Ask the Author: J.B. Jamison
Answered Questions (8)
J.B. Jamison
What was?
That is my answer, but the Goodreads editor is highlighting in red: Sorry, your answer is too short. Longer answers are more popular with readers, and even “yes or no” answers are more interesting with more detail.
So, I've added these sentences to make an algorithm happy. Because of that, I'll add a second, two-word horror story.
The algorithm...
That is my answer, but the Goodreads editor is highlighting in red: Sorry, your answer is too short. Longer answers are more popular with readers, and even “yes or no” answers are more interesting with more detail.
So, I've added these sentences to make an algorithm happy. Because of that, I'll add a second, two-word horror story.
The algorithm...
J.B. Jamison
I don't really keep a list of what I'm going to read. I always have a few things in mind, but have never been all that good with "lists". For example, since I am working on my next book I know I want to read a few things about "hacking" next month, but I don't know just what that will be yet. I also know I will probably pull one of James Thurber's books off my shelf again, but not sure which one.
Much of the time, my reading depends on the experiences I have during my day. I might read something in the news that strikes me, and then find a book that expands on that idea. It seems I am always reading something...but never quite know what it might be beforehand.
As I said, I've never been that good a 'lists'. I used to make them all the time, and then promptly lose them...so I just kind of gave up.
Much of the time, my reading depends on the experiences I have during my day. I might read something in the news that strikes me, and then find a book that expands on that idea. It seems I am always reading something...but never quite know what it might be beforehand.
As I said, I've never been that good a 'lists'. I used to make them all the time, and then promptly lose them...so I just kind of gave up.
J.B. Jamison
Hemingway supposedly said, " There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." And after you write, you have to "edit", which in my case means cutting out a lot of things I really, really like but that don't really help the story. Then you go through the work of publishing what you wrote, and then read the reviews (or not).
For me, the best part of writing is the experience of sitting at the table and watching the story unfold in front of me, being the first person to ever hear that story, and to feel the "WOW" when the story goes in a direction I did not expect.
For me, the best part of writing is the experience of sitting at the table and watching the story unfold in front of me, being the first person to ever hear that story, and to feel the "WOW" when the story goes in a direction I did not expect.
J.B. Jamison
For me, it's not really about becoming 'inspired' to write...I always have ideas for things I want to write down. The issue for me is just getting myself to "sit down and write!" There is always a list of other things that I "need" to do which makes it very easy to say "I'll write later." For me, it's not inspiration...it's discipline...and that's something I struggle with everyday.
J.B. Jamison
There are two things that fully monopolize my mind at the moment:
1. Since we self-published Disruption, we are fully involved in the marketing/PR around the book right now. Everything from updating websites, blogs, and videos, to writing press releases, doing press interviews, and thinking of contests to increase visibility on FB.
2. My brain is drifting deeply into the hole that is going to become the next book. While I don't spend a lot of conscious hours focusing on it yet, my day is repeatedly interrupted by thoughts like: "Hey John, did you see that news article? How can we fit it in the story?" I really need to start writing and getting this stuff out.
1. Since we self-published Disruption, we are fully involved in the marketing/PR around the book right now. Everything from updating websites, blogs, and videos, to writing press releases, doing press interviews, and thinking of contests to increase visibility on FB.
2. My brain is drifting deeply into the hole that is going to become the next book. While I don't spend a lot of conscious hours focusing on it yet, my day is repeatedly interrupted by thoughts like: "Hey John, did you see that news article? How can we fit it in the story?" I really need to start writing and getting this stuff out.
J.B. Jamison
All I can offer is what has worked for me. If I had a conversation with myself several years ago, here are some of the things I would say:
1. Stop "aspiring" and just write. Don't think of yourself as an "aspiring" writer, or say "going to be a writer". Write now. Be a "writer" now. All you have to do to claim the title is write.
2. Be a writer and not an editor. For me, if I let my "editor" brain be involved as I write a story I am doomed. The editing will come, but focus all of your energy on writing the story...nothing else. Just get it out of your head and onto a screen, or paper, or whatever...just get it out! I feel a real creative freedom when I remember this one.
3. Along with #2, write first, rewrite later. Get that story out in whatever shape it comes out in. I don't use an outline, so I learn about my story as the words leave my fingers. That sometimes means sometimes something happens in chapter 45 that means I'm going to have to go back and change something I wrote in chapter 23. I'll make a note about doing that, but I'll keep writing and rewrite chapter 23 when the story is finished.
4. To write good dialogue, eaves-drop a lot. The next time you sit in the restaurant or coffee shop, break the rules of etiquette and listen to what the people around you are talking about, or arguing about. Pay attention to how they each say what they say...the words they use...the grammar they do (or don't) use. Write dialogue the way people talk, not the way writer's write. Besides, you'll hear some really interesting stuff...
5. Stop reading things like this and go write something.
1. Stop "aspiring" and just write. Don't think of yourself as an "aspiring" writer, or say "going to be a writer". Write now. Be a "writer" now. All you have to do to claim the title is write.
2. Be a writer and not an editor. For me, if I let my "editor" brain be involved as I write a story I am doomed. The editing will come, but focus all of your energy on writing the story...nothing else. Just get it out of your head and onto a screen, or paper, or whatever...just get it out! I feel a real creative freedom when I remember this one.
3. Along with #2, write first, rewrite later. Get that story out in whatever shape it comes out in. I don't use an outline, so I learn about my story as the words leave my fingers. That sometimes means sometimes something happens in chapter 45 that means I'm going to have to go back and change something I wrote in chapter 23. I'll make a note about doing that, but I'll keep writing and rewrite chapter 23 when the story is finished.
4. To write good dialogue, eaves-drop a lot. The next time you sit in the restaurant or coffee shop, break the rules of etiquette and listen to what the people around you are talking about, or arguing about. Pay attention to how they each say what they say...the words they use...the grammar they do (or don't) use. Write dialogue the way people talk, not the way writer's write. Besides, you'll hear some really interesting stuff...
5. Stop reading things like this and go write something.
J.B. Jamison
It sounds trite, but I don't believe in writer's block. The way I look at it, there are times that I sit-down to write something and it is just really a struggle. I don't see it as being "blocked", but just that my mind is still working on things and isn't quite ready to let it out yet. When that happens, I just set that project aside and work on something else. I'm not blocked...just redirected.
To me, the advantage of that view is that I don't have to worry about some external "thing" out there that might interfere with my writing. The way my mind works, it's just part of the normal process. Another night's sleep and the words will come.
To me, the advantage of that view is that I don't have to worry about some external "thing" out there that might interfere with my writing. The way my mind works, it's just part of the normal process. Another night's sleep and the words will come.
J.B. Jamison
My dad was a towboat captain. That is all he ever needed you to know. If he were to introduce himself to you, it would go like this: “I am a towboat Captain. I am a Captain, and I will BE a Captain until two weeks after I am dead and gone.”
I first told him about the idea for this book twenty years ago, and he laughed at it. He said it was silly, it was impossible, and it would simply never happen. In our final conversation last year, two weeks before he died, he asked if I remembered that story I had told him a long time ago. He said it had scared the hell out of him, was absolutely possible, and he just didn’t want to think about it while he was still out there. He told me I should write it.
I first told him about the idea for this book twenty years ago, and he laughed at it. He said it was silly, it was impossible, and it would simply never happen. In our final conversation last year, two weeks before he died, he asked if I remembered that story I had told him a long time ago. He said it had scared the hell out of him, was absolutely possible, and he just didn’t want to think about it while he was still out there. He told me I should write it.
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