Ask the Author: N. John Williams
Answered Questions (3)
N. John Williams
First thing I do is go for a walk outside, with no distractions. I talk myself through “how I got here” and then explore possible next steps. Sometimes I’ll even have conversations between characters (out loud, as I’m walking), testing different possibilities. Before an hour has passed, I usually have the beginning of something. Then I race home.
I’ve also learned to be ready for the “breakthrough” to happen at any time, sometimes while I'm driving, sometimes while I’m trying to fall asleep. Whenever it comes, wherever I am, I write down enough detail so that I can pick it up during my next writing session.
Finally, I’m not afraid to throw away entire chapters. I let myself start writing, even if it doesn’t feel perfect, because I know I’m willing to throw it away if it can’t be fixed. This helps prevent writer’s block in the first place, sometimes, I think!
I’ve also learned to be ready for the “breakthrough” to happen at any time, sometimes while I'm driving, sometimes while I’m trying to fall asleep. Whenever it comes, wherever I am, I write down enough detail so that I can pick it up during my next writing session.
Finally, I’m not afraid to throw away entire chapters. I let myself start writing, even if it doesn’t feel perfect, because I know I’m willing to throw it away if it can’t be fixed. This helps prevent writer’s block in the first place, sometimes, I think!
N. John Williams
Writing has an amazing dual nature that nothing else in my life has.
Exploration:
On the one hand, writing is an unparalleled means of exploration. While writing I can explore ideas, themes, places, times, personalities, societies, minds, philosophies, religions, relationships—anything I’m curious about or interested in—and at very low cost!
There is a danger here, though: if I’m not careful, my exploration can lose all grounding in reality. At that point, it ceases to be “exploration” and starts being something else, and something much less satisfying.
Construction:
On the other hand, writing is a near-limitless tool of construction. I love building things. As a hobbyist, I’ve built physical structures (some of which are even still standing!). As a software architect, I’ve built globe-spanning software systems. But as a writer, I can build things at a qualitatively larger scale. Nothing else is like it, that I know of.
These two aspects of writing, “exploration” and “construction,” excite and inspire me on a daily basis.
And there’s one other thing, not so much an aspect of writing, but an aspect of the context in which writing happens: I’m inspired by the challenge of expressing ideas.
It’s so easy to express the first 35% of an idea, and often we stop there. But communicating the remaining 65% requires something like an architecture to support it, and “story” is probably the most powerful architecture I can imagine for this purpose. Trying to meet this challenge of “more fully expressing ideas” inspires me to write fiction in particular, especially when it gets difficult.
Exploration:
On the one hand, writing is an unparalleled means of exploration. While writing I can explore ideas, themes, places, times, personalities, societies, minds, philosophies, religions, relationships—anything I’m curious about or interested in—and at very low cost!
There is a danger here, though: if I’m not careful, my exploration can lose all grounding in reality. At that point, it ceases to be “exploration” and starts being something else, and something much less satisfying.
Construction:
On the other hand, writing is a near-limitless tool of construction. I love building things. As a hobbyist, I’ve built physical structures (some of which are even still standing!). As a software architect, I’ve built globe-spanning software systems. But as a writer, I can build things at a qualitatively larger scale. Nothing else is like it, that I know of.
These two aspects of writing, “exploration” and “construction,” excite and inspire me on a daily basis.
And there’s one other thing, not so much an aspect of writing, but an aspect of the context in which writing happens: I’m inspired by the challenge of expressing ideas.
It’s so easy to express the first 35% of an idea, and often we stop there. But communicating the remaining 65% requires something like an architecture to support it, and “story” is probably the most powerful architecture I can imagine for this purpose. Trying to meet this challenge of “more fully expressing ideas” inspires me to write fiction in particular, especially when it gets difficult.
N. John Williams
Horror isn't my thing, but this is a fun question so I gave it a shot:
"The chill night air swirled over his bare skin, sharpening his senses. Only then did he realize this was no nightmare; the blood on his claws was real, and it was hers."
"The chill night air swirled over his bare skin, sharpening his senses. Only then did he realize this was no nightmare; the blood on his claws was real, and it was hers."
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