Ask the Author: Craig Holt
Answered Questions (6)
Craig Holt
I remind myself how crappy I'll feel if I don't get any writing done. I basically leverage my self-loathing against my self-doubt, and plow forward.
When I'm really stuck, I get out a pencil and a notebook, and start berating myself on paper. I really let me have it for being a washed-up, lazy hack. Usually, that primes the pump, and I can go back to my story.
Sometimes, I just have a good cry instead.
When I'm really stuck, I get out a pencil and a notebook, and start berating myself on paper. I really let me have it for being a washed-up, lazy hack. Usually, that primes the pump, and I can go back to my story.
Sometimes, I just have a good cry instead.
Craig Holt
Having an excuse for being unhappy.
(Kidding! I kid.)
Honestly, I just love escaping into these other worlds and meeting these people. I love asking the questions.
(Kidding! I kid.)
Honestly, I just love escaping into these other worlds and meeting these people. I love asking the questions.
Craig Holt
You're probably tired of hearing this, but if you want to write, sit down every day and write.
Life presents an endless litany of excuses for not doing the work, but if it matters to you enough, you'll get your ass in the chair and do some writing. Every day that we ignore those excuses is a day we're actually writers.
Life presents an endless litany of excuses for not doing the work, but if it matters to you enough, you'll get your ass in the chair and do some writing. Every day that we ignore those excuses is a day we're actually writers.
Craig Holt
I'm currently working on a story about a Colombian guy who is trying to convince himself he's not a drug lord. The first draft was 185,000 words, (Friends, this is why some of us NEED outlines.) but the story is divided fairly neatly into three discreet sections. Hello, trilogy!
Craig Holt
I don't really have to "get inspired" to write. I do it because I feel like I've wasted my day if I don't get some words down.
Craig Holt
The idea for this book was born over several decades working in different parts of Africa. I write because I have questions, and the feverish complexity of the Democratic Republic of Congo raises a lot of questions for me. Its combination of beauty and violence, hope and horror made it a tremendous setting for a story I wanted to tell - a story about a troubled man's struggle to come to terms with who he really is, and how much damage he's done while trying to convince himself his one of the good guys.
My reading on that part of the world sent me down a rabbit hole reading about mercenaries in the DRC. That got me reading about Blackwater and other private security contractors.
One day, in the midst of all that studying, I was doing some free writing, and a character started talking to me about his life as a soldier and a mercenary. (Yep, I have Voices In My Head.) That guy became my protagonist, and the story took off from there.
My reading on that part of the world sent me down a rabbit hole reading about mercenaries in the DRC. That got me reading about Blackwater and other private security contractors.
One day, in the midst of all that studying, I was doing some free writing, and a character started talking to me about his life as a soldier and a mercenary. (Yep, I have Voices In My Head.) That guy became my protagonist, and the story took off from there.
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