Ask the Author: Russell Forden
Answered Questions (6)
Russell Forden
Find your thing, your subject, your form, and write it. It could be fiction, non fiction, novels, short stories, whatever. In fact, if it's fiction, I'd recommend starting with short stories. They're reasonably quick to write, and they get your work out there. They're good practice, and a good way to get started. I'd also suggest new writers get hooked up with one or more of the many online communities that support and showcase writers. For example, I joined a group called Critters, which allows science fiction and fantasy writers to put up their story drafts for critiquing - for free.
Russell Forden
It's pretty much one at a time. I'm presently working on the final touches of my novel Eye of the Timegate. I just did a pass where I cut out some instances of 'head hopping'. I tend to do that a lot with this novel, since it's written in third person omnipotent point of view, and I love using it. But the writing books say you should keep to just one character per chapter. I don't agree with that (rules are meant to be broken some times) but I thought it would be helpful to compromise for the sake of those pesky readers who get annoyed with too much head hopping. I hope they, in turn, are willing to meet me halfway. Thanks for the questions.
Russell Forden
There are lots of approaches, but one I favour is to exhaust the thing that's keeping you from writing.
Russell Forden
Getting lost in the moment as you write. They say absorption in something is a definition of happiness.
Russell Forden
I'm working on a spinoff from my recent novel Eye of the Timegate. I found I had a lot of material left over that I didn't want to waste. So I'm trying to get that into shape. Tentative title is 'The Plimsoll Line'. There's also a short story collection called 'Timegate: Tales From An Alternate Timeline' in the works as well.
Russell Forden
There were a number of moments, but the main one was when I was reading a book about the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, and the author made a whimsical suggestion about going back in time to visit his subject. The idea of using time travel to benefit scholarly studies appealed to me, and it went from there. My most recent book, of course, is a time travel story called Eye of the Timegate.
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