Ask the Author: Derrick Hall
Answered Questions (6)
Derrick Hall
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars - Paolini
Bedtime with Bitsy - Record
The Crown Tower - Sullivan
Bedtime with Bitsy - Record
The Crown Tower - Sullivan
Derrick Hall
I started writing because of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign that I was building for my group.
I built a world, and suddenly a story came to me that wasn't particularly good for D&D, but would make a decent book, so I started writing.
I built a world, and suddenly a story came to me that wasn't particularly good for D&D, but would make a decent book, so I started writing.
Derrick Hall
This is tough. Block is definitely something that all creatives -- not just writers -- deal with.
My personal method is to take a break from my project for a bit and immerse myself in other forms of media that I find inspiring. That might be music, books, movies, or video games. Whatever it is, I put my writing time into that until I find that spark that I lost.
Sometimes it takes a day, sometimes a week, but the inspiration will come back around.
My personal method is to take a break from my project for a bit and immerse myself in other forms of media that I find inspiring. That might be music, books, movies, or video games. Whatever it is, I put my writing time into that until I find that spark that I lost.
Sometimes it takes a day, sometimes a week, but the inspiration will come back around.
Derrick Hall
Read.
Read a lot. Read books that inspire you, that make you want to tell stories. Study the way your favorite authors use words and structure their plots. Learn from the writers that you love to read.
Once you do that, just go tell your story. By the very act of writing, you are doing something that the vast majority of people with a story idea will never do. If you write down your story and finish it, you are already a success. Will it be a best-selling masterpiece on the first try? Probably not, but that's okay. You put in the work and completed something.
If you actually move past finishing and publish, whether Indy or Trad, you fall into an even smaller subset of storytellers.
Don't let your story die in the dark recesses of your mind. Go tell it.
Read a lot. Read books that inspire you, that make you want to tell stories. Study the way your favorite authors use words and structure their plots. Learn from the writers that you love to read.
Once you do that, just go tell your story. By the very act of writing, you are doing something that the vast majority of people with a story idea will never do. If you write down your story and finish it, you are already a success. Will it be a best-selling masterpiece on the first try? Probably not, but that's okay. You put in the work and completed something.
If you actually move past finishing and publish, whether Indy or Trad, you fall into an even smaller subset of storytellers.
Don't let your story die in the dark recesses of your mind. Go tell it.
Derrick Hall
Currently, I am working out the final editing kinks in my debut novel, Qetran Odyssey, which will release in November, and writing the second book of the series. Book 2 is about 40% complete at this point and is tentatively scheduled for release in 2023!
Derrick Hall
I wrote The Trials of Tiarsus as a way to expand on a minor character in my upcoming novel, Qetran Odyssey, which releases on November 10, 2022.
While it also serves as a prequel to the novel, Trials was a way for me to delve into one of my minor characters and really flesh out his past in preparation for a much larger role in book 2 of my main series (Crimson Prophecy) which I am currently working on and hope to publish in 2023.
While it also serves as a prequel to the novel, Trials was a way for me to delve into one of my minor characters and really flesh out his past in preparation for a much larger role in book 2 of my main series (Crimson Prophecy) which I am currently working on and hope to publish in 2023.
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