Ask the Author: Esben Kobberstad
Answered Questions (6)
Esben Kobberstad
Oh, a tiny handful of projects! I'm working on a stand-alone eco-thriller placed in the Amazon that explains how the bleak world of the Murder-wolves series came into being, a children's Halloween tale, and revisions of the English translations of my first books.
Esben Kobberstad
To write is to learn – by doing it! As in all other avenues in life, you get better at something the longer you practice it. It is true that “10.000 hrs. of practice makes a master”, but never forget that there is a craft as well as an art to it.
In my case, the most significant hurdle was to build up enough self-confidence to believe that I actually could do it. Do you know what happened? The hurdle kept on shrinking the longer I kept at it. These days, it is no more than a tiny doorstep of procrastination that I occasionally stub my mental toe into as I shuffle towards my Writer's desk with my overflowing jug of morning coffee.
This being said, my most brilliant move was to join a local writers’ group of equal-minded, aspiring authors. The danger of going at it alone is the simple fact that everything sounds brilliant when the only echo chamber you've got is the one residing inside your own head. It is far better to get told the same thing by your peers – even when it is wrapped up in what is known as “constructive criticism.” It builds character and makes for a better story … once the initial pain goes away!
In my case, the most significant hurdle was to build up enough self-confidence to believe that I actually could do it. Do you know what happened? The hurdle kept on shrinking the longer I kept at it. These days, it is no more than a tiny doorstep of procrastination that I occasionally stub my mental toe into as I shuffle towards my Writer's desk with my overflowing jug of morning coffee.
This being said, my most brilliant move was to join a local writers’ group of equal-minded, aspiring authors. The danger of going at it alone is the simple fact that everything sounds brilliant when the only echo chamber you've got is the one residing inside your own head. It is far better to get told the same thing by your peers – even when it is wrapped up in what is known as “constructive criticism.” It builds character and makes for a better story … once the initial pain goes away!
Esben Kobberstad
Luckily, I have no problems with solitary work and keeping myself focused on the task at hand. I have no issues with the opposite either, but writing-wise, I prefer to be both the demanding boss and sole, whining employee all wrapped up into one big bundle of high-powered creativity!
Another huge deal for me is that nothing fascinates me more than creating new worlds and sharing them with others – a perfect match for my life-long interest in storytelling and storytelling techniques, a field where there always is so much more new stuff to learn.
Another huge deal for me is that nothing fascinates me more than creating new worlds and sharing them with others – a perfect match for my life-long interest in storytelling and storytelling techniques, a field where there always is so much more new stuff to learn.
Esben Kobberstad
The infamous writer’s block may appear daunting, but it has a simple fix; you just have to knuckle down and work your way through it. It might be slow going, and you might end up rejecting a lot of the material you create, but this is the defining characteristic of a professional author. It is a job, and some days it won’t be as fun and inspiring as you’d like. Slacking (read: procrastinating) around the house or in some coffee shop, waiting for that elusive thing called “inspiration” to get some writing done, is a guaranteed way to ensure that your script falters and fails along with your ambition to become a writer.
In my experience, stuff tends to loosen up after a few hours once you park your butt in front of a blank screen or page and start hammering or jotting some words onto it. In this way, you eventually end up with a complete sentence, sentences combined into a paragraph, paragraphs joined into chapters, and chapters joined into a finished manuscript.
One of my favorite tricks is to have my next script in production alongside the one I’m focusing on and do a little back-and-forth between my main project and this one when the going gets tough. After all, there is some wisdom in doing something else to get your writer’s gene back into overdrive. This approach works great for me, as long as I make sure that this “something else” is to write and that I force myself back to my main script as soon as I feel that my creative flow is loosening up again. By this, I mean within a few hours and no later than the next day. As you might already have realized, there is an inherent danger in this way of dealing with writer’s block; namely, that you suddenly realize that you’re working on half a dozen books simultaneously without being able to finish a single one of them ...
In my experience, stuff tends to loosen up after a few hours once you park your butt in front of a blank screen or page and start hammering or jotting some words onto it. In this way, you eventually end up with a complete sentence, sentences combined into a paragraph, paragraphs joined into chapters, and chapters joined into a finished manuscript.
One of my favorite tricks is to have my next script in production alongside the one I’m focusing on and do a little back-and-forth between my main project and this one when the going gets tough. After all, there is some wisdom in doing something else to get your writer’s gene back into overdrive. This approach works great for me, as long as I make sure that this “something else” is to write and that I force myself back to my main script as soon as I feel that my creative flow is loosening up again. By this, I mean within a few hours and no later than the next day. As you might already have realized, there is an inherent danger in this way of dealing with writer’s block; namely, that you suddenly realize that you’re working on half a dozen books simultaneously without being able to finish a single one of them ...
Esben Kobberstad
I get inspiration through all sorts of venues, so this is a tricky question to answer properly. As a self-appointed wannabe nerd, I’ve always entertained an eclectic mix of interests, from history and archaeology to hard science such as astrophysics. Combined with an interest in diverse genres such as Crime, Science fiction, and Fantasy, my brain gets constantly bombarded with the weirdest cross-couplings triggered by some catalyst or other gleaned from my interactions with the mix of interests I just mentioned.
