Ask the Author: Maurice Breslow
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Maurice Breslow
Above all, believe in yourself. Learn to observe life without judging. Read broadly. Write about whatever you want to. Respect your craft: make a writing schedule and stick to it. Don't let rejection stop you (rejection happens to all writers). And, keep working.
Maurice Breslow
The best thing(s) about being a writer?
The opportunity to let your mind and imagination go anywhere, on any subject, in any period, and then to be able to actually do something about it. Like, write it! In any way you want to.
The necessary self-discipline, concentration, and drive to the finish.
The chance to connect with the mind and imagination of others, your readers.
The opportunity to let your mind and imagination go anywhere, on any subject, in any period, and then to be able to actually do something about it. Like, write it! In any way you want to.
The necessary self-discipline, concentration, and drive to the finish.
The chance to connect with the mind and imagination of others, your readers.
Maurice Breslow
Let me say, first, that I don't really like the term "writer's block." It implies that a writer is totally unable to write, anything. Of course, there may be some psychological reason why a writer becomes blocked (the Russian composer Rachmaninov experienced this during his career), but I take the term to refer to the writer hitting a temporary dead-end in a particular piece he or she is writing, an impasse, but not an overall block.
That being the case, when that's happened to me I will generally keep trying for a while, but at some point will simply stop work on the piece, let it lie, and turn to other writing, often in a different format entirely. After a while, when I sense that now might be the time, I will return to the piece I was having trouble with. Often, new ideas about it will have come to mind in the period I was away from it, one of which might be the clue to the way out of the difficulty. And even if not, just seeing the piece cold after the time away, I will almost always see it differently, including the part where I was 'blocked.' I think the important thing in all this is to be able to walk away from the piece for a while, to know when to do it, to let it and yourself breathe.
That being the case, when that's happened to me I will generally keep trying for a while, but at some point will simply stop work on the piece, let it lie, and turn to other writing, often in a different format entirely. After a while, when I sense that now might be the time, I will return to the piece I was having trouble with. Often, new ideas about it will have come to mind in the period I was away from it, one of which might be the clue to the way out of the difficulty. And even if not, just seeing the piece cold after the time away, I will almost always see it differently, including the part where I was 'blocked.' I think the important thing in all this is to be able to walk away from the piece for a while, to know when to do it, to let it and yourself breathe.
Maurice Breslow
Having recently adapted my play "Full Circle" into the novella "Full Circle: Sherlock Holmes's Greatest Challenge Ever" (published August 2022), I'm now reversing the process. I've gone back to the play, to incorporate into it things I added to the novella in making the adaptation. Those additions enlarge on the scope of the play. I think that by reversing the process, incorporating those new elements from the novella, I will in the same way improve the original version of the play, and provide audiences a much richer experience.
I am also currently working on a longish short-story, tentatively titled "Ontogeny," set in a K-8 school in northern Ontario.
I am also currently working on a longish short-story, tentatively titled "Ontogeny," set in a K-8 school in northern Ontario.
Maurice Breslow
In all the reading I'd done over the years, I'd somehow never gotten around to reading any of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Sure, I'd seen the many Sherlock movies and TV series, but I had never actually gone to the source: Doyle's own writing. But once I started, I really got into it. I read all of Holmes, plus many of Doyle's other works, his memoirs, and a very good biography of him. In the latter book, I learned that in 1893, about midway in his career, Doyle decided to end the Holmes series, which he felt was taking time from what he considered his more serious writing, and also from the care of his consumptive wife. So, he decided to kill off Holmes. It would be done in one last story, titled "The Final Problem." Doyle went though with this, but after years of pressure and pleading from his fans, he brought Holmes back.
Some time later, while thinking about all this, I had a sudden thought: Kill off Holmes? That's murder, a crime! Holmes fights crime. What if he fought this crime? What if he could somehow come out of his world, into Doyle's, and fight against his creator for his very survival? And he would obviously succeed, because, after all, Doyle did bring his great detective back. Why did he? What made Doyle change his mind? What could Holmes do to change Doyle's mind? How do literary characters (also present are Watson and the remarkable Doyle character Irene Adler) confront their author?
Thus, "Full Circle" was born. But not yet as a book. Having spent my life in theatre, I first turned my idea into a play. But about a year and a half ago, I adapted my play into the novella "Full Circle: Sherlock Holmes's Greatest Challenge Ever." It was published last August (2022). I hope those who pick it up will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Some time later, while thinking about all this, I had a sudden thought: Kill off Holmes? That's murder, a crime! Holmes fights crime. What if he fought this crime? What if he could somehow come out of his world, into Doyle's, and fight against his creator for his very survival? And he would obviously succeed, because, after all, Doyle did bring his great detective back. Why did he? What made Doyle change his mind? What could Holmes do to change Doyle's mind? How do literary characters (also present are Watson and the remarkable Doyle character Irene Adler) confront their author?
Thus, "Full Circle" was born. But not yet as a book. Having spent my life in theatre, I first turned my idea into a play. But about a year and a half ago, I adapted my play into the novella "Full Circle: Sherlock Holmes's Greatest Challenge Ever." It was published last August (2022). I hope those who pick it up will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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