Ask the Author: Christopher Laine
Answered Questions (9)
Christopher Laine
Writing. Being able to write is a miracle of advanced sentience.
Editing used to be my least fave, but these days, I do love to polish the stone. First drafts are fine, but the real excitement comes as you refine and refine to eke out the tiniest details to (as close to as is ever likely) perfection.
Editing used to be my least fave, but these days, I do love to polish the stone. First drafts are fine, but the real excitement comes as you refine and refine to eke out the tiniest details to (as close to as is ever likely) perfection.
Christopher Laine
Writer's block is my nonsense. I'm in the way. I'm pushing my 'self' out in front of the real source of my writing, and then expecting that source to push all the imagination, all the horror and wonder and surreal through that 'me'.
I deal with writer's block by pushing myself out of the way, telling me to shut my frackin' mouth, and listen to what I'm being told.
Our ancestors once taught us that it is best to learn to live in silence, to let nature have her voice. That's the voice I have to listen to if I want to get past writer's block. Chris shuts up, and Nature gets her say.
I deal with writer's block by pushing myself out of the way, telling me to shut my frackin' mouth, and listen to what I'm being told.
Our ancestors once taught us that it is best to learn to live in silence, to let nature have her voice. That's the voice I have to listen to if I want to get past writer's block. Chris shuts up, and Nature gets her say.
Christopher Laine
Play the game as much as you have to (and yeah, to some extent you DO have to if you want to reach an audience of readers), but don't let it suck you in. If you feel you have something to say, focus on that. Stop waiting for others to 'accept' what you've written, and just say what you have to say.
I don't know if that helps if you're writing a guide to using spreadsheets or better mushroom gardening, but I hope it does. Fiction, non-fiction, be yourself.
Finally, stuff genre. Genre is a concept created at some stage in the 20th century which was a way of classifying you into a nice neat bucket. Genre limits you, holds you back from being a truly great writer. You write romance? Throw some horror in there. You write horror? Don't be afraid to explore romance, or philosophy, or whatever.
Truly great writing -- truly great art -- transcends genre. Don't let yourself get trapped, even by yourself.
I don't know if that helps if you're writing a guide to using spreadsheets or better mushroom gardening, but I hope it does. Fiction, non-fiction, be yourself.
Finally, stuff genre. Genre is a concept created at some stage in the 20th century which was a way of classifying you into a nice neat bucket. Genre limits you, holds you back from being a truly great writer. You write romance? Throw some horror in there. You write horror? Don't be afraid to explore romance, or philosophy, or whatever.
Truly great writing -- truly great art -- transcends genre. Don't let yourself get trapped, even by yourself.
Christopher Laine
At present, I'm focused on publishing Screens first and foremost. I am putting together book trailers for it (you can find them on my website as they become available). I've been super into the whole business side, which is an undiscovered country for me, and working to create the best design and cover for it is taking up heaps of my time.
As for what I'm writing right now, blogging, being a trickster on social media, and feeling the storm rising in my mind's eye for my next novella, the second in my Tales of the Garden Path series, a sort of postquel of what happens in Screens. Watch this space.
As for what I'm writing right now, blogging, being a trickster on social media, and feeling the storm rising in my mind's eye for my next novella, the second in my Tales of the Garden Path series, a sort of postquel of what happens in Screens. Watch this space.
Christopher Laine
I honestly don't. Ideas show up out of my brain, ready to tell a story. I know that sounds trite, but that's how my writing has always been.
I went to writing school, and I'll admit, I struggled. I understood what writing school taught me (and cherish my time there), but for me, the subconscious' cup overfloweth with stories and angels and fiends. They like to tell me things, so I write them down.
I went to writing school, and I'll admit, I struggled. I understood what writing school taught me (and cherish my time there), but for me, the subconscious' cup overfloweth with stories and angels and fiends. They like to tell me things, so I write them down.
Christopher Laine
I started Screens as a novella. It was one of my short fictions in the Seven Coins Drowning series. But something about it, about how it scratched the surface of things which were concerning me, things related to our rising addiction culture where digital content is concerned.
I found it related quite poignantly and painfully to my own struggles with addiction. I was looking at our civilisation(s) of today from the perspective of a junkie of one kind staring at a sea of junkies of another kind.
The novella of Screens went from there to a full-blown novel. I guess I had a lot to say on the subject.
Plus, the book is creepy AF. I love me some creepy AF. I love it in my writing, and in my reading.
I found it related quite poignantly and painfully to my own struggles with addiction. I was looking at our civilisation(s) of today from the perspective of a junkie of one kind staring at a sea of junkies of another kind.
The novella of Screens went from there to a full-blown novel. I guess I had a lot to say on the subject.
Plus, the book is creepy AF. I love me some creepy AF. I love it in my writing, and in my reading.
Christopher Laine
People, terrified by the next phase of evolution, decided to lock their minds in a haunted house of normalcy and tradition. Haunted by the inhabitants, this madhouse spiraled in upon itself, yet none of the inmates could bring themselves to leave.
https://medium.com/on-the-philosophie...
https://medium.com/on-the-philosophie...
Christopher Laine
An ever-shifting answer to this one. Right now, I'd travel to the dreamworld first created by Lovecraft, but perfected by Kij Johnson in her wondrous work The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe.
I'd be going for a mug of wine, and to look for the Midnight Gardener.
I'd be going for a mug of wine, and to look for the Midnight Gardener.
Christopher Laine
Well, it's winter down under, but I take your meaning.
To Rouse Leviathan, by Matt Cardin
The Undivided Universe, by David Bohm
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers
Fairfax & Glew, by Parker McCoy
Seven Blades in Black, by Sam Sykes
The Popol Vuh, the Mayan book of creation
To Rouse Leviathan, by Matt Cardin
The Undivided Universe, by David Bohm
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers
Fairfax & Glew, by Parker McCoy
Seven Blades in Black, by Sam Sykes
The Popol Vuh, the Mayan book of creation
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