My creative technique is most definitely not of the “pantsing” variety. I never simply “start writing” to see what might come out of it. Instead, I wait for what I call “loose associations» to interconnect and spark off an idea, sometimes just the germ, for a story inside my head. This tends to happen suddenly and without warning, as it often occurs when I’m reading or watching something that not necessarily has anything to do with the idea whatsoever. Alternatively, it might also happen when I’m doing something completely unrelated, such as when I’m starting to fall asleep, you know, at the time of night when free-firing neurons fire off what ALWAYS seems to be a “brilliant” idea in your brain …
My initial process is to scratch the new idea down on a piece of paper or the old computer before it evaporates from my mind. Then I put it aside for a few days and willfully try to ignore it. If I discover that I can’t, I figure the idea to be about 60 % realizable and worth the extra time and effort it takes to develop it into a more detailed proof of concept. I do this to a point where the major plot twists are outlined, and the overall story from A-Z is somewhat complete but in very crude brush strokes.
Once my new concept sketch is done, I resist the temptation to work on it any further and file it away while focusing on finishing my ongoing projects. You might wonder why, but at this point, the new idea is still not at the point where I’m 100 % certain it is worthwhile developing it into a fully-fledged script. The reason for this is that I know that my joy, emotional high if you like, at discovering a new tale to tell will initially overpower my already challenged powers of reasoning. By filing it away for later revision, I manage to create the time I need to cool off and revisit the idea at some future point with a cool, level head.
This also means that I always have lots of potential projects in the works, as new, in my opinion marvelous, ideas come in at a way faster rate than I’m able to finish up my manuscripts. When I’m good and ready to consider what to write as my next book project, I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose from lots of stories in a wide variety of genres. Then, when I have made my selection, it simply a question of developing the sketch I already have into an almost complete working document. You see, I like there to be some surprises for me too along the way, as I write it out!
But there is a but at the end: Before I start working on the actual script, I force myself to reassess it one more time. Is it truly exciting and interesting enough to warrant months, possibly years, of hard work? Will it do well? Will my target audience like it? What is the target audience for the new story? Is there one? These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself if you want to be a successful author, and if most of the answers are “yes,” I start to forge ahead on my next book.
My creative technique is most definitely not of the “pantsing” variety. I never simply “start writing” to see what might come out of it. Instead, I wait for what I call “loose associations» to interconnect and spark off an idea, sometimes just the germ, for a story inside my head. This tends to happen suddenly and without warning, as it often occurs when I’m reading or watching something that not necessarily has anything to do with the idea whatsoever. Alternatively, it might also happen when I’m doing something completely unrelated, such as when I’m starting to fall asleep, you know, at the time of night when free-firing neurons fire off what ALWAYS seems to be a “brilliant” idea in your brain …
My initial process is to scratch the new idea down on a piece of paper or the old computer before it evaporates from my mind. Then I put it aside for a few days and willfully try to ignore it. If I discover that I can’t, I figure the idea to be about 60 % realizable and worth the extra time and effort it takes to develop it into a more detailed proof of concept. I do this to a point where the major plot twists are outlined, and the overall story from A-Z is somewhat complete but in very crude brush strokes.
Once my new concept sketch is done, I resist the temptation to work on it any further and file it away while focusing on finishing my ongoing projects. You might wonder why, but at this point, the new idea is still not at the point where I’m 100 % certain it is worthwhile developing it into a fully-fledged script. The reason for this is that I know that my joy, emotional high if you like, at discovering a new tale to tell will initially overpower my already challenged powers of reasoning. By filing it away for later revision, I manage to create the time I need to cool off and revisit the idea at some future point with a cool, level head.
This also means that I always have lots of potential projects in the works, as new, in my opinion marvelous, ideas come in at a way faster rate than I’m able to finish up my manuscripts. When I’m good and ready to consider what to write as my next book project, I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose from lots of stories in a wide variety of genres. Then, when I have made my selection, it simply a question of developing the sketch I already have into an almost complete working document. You see, I like there to be some surprises for me too along the way, as I write it out!
But there is a but at the end: Before I start working on the actual script, I force myself to reassess it one more time. Is it truly exciting and interesting enough to warrant months, possibly years, of hard work? Will it do well? Will my target audience like it? What is the target audience for the new story? Is there one? These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself if you want to be a successful author, and if most of the answers are “yes,” I start to forge ahead on my next book.
Esben Kobberstad
My latest book got conceived when I read an article in Scientific American about the potential climatological after-effects of an all-out war between the nuclear powers India and Pakistan, an event that I chose to integrate in fictional form into the world of my previous Murder-wolves series, which happens after the story in the stand-alone eco-thriller I'm currently working on.
The article got me thinking about what I already had read about climatological models and climate change, and how I could use the Amazon rainforest as a microcosm, or a "tiny" stage if you like, reflecting what's happening in the world at large while spinning my, to this date, tallest tale ever!
The article got me thinking about what I already had read about climatological models and climate change, and how I could use the Amazon rainforest as a microcosm, or a "tiny" stage if you like, reflecting what's happening in the world at large while spinning my, to this date, tallest tale ever!
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