Ask the Author: G.J. Morgan
Answered Questions (6)
G.J. Morgan
I try not to overthink it. I just make sure for an hour a day I sit at my laptop and just write something, that can be an idea, a character, a line, a poem. For me personally over planning and preperation kills my inspiration, so I tend to write with no real set idea of where the story will go or end. I know that is the opposite of what you should do but it makes it more fun to write and gives you the same buzz as a reader.
G.J. Morgan
Too many thinks. A TV series about bad men doing good things/good men doing bad things. Just started a short novella, about a group of homeless friends who stumble upon a second chance.
G.J. Morgan
Start short and small and familiar. Your first go will be you pretending to be your favourite author and will take time for you to find your own style and limitations. I realised very quickly that I couldnt write like how my favourite authors and that was actually quite liberating. Write a short play but in three different versions. The first with no dialogue, the second with only dialogue and the third combining the two. It teaches that sometimes a character saying "Fuck off" to a morning sky is better than two paragraphs describing the colour of his view.
G.J. Morgan
Im not quite sure. It is hard from start to finish and during and after. I literally have no idea why writers put themselves through it. We must like torture.
G.J. Morgan
I find sometimes I'm in the mood for writing dialogue and sometimes description. It isn't a bad thing to concentrate on one area and come back to the other later on. I find writing dialogue cures writers block. It allows you to be the character without the need to overthink.
G.J. Morgan
The inspiration behind the book was Michael Jackson and a consummation.
It’s probably best I start at the beginning.
Me and my wife got married on 20th June 2009 and about half way through the honeymoon we found ourselves in a basic but beautiful little island on Fiji, where the bungalows overlooked the Pacific and the residents looked after the food and entertainment. One night after a standard supper of card games and sunsets we both found ourselves the next morning with dodgy tummies which we initially blamed on tinned lamb tongues and bad wine. However, whilst my discomfort lasted an hour on the toilet, my wife’s stomach ache lasted a lot longer. Later my wife returned from the bathroom and held out a pregnancy stick and a nervous smile on her face. I was going to be a father.
If I’m being honest despite being overjoyed, it kind of tarnished the rest of the honeymoon. My wife’s stomach aches and nausea did not subside and in fact worsened very quickly (we later found out she suffers from Hyperemesis Gravidarum- basically means being sick for the whole pregnancy). Being so remote and far away felt a vulnerable situation, we had no internet, no doctors and two flights across the world still to go. In truth home was the only thing on our minds and not being there felt a risk to both my wife and unborn child.
In LA, a few days before the end of our trip, despite my wife feeling awful we decided to make the best of a bad situation and went on a Hollywood celebrity tour. The tour guide was brilliant, showed us the sights you’d expect, but showed us much more, jokes and little facts that felt just for us.
But there were two things we did that day that stuck with me, the first was just a throw a comment from our guide, something about how if you hang about in the right parks or restaurants and if you do your homework you can actually meet a celebrity quite easy, get a photo, get an autograph, get to touch them even. And the second was Michael Jacksons house.
Michael Jackson died on June 25th, so when our guide took us to his mansion, it was already filled with flowers and memorials and fans paying their respects, not to mention news trucks and the media. It was chaos and it was sad and as we took photos I felt both happy to capture it but angry at myself for being part of the intrusion.
Later that evening, my wife went to bed early and I wrote the prologue to “His American Classic” on hotel paper (which I still have somewhere). There was no research, not even an idea as such. Just things fizzing in my head, celebrity, fame, fans, fatherhood, people dying, my pregnant wife.
The idea stayed in a pile of other ideas for several years. Till a house move and two children later I finally dug it out. Thought it was a story worth telling.
It’s probably best I start at the beginning.
Me and my wife got married on 20th June 2009 and about half way through the honeymoon we found ourselves in a basic but beautiful little island on Fiji, where the bungalows overlooked the Pacific and the residents looked after the food and entertainment. One night after a standard supper of card games and sunsets we both found ourselves the next morning with dodgy tummies which we initially blamed on tinned lamb tongues and bad wine. However, whilst my discomfort lasted an hour on the toilet, my wife’s stomach ache lasted a lot longer. Later my wife returned from the bathroom and held out a pregnancy stick and a nervous smile on her face. I was going to be a father.
If I’m being honest despite being overjoyed, it kind of tarnished the rest of the honeymoon. My wife’s stomach aches and nausea did not subside and in fact worsened very quickly (we later found out she suffers from Hyperemesis Gravidarum- basically means being sick for the whole pregnancy). Being so remote and far away felt a vulnerable situation, we had no internet, no doctors and two flights across the world still to go. In truth home was the only thing on our minds and not being there felt a risk to both my wife and unborn child.
In LA, a few days before the end of our trip, despite my wife feeling awful we decided to make the best of a bad situation and went on a Hollywood celebrity tour. The tour guide was brilliant, showed us the sights you’d expect, but showed us much more, jokes and little facts that felt just for us.
But there were two things we did that day that stuck with me, the first was just a throw a comment from our guide, something about how if you hang about in the right parks or restaurants and if you do your homework you can actually meet a celebrity quite easy, get a photo, get an autograph, get to touch them even. And the second was Michael Jacksons house.
Michael Jackson died on June 25th, so when our guide took us to his mansion, it was already filled with flowers and memorials and fans paying their respects, not to mention news trucks and the media. It was chaos and it was sad and as we took photos I felt both happy to capture it but angry at myself for being part of the intrusion.
Later that evening, my wife went to bed early and I wrote the prologue to “His American Classic” on hotel paper (which I still have somewhere). There was no research, not even an idea as such. Just things fizzing in my head, celebrity, fame, fans, fatherhood, people dying, my pregnant wife.
The idea stayed in a pile of other ideas for several years. Till a house move and two children later I finally dug it out. Thought it was a story worth telling.
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