Ask the Author: J.E. Jack
Answered Questions (11)
J.E. Jack
I've been fortunate enough in my life to do have done a lot of things and visited a lot of places around the world. Mysteries come in many forms and they can be as mundane as tracking down an old friend just to see what happened to them.... hmm... I guess I now have new book idea. :)
J.E. Jack
I'd probably go to some lovecraftian land where I would be a detective and search for Cthulu and slowly lose my mind to insanity. (Joke) I really haven't given it much thought. Maybe, the "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells, but instead of using the machine to visit the places in the book, I'd travel to see different events in history and find the truth of many unsolved cases or events.
J.E. Jack
I like to read all sorts of things from young adult mysteries to epic historical text books (mostly military history). I'm kind of all over the place.
J.E. Jack
"The Hermit" is a mix of memories from when I was a boy growing up. I took some of those memories and then added some supernatural twists to them.
J.E. Jack
I'm currently working on a project I am calling "Grave Disturbance." The premise is "A police detective is sent out to investigate an unearthed grave, only to find that now, he has to find out what escaped." We'll see how it turns out, it's still early in the project.
J.E. Jack
The difference between an aspiring writer and a writer is the final frustrating decision to start that day and come hell or high water, complete the story. It doesn't matter if it's a good or bad story. The only thing that matters is completing it. From there, you can adjust and get better. Writing is not a one and done thing so as soon as you are done with your first project, go immediately or as soon as you can into your next one. This is where it pays to create a writing habit. Setting bench marks that you daily hit until eventually you feel odd and weird for not doing it.
J.E. Jack
The ability to share an idea or imagery through words that now eventually rests in the minds of others to those you don't know. It's even better when they like it. Once, you complete a project, be it a short story, or a novel, you never really know the legs that it grows or where it goes once you release it into the world and there's a kind of magic to that.
J.E. Jack
I always played it safe.
J.E. Jack
I'm more or less a pantser, meaning, I write by the seat of my pants. I have a general idea of where I'm going but sometimes I don't and it can be frustrating. If I hadn't created the habit of making myself write at least 500 words a day, writer's block would stop me. But like a muscle, if you keep working through it, eventually, you get stronger when you meet roadblocks in the process. In my stories, I sometimes get through these problems by asking myself or my characters open ended questions and sometimes, the whole story will shift. I don't stress too much about it, I trust that the answer is there and it always is. And again, if it ends up being crap, you can always fix it later in the editing process.
J.E. Jack
If you wait for inspiration, you'll never get it done. I created a habit of writing 500 words a day, at least. Some days are better and I write more, some days are not and I barely hit that goal. The words can be crap, and most likely, they usually are. It's okay though, because those get cleaned up in the editing process. At some point, you just have to decide, this is what I want to do and do it. There's agony and joy in the process, but the habit is what keeps you marching through it.
J.E. Jack
I wrote the "The Gun" a few years back that's available on Amazon, It's a short read at around 15 thousand words and that's about as far as I've gotten with short stories. I did however, write a few things for a website I created called, ... well, here is the link. www.ahumanexperiencemoment.com where I wrote or shared a few of my more autobiographical writings. You can find those by going to the archive and looking at July 2018.
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