Ask the Author: Adam Martin
Answered Questions (6)
Adam Martin
It was inspired by movies like The Matrix, and TV shows like The X-Files, but I got stuck on this tangent with the black box, and the more I thought about the device, and virtual reality, the more I kept thinking about how such a device could work, what could go wrong with it, and if it could ever work properly at all. It's kind of like a hi-tech Ouija board; you aks it questions, it gives you answers, but the context of how things arrive at that conclusion is still a mystery.
Adam Martin
When I was in my twenties, I just got a craving to do something with my voice and thoughts, the same way one gets a craving to do anything else. I stopped for awhile, and realized that it wasn't going to work. I kept coming to the realization that the conversations I was having with myself were more interesting than the ones I had with others.
Adam Martin
I just finished Xenoman, and I have notes for 3 more novels, but for now I'm taking a breather and learning how to use Goodreads. So far it's fun.
Adam Martin
Talk about what you want to talk about, in the exact same you you have a conversation with someone because it has to do with something you want to talk about. Don't talk about things you don't want to talk about. What's true for bad novels is true for bad plays. Go see bad plays. What you get is bunch of people standing around on stage, saying a bunch of stuff, because the playwright thinks the audience will do the mental work required to figure it all out. This is what it is to confuse typing with writing and character arc.
Each chapter in a novel should aim for 2 things:
1) A set up and pay off within each chapter: for instance, a girl moves into a new apartment and after getting all her stuff moved in, she finds a letter from a secret admirer. That's the payoff for that chapter, and we begin a new one.
2) A set up in each chapter of the first half of the novel, that pays off in another chapter in the second half of the book: for instance, after finding the letter from the secret admirer in the first half off the book (set up), it's paid off in a chapter in the second half of the book, as in, the guy who helped the girl move in reveals that he is the secret admirer.
3) In essence, the first half of the book pays off the second half of the book, sort of like the good Star Wars movies, or Disney films.
4) Know roughly where the midpoint of each scenario, scene, or conversation is. Scenes in real life all have some sort of midpoint: the vacation that is a blast for the first few days, and then after that everyone begins to get drained and bored, and start talking about going home, etc.
Read what YOU want to read. Respect your audience's time and patience. They have to sit still in the dentist's chair, while the actors and actresses get to run around onstage and have all the fun. Let the audience have just as much fun watching the story unfold. If your girlfriend is the most beautiful girl in the whole school during the first half of the story, there has to be something to suggest otherwise in the second half.
Each chapter in a novel should aim for 2 things:
1) A set up and pay off within each chapter: for instance, a girl moves into a new apartment and after getting all her stuff moved in, she finds a letter from a secret admirer. That's the payoff for that chapter, and we begin a new one.
2) A set up in each chapter of the first half of the novel, that pays off in another chapter in the second half of the book: for instance, after finding the letter from the secret admirer in the first half off the book (set up), it's paid off in a chapter in the second half of the book, as in, the guy who helped the girl move in reveals that he is the secret admirer.
3) In essence, the first half of the book pays off the second half of the book, sort of like the good Star Wars movies, or Disney films.
4) Know roughly where the midpoint of each scenario, scene, or conversation is. Scenes in real life all have some sort of midpoint: the vacation that is a blast for the first few days, and then after that everyone begins to get drained and bored, and start talking about going home, etc.
Read what YOU want to read. Respect your audience's time and patience. They have to sit still in the dentist's chair, while the actors and actresses get to run around onstage and have all the fun. Let the audience have just as much fun watching the story unfold. If your girlfriend is the most beautiful girl in the whole school during the first half of the story, there has to be something to suggest otherwise in the second half.
Adam Martin
It costs next to nothing to do, to travel wherever you want, with whomever you want. Everything that ends up in a comic book, a graphic novel, TV show, movie, all comes from someone writing it in the first place.
Adam Martin
I write down what I know needs to happen in the story, and then reverse engineer what I haven't figured out yet to tie the scenes and dialogue together. Often times, I just let a scene sit in my head all day and let what has to happen grow around it without doing any writing.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more