the question, and I'm excited to hear you're enjoying the book so much! Happy to report that the second book in the series is plotted and ready for me to start writing, and I have sketches for at least two more books after that. I'm currently working on a book that's not related to this series (a supernatural thriller), looking to have that wrapped up by the end of the year. As soon as I'm done with that one, I'll be diving back into The Heavenly War Chronicles. I have plenty more in store for our angels and their warriors, don't worry. Thanks so much for reading, and keep an eye out for updates in the next couple months!
Thanks for the question, and I'm excited to hear you're enjoying the book so much! Happy to report that the second book in the series is plotted and ready for me to start writing, and I have sketches for at least two more books after that. I'm currently working on a book that's not related to this series (a supernatural thriller), looking to have that wrapped up by the end of the year. As soon as I'm done with that one, I'll be diving back into The Heavenly War Chronicles. I have plenty more in store for our angels and their warriors, don't worry. Thanks so much for reading, and keep an eye out for updates in the next couple months!
Stephen J. Smith
Keep at it, no matter what. The only way you get better is to keep telling new stories and study the ones you love. You'll hear a lot of people say persistence is more important than talent, and that you have to be in it for the long game. That's more true than you can possibly imagine. There's no 5-year plan to being a writer; it's more like a 10-year plan, a 15 or 20-year plan even. But if you feel that thrill when you sit down and start writing, that's enough to know you should keep going, even when no one is reading your stuff except you. When you're truly ready to put yourself out there, you'll know. The other thing is to always keep filling your creative well with new ideas, and enjoy the stories that are being told just as much as you did before you decided to start writing. Don't get so deep into writing your own material that you stop watching movies or reading other people's books. Try to pull interesting stories from the news headlines and save them. Take breaks from writing to soak up new experiences. If you don't continuously find things that inspire you and broaden your horizons, you may find yourself struggling to come up with the next story. As much creativity as you put out there in your work, you should try to pull in probably double that to keep yourself fresh and motivated.
Stephen J. Smith
It's the thrill of creating a new world and new characters from nothing. Or, to put it another way, it's the thrill of feeling like you know a secret that no one else knows. When you're writing something, there's an entire world in your head that only you are experiencing for a time. And then once you've put it on the page, you get to guide everyone else into that world and watch them experience it for the first time. There's no better feeling.
Stephen J. Smith
The best thing for me is to watch a movie or read a book or movie script. Before I sit down to write, I'll try to watch a snippet of a favorite movie, or plow through 20 pages of a screenplay. There's something about experiencing someone else's writing that stirs my creative impulse to write something of my own. I don't think it's a jealousy/envy thing (although that's definitely a factor sometimes), I think it's just the joy of seeing a story well told that drives me to want to find that success with my own material. Or, if it's a bad movie or book, it's the inverse--I want to write my own stuff because I want to do it better.
Stephen J. Smith
For "The Sabrael Confession," it was a combination of a few things. First off, I was obsessed with Anne Rice for a time. Her Vampire Chronicles are still some of my favorite books, especially the first 6 (everything up to and including "The Vampire Armand"). The way she managed to dive into the minds and experiences of these otherwordly characters who are fully integrated into the normal world was a big inspiration for "The Sabrael Confession". Secondly, back in my formative years, I had to go to confirmation classes at my church every week on Wednesday nights for four years, and one subject always fascinated me: angels and their war in Heaven. But there's not actually that much written about it in canonical texts, so most of what I could find out about it came from the classics like “Paradise Lost” or apocryphal texts like “The Book Of Enoch”. A few movies like "The Prophecy" have touched on it, and now angel stories and angelology have exploded into the mainstream in books and movies. But I've never been able to find anything that really explored it the way I wanted to explore it—a view into the personal experiences of an angel warrior on the front lines. Thirdly, it’s the swordplay. I practiced Kendo for a time and it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had, so I wanted to write a story with a lot of sword-swinging action and characters who could have these epic, yet intimate battles. I’m not a big fan of guns, not because accidents can happen and all that, but because I kind of feel like guns are cheating. It takes years of practice and training to be skilled with melee weapons, and besting someone in a swordfight takes stamina, strength and technique. A gun’s idiot-proof, which means idiots can easily use them, unfortunately. So I tried to put Sabrael through the wringer with the battle scenes in the book and really deliver unique, pulse-pounding action that conveys the exhilaration of going blade-to-blade against someone. And finally, I love history. I love learning about what it was like to live in different places throughout history, what happened to certain cultures to bring about their end, how the major milestones in history led to how things are today. There’s something so exciting and intriguing about it, and I wanted an excuse to research my favorite periods of time. I didn't get to touch on them all yet; a few have to wait for books down the road in the series. But put all that together, and I came to this story.
Stephen J. Smith
I don't typically ever get writer's block the way most people talk about it. I tend to dissect stories and plan them out in such detail in the beginning of the process that once I get into the actual writing, it happens fast with almost no bumps along the way. That said, the initial planning phase can give me some troubles from time to time. When that happens, I'll step away for a few minutes, clear my head, and then when I come back, I'll examine the scene that's giving me guff to see if there's another approach to it that helps show me how to get through it. Maybe there's a single emotional beat that's tripping me up and I can alter it, or maybe adding or subtracting a character from the scene might be best. If you run into a dead end in your writing, you probably just missed a turn somewhere that would lead you to where you're going, hopefully in an even more interesting way than the path you were originally trying to take.
Stephen J. Smith
I tend to work on multiple projects at once, not so much because I enjoy bouncing between stories, but because it seems to be the best way to keep new ideas cooking at all times. Currently, I'm spreading my time between three projects. I'm revising a script for a television episode, I'm outlining a new feature film script, and I'm plugging away at my next novel, a supernatural thriller tentatively titled, "Sleepwalkers". Check out my website for more details and updates.
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Nov 10, 2015 09:35AM