Ask the Author: Samuel Ben White
Answered Questions (6)
Samuel Ben White
By walking through life and meeting people. The more people I meet, the more stories I find myself wanting to tell. Sometimes I can see the direct correlation between a given person's story and my own written one, but sometimes I can't. A conversation about the Houston Astros with a friend who is a farmer becomes--somehow--a novel about murder on the ski slopes (see my novel "Toltec Mountain", available on Kindle & Nook).
Samuel Ben White
Registering for graduate level courses and realizing that writing anything other than papers for class is probably going out the window for the next couple years. Good thing I've got 23 books (24, by some accounting) out there to tide people over until I can get back to writing for enjoyment.
Samuel Ben White
To paraphrase Mark Twain, "The great thing about being a writer is that if a man says he's a writer, no one can prove different." I love the power to take these random things we call "words" and, using nothing more than a computer keyboard or a pencil (which, now that I look at it, needs sharpening), and arrange those words into sentences. The sentences I arrange into paragraphs, which become stories. Maybe they're true, maybe they're fiction, but they are stories that--for a few moments--draw both myself and the reader into a common world.
Samuel Ben White
Enjoy what you write. We're often told to "find out what sells and write to that" but I have found that I need to be my own harshest critic. Beyond the barest facts of grammar and spelling and such, though, I have learned that if I'm not interested in the story--passionate about it, really--I'm probably not going to be able to get anyone else interested in it, either.
Samuel Ben White
Write something else. I am blessed in that I draw the comic strip for the local paper. So, if I'm stuck with writer's block--as far as novels are concerned--I start doodling and working on my next strip. When stuck with cartoonist's block, I will sometimes start typing away on one of my story ideas. Once I can "get the juices flowing" in one venue, they either get flowing in both or I can at least ignore one deadline with something of a clear conscience because I'm addressing another deadline. ;-)
Samuel Ben White
My most recent novel ("Ghosts of Families Past") involved characters I had used previously, primary Bat and Jody Garrett. Each of them had holes in their lives, months that were missing from their memories, that I had always thought about going back and filling in. Finally, about a year ago, it occurred to me how I could fill in both holes at once and make for a single, exciting story. In helping Jody with her more concrete hole, Bat finds his own hole being--if not filled--at least somewhat resolved.
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