Ask the Author: M.D. Boncher
Answered Questions (6)
M.D. Boncher
Tales From The Dream Nebula's inspiration came from 3 different sources, but I can't tell you two of them because they are megaspoilers. But the first inkling was watching a "making of" video on Flash Gordon and the wild art director they had and how they came up with the spectacular visuals. The second I'll say was a thought experiment that I started unravling and said, you know, I have to use this concept in something some day!
The rest came from my usual inability to write genres cleanly. So if you want something that's going to be a unique mashup of genres and ideas. Have a bit of AI/Cyberpunk/Biopunk/lots of nanopunk, rootin', tootin' lots a shootin' with pirates and monsters and aerial dogfights with sky truckers robots and mutants.... with an evil galactic overlord... you're coming to the right place.
The rest came from my usual inability to write genres cleanly. So if you want something that's going to be a unique mashup of genres and ideas. Have a bit of AI/Cyberpunk/Biopunk/lots of nanopunk, rootin', tootin' lots a shootin' with pirates and monsters and aerial dogfights with sky truckers robots and mutants.... with an evil galactic overlord... you're coming to the right place.
M.D. Boncher
My current project is a Raygun Gothic/Cyberpunk/Neo Noir/Space Opera titled "Tales From The Dream Nebula." It will be a novella series, and we're in the works to make it a graphic novel series too. As for what's it like? Picture the following:
"Flash Gordon" meets "Smokey and the Bandit" meets "The Matrix" meets "Talespin", with a side of "Dark City".
"Flash Gordon" meets "Smokey and the Bandit" meets "The Matrix" meets "Talespin", with a side of "Dark City".
M.D. Boncher
I don't have a formula, but once I discover a solution, I start writing. I try not to wait, otherwise, I forget and get stuck again and the next solution is often not as good.
M.D. Boncher
It varies, but it's like a geyser for me. I have to build up pressure and think about the project, talk with one or two of my trusted alpha readers or my editor and then the ideas just burst out, and I write until I'm out of creative pressure, and I have to think my way out of the point I stopped at.
Then it's lather, rinse, repeat.
Then it's lather, rinse, repeat.
M.D. Boncher
90% of people who want to write, never write. They just want what they think a celebrity writer's life is like. So the first piece of advice is you have to fall out of love with the IDEA of being a writer, and start BEING a writer. In the end, it's all about doing the work. Write it, get it edited up to professional grade, then publish it, even if you're going indie (like you should).
I got to stop calling myself just a writer the instant I published my first book. Then I became, officially an author. Aspire to that if it's what you really want to do.
Two warnings:
1. If you hated writing for school, even creative writing, don't torture yourself. Being an author is hard. The chances of being the next Harper Lee where you write 1 book and coast the rest of your life. Being an author is a lifechanger. Being a successful author is a job just as hard as any other intellectually taxing job, with your ego tied in.
2. Do not write for fame. You won't be J.K Rowling when you publish a 50 page ebook. If this is what you are looking for, writing is going to break your heart unless you get unbelievably lucky.
I got to stop calling myself just a writer the instant I published my first book. Then I became, officially an author. Aspire to that if it's what you really want to do.
Two warnings:
1. If you hated writing for school, even creative writing, don't torture yourself. Being an author is hard. The chances of being the next Harper Lee where you write 1 book and coast the rest of your life. Being an author is a lifechanger. Being a successful author is a job just as hard as any other intellectually taxing job, with your ego tied in.
2. Do not write for fame. You won't be J.K Rowling when you publish a 50 page ebook. If this is what you are looking for, writing is going to break your heart unless you get unbelievably lucky.
M.D. Boncher
For me, it's the creation process. Authors get a kind of discovery like a reader does, but it's not quite the same. If you're a plotter, there's no real surprise. You stick to the outline you laid out. If you're a pantser, there's lots of surprises. I'm more of a pantser, but I have a very broad rough outline that deals with key events, but that can change over the course of the writing process. The best surprises are the ones you started to deal with an issue brought up from a detail and it just explodes into a wonderful new facet of the story you didn't expect.
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