Ask the Author: William Thornton
Answered Questions (5)
William Thornton
The idea for "Set Your Fields on Fire" came from a 2008 Wall Street Journal article. I read it at the time of the economic collapse. The two ideas came together in my head and influenced each other. Then I waited until I had a way to tell the story with the characters in my head.
William Thornton
Inspiration can come in a lot of different places. I've been inspired to write from dreams. News stories. Paintings. Photographs. A joke somebody tells. A sudden daydream that comes out of nowhere. A question that I can't answer immediately.
William Thornton
Read. Write. You can't learn to tell a story unless you hear other people's stories. You can't learn to write a story unless you write one yourself. Be prepared to fail. Constantly. Even when you're not working, you're working.
William Thornton
We communicate in stories. I don't think people have ever lived in a time more saturated by narrative - fiction and non-fiction. Fairy tales. True Crime. Science fiction. Horror. Romance. Biography. Sometimes the best thing about being a writer is listening to somebody else's story. How would you tell it? What can you learn from their telling? Does this help anyone get a little further down the road?
William Thornton
Keep writing. Sometimes writer's block only means you can't figure out where to go next on your story. Sometimes I will skip ahead to a scene I know is going to happen. You may get inspiration writing that scene to go back and pick it up. And you can always rewrite. I think a lot of writers get blocked because they want to get as close as they can the first time. Maybe all that labor helps you figure out a better way.
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