Ask the Author: Theo Emery
Answered Questions (7)
Theo Emery
Getting out in the world and hearing people's stories. In my experience, inspiration can't penetrate closed doors and shut windows; sitting in a room with no light or air or conversation won't magically light a creative fire.
Theo Emery
Figuring out what my next writing project is going to be be. And changing diapers. Lots of diapers.
Theo Emery
Woke up. No coffee.
Theo Emery
Get to it. Set deadlines. Have someone read your work who's also disciplined and will give you constructive feedback. Be disciplined. If you have trouble making yourself write, set a daily goal. It doesn't have to be high -- 500 words a day is fine. Alcohol won't make you a better writer. Coffee won't make you a faster writer. Make sure your have good back support. Snack regularly.
Theo Emery
Well, that's easy. I'm my own boss. No one tells me when I can or can't have a cup of coffee, no one's yelling at me to do something I don't have any interest in, and I have the flexibility to pursue whatever fires up my curiosity. Also, it cuts way down on my commute time.
Theo Emery
I had a writing teacher many, many years ago who said that there's no such thing as writer's block -- what we call "writer's block" is simply a matter of having unrealistic expectations of yourself. That what you're writing isn't good enough. That no one will want to read it. That it's boring. The way to break through that barricade is to lower your expectations and just write. Forget about whether you think it's good or bad, interesting or not. Ignore the voice in your head saying what you're writing is terrible. Just put words on the page, and figure out later how to improve your work. Also, I drink a lot of coffee.
Theo Emery
Back in 2012, I was reporting for the New York Times and I did two stories about a long-term, chemical weapons cleanup in a wealthy Washington DC neighborhood called Spring Valley. Nearby American University, which is central to my book, was used as a chemical weapons research campus during WWI, and the land around it used as a proving ground. A century after the war, cleanup is still going on -- it's been ongoing since 1993, almost 25 years now. I was writing about a house that the US Army Corps of Engineers was razing as part of the cleanup (here's a link to one of the stories: https://nyti.ms/2ybVunA). This legacy fascinated me, and it made me want to tell it as a narrative history. Originally I planned to just tell the story of the scientists at AU, but it turned into a much more complicated story that included the soldiers sent to Europe in what was called the Hellfire Regiment and an espionage story involving a captured German spy. So what began with two newspaper articles back in 2012 turned into Hellfire Boys.
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