Ask the Author: Kenneth L. Decroo
Answered Questions (7)
Kenneth L. Decroo
Sophie and Larry in the Razor's Edge. I love this couple for their hope in spite of their vulnerability. Larry thought meeting Sophie was his reward for living a "good" life. After her death, he realizes that the only reward is the privilege of living. Great book and a great writer.
Kenneth L. Decroo
I think the joy of having my characters visit me on a good day of writing. Those golden days when the pages flow and the world you're creating becomes very real. A day when you know you're a writer, by God.
Also, I love revisiting people and times of my life and sharing a fiction version with my readers. Even the bad times come out the way I want! Or is it the way my characters want?
Also, I love revisiting people and times of my life and sharing a fiction version with my readers. Even the bad times come out the way I want! Or is it the way my characters want?
Kenneth L. Decroo
When I’m at our place in Mexico, I get up early and have breakfast then ride my bicycle for about an hour along the malecón taking in the beauty of the Pacific and breathing in the sea air. After a good ride, I come back to write.
At our place in the mountains, I write in the evening, when most of our community is asleep. I like the quiet of the wee hours. There are fewer distractions to interrupt the story when the characters come to visit.
A little of my homemade moonshine and homebrew lubricates my creativity. Actually, I keep it on hand in both places. ☺
At our place in the mountains, I write in the evening, when most of our community is asleep. I like the quiet of the wee hours. There are fewer distractions to interrupt the story when the characters come to visit.
A little of my homemade moonshine and homebrew lubricates my creativity. Actually, I keep it on hand in both places. ☺
Kenneth L. Decroo
I'm writing a sequel to Almost Human. My working title presently is More Than Human. I'm well into it and hope to have the rough draft completed in early fall 2015.
It is moving along quickly for two reasons, I believe. First, I wrote the ending first which has given me more clarity as I develop the plotlines and character arcs. And second, after finishing Almost Human and receiving such a positive reception, I feel an urgency to give my readers more besides having the confidence that I can go the distance.
It is moving along quickly for two reasons, I believe. First, I wrote the ending first which has given me more clarity as I develop the plotlines and character arcs. And second, after finishing Almost Human and receiving such a positive reception, I feel an urgency to give my readers more besides having the confidence that I can go the distance.
Kenneth L. Decroo
Find other serious writers and network with them. I was very lucky in being invited to a writers’ group of published authors. I had attended a writers’ workshop at the University led by an award-winning, bestselling author. Later, she invited me to here private group. I was the only unpublished writer in the group. This was not a mutual admiration society but a group of brutally honest, competent writers who pulled no punches. I grew as a writer from that experience. I learned about my craft AND the business. This is how you find other writers who are writing, not talking about writing, but writing.
Read. Read across many genres. Pay attention to style and craft as you read especially what makes dialogue ring true. Read for the writer’s voice, the strengths and weakness of narration, character development, plot, etc. In my opinion, good writers are hungry readers. That said, one caution is to be careful about reading something too close to what you’re writing at the time as it can hijack your voice.
Read. Read across many genres. Pay attention to style and craft as you read especially what makes dialogue ring true. Read for the writer’s voice, the strengths and weakness of narration, character development, plot, etc. In my opinion, good writers are hungry readers. That said, one caution is to be careful about reading something too close to what you’re writing at the time as it can hijack your voice.
Kenneth L. Decroo
For me it is really pretty simple, writers write, no matter what. Write every day. Write at least three pages a day. Many days that will be a struggle, then there will be those golden days when it just flows and three pages can grow into twenty or more.
Get the story down. Don’t let the attempt to get it perfect interrupt your flow. Expand and fill it in later.
Writing is magical. You start with an idea and begin the process of getting it on paper and at one point it takes on a life of its own. It has been my experience that on good days, a story will write itself.
Get the story down. Don’t let the attempt to get it perfect interrupt your flow. Expand and fill it in later.
Writing is magical. You start with an idea and begin the process of getting it on paper and at one point it takes on a life of its own. It has been my experience that on good days, a story will write itself.
Kenneth L. Decroo
I was working as the technical adviser and chimp trainer on a movie that starred Karen Allen and Armand Assante. One evening we were out relaxing after a long day of filming on location in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After a few drinks, Armand commented on how human-like my chimp, Mike seemed. I put on my university professor hat and began pontificating on all the traits we humans shared with chimps including my work as a linguistic research assistant on a project in Reno that had successfully taught chimps to communicate using American Sign Language (ASL) as used by the deaf.
That evening after the bar closed I went home and wrote the second chapter where Dr. Turner is lecturing about the similarities and differences of chimpanzees in a University lecture hall at the University of Nevada, Reno. I had worked there on the signing chimp project. I wrote that chapter in about 1984 or so, on an old Royal typewriter. Just before dawn, as I finished writing, Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” played on the radio. I put another page in and wrote the first chapter before going to work.
That evening after the bar closed I went home and wrote the second chapter where Dr. Turner is lecturing about the similarities and differences of chimpanzees in a University lecture hall at the University of Nevada, Reno. I had worked there on the signing chimp project. I wrote that chapter in about 1984 or so, on an old Royal typewriter. Just before dawn, as I finished writing, Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” played on the radio. I put another page in and wrote the first chapter before going to work.
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