Ask the Author: Brian Rogers
Answered Questions (4)
Brian Rogers
I re-read the good ones on a daily basis! (Jesting, of course.) For a number of years I performed professionally as a stand-up comedian; there the response is instantaneous -- you know immediately whether a joke/bit is working. Writing is so much different, yes. You write, and out it goes, and you . . . wait. So a positive review is gratifying, like a message in a bottle getting answered.
Brian Rogers
This question honestly stumps me. I performed stand-up comedy for a number of years. That is such a precarious practice, with immediate rewards (and often failures). Writing is a slower burn (unless you are writing flash fiction, which I sometimes do). I suppose the rewards come down to the ability to create and craft and, of course, the satisfaction when someone responds favorably to your work.
Brian Rogers
This is such a varied matter. Sometimes the germ of an idea strikes you. Sometimes you've been carrying around that germ for years. In writing a novel, however, a steady march is key, at least for me it was. I liken the process to a coach's advice about shooting free throws and limiting your approach. Some players have a very detailed routine -- must bounce the ball twice, shake their head three times, point to the heavens. Similarly some writers must have tapered candles burning, Mozart playing, only on foggy mornings. The more you reduce these other "necessities," perhaps the less likely you are to get stifled. What happens, for instance, if you are out of tapered candles.
Brian Rogers
I was in a library that still uses the old-fashioned library cards. Some of the books reach back decades. Seeing the names there, it struck me that these people, who have presumably never met, are nonetheless connected. For whatever reason they reached for the same book. My book imagines six of these people.
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