Ask the Author: Deborah L. Fruchey
Answered Questions (8)
Deborah L. Fruchey
I am quite certain I have answered this before...the mystery in my life for many years was what was wrong with my behavior, which was volatile and unpredictable in unpleasant ways. At the age of 23, I discovered that the answer was mental illness, and then the mystery became what medicine could help me. It took eight years for us to eventually find a cocktail of five medicines that could be combined to give me stable emotional grounding, and of course much therapy and self-examination was necessary, and several hospitalizations. The mind itself is very mysterious, as we all know, and how to treat it when there is brain disease is equally so!
Deborah L. Fruchey
Tolkien! Definitely Tolkien! But if I had to pick a secondary, it would be Seanan McGuire's fantasy-fic universe in San Francisco where the fairies are living interspersed among the humans. I suppose what I would love to do is some sort of research or academic help with the fairy Library, which is so secretive and moves so much. I would love to help the Librarian. I know that's not very swashbuckling, when I could maybe be helping Toby, but I am a bookish person, and that's what I would probably enjoy most. I love action adventures like Toby's, but I am not much for action in my real life, spending most of my time reading or writing.
Deborah L. Fruchey
I very seldom have a 'reading list,' unless you count books by authors I like which are not yet available. I just sort of amble through what's up and what sounds interesting and pick something. When I find an author I like, I go back & read every thing they ever put out. When I run out of things to read, I flip through my Kindle to see what books I have picked up cheap or free on Bookbub and not gotten to yet.
So far this summer, I was looking forward to 'Indigo' (Charlaine Harris), 'Down Among the Sticks & Bones' (Seanan McGuire, my very favorite for the last few years), and the newest Jane Yellowrock. I just recently discovered a writer (via Amazon's Fantasy listings) called Philip Armstrong. There is apparently another author with this name, but the one I found writes Fantasy (my all-time favorite genre), very long supernatural adventures set in the ancient world. The reframing of both history and myth is fascinating to me. As some of you know, I am creeping up on my own first Fantasy project and I never tire of seeing how other people do it.
Favorite authors include Patricia McKillip (oh, the magic!), Barbara Hambly, Sandra Ingerman (for shamanism), Neil Gaiman, Patricia Briggs, Robin Hobb, Faith Hunter (who I mentioned vis a vis Jane Yellowrock), Rowling (need I say? I also love her mysteries as Robert Galbraith), Ilona Andrews, Jim Butcher, Vera Nazarian, Lynn Flewelling, China Mieville (sheer genius!), and many others. I read constantly (as in, every night for hours) and probably also take in a fair amount of middling to junk fiction. It is just as important, however, for a writer to know how NOT to do it!
So far this summer, I was looking forward to 'Indigo' (Charlaine Harris), 'Down Among the Sticks & Bones' (Seanan McGuire, my very favorite for the last few years), and the newest Jane Yellowrock. I just recently discovered a writer (via Amazon's Fantasy listings) called Philip Armstrong. There is apparently another author with this name, but the one I found writes Fantasy (my all-time favorite genre), very long supernatural adventures set in the ancient world. The reframing of both history and myth is fascinating to me. As some of you know, I am creeping up on my own first Fantasy project and I never tire of seeing how other people do it.
Favorite authors include Patricia McKillip (oh, the magic!), Barbara Hambly, Sandra Ingerman (for shamanism), Neil Gaiman, Patricia Briggs, Robin Hobb, Faith Hunter (who I mentioned vis a vis Jane Yellowrock), Rowling (need I say? I also love her mysteries as Robert Galbraith), Ilona Andrews, Jim Butcher, Vera Nazarian, Lynn Flewelling, China Mieville (sheer genius!), and many others. I read constantly (as in, every night for hours) and probably also take in a fair amount of middling to junk fiction. It is just as important, however, for a writer to know how NOT to do it!
Deborah L. Fruchey
Read, read, read. Read until you find yourself looking at the page and thinking, "I could do that." Then practice. Practice, practice, practice. Practice until it goes beyond love and into skill and craftsmanship. And then start getting good solid feedback. Not from family members who are bound to love you, but from writers whose work you respect, competent people from your own community. We all have blind spots, and need others to point them out.
Deborah L. Fruchey
In one sense, I no longer have writer's block. I belonged to a weekly writer's group for several years, where we received prompts and wrote for timed periods, 10 or 20 minutes usually. And I learned that no matter how tired or uninspired I felt at the beginning of the evening, I could always find something inside me. Sometimes my best stuff came out on the evenings when I felt I had nothing to say. So I have learned that I can sit down and write SOMETHING any time I want.
However, writing SOMETHING is different than writing a very specific thing. I may not be able to come up with a poem on command (though that is sometimes possible). And I certainly can't force a novel into being. A lot of very complex things have to migrate together and join into a web to make a novel work, so I can get very stuck there. Right now I am trying to put together a new novel that is taking a very long time to coalesce. The basic premises are sound, but plotting is my weakness. This time I have decided to make a plot outline ahead of time instead of going by the seat of my pants - and the process is mountainous for me. Luckily I have found a great online course about the art of story structure that will make it all a bit more comprehensible.
However, writing SOMETHING is different than writing a very specific thing. I may not be able to come up with a poem on command (though that is sometimes possible). And I certainly can't force a novel into being. A lot of very complex things have to migrate together and join into a web to make a novel work, so I can get very stuck there. Right now I am trying to put together a new novel that is taking a very long time to coalesce. The basic premises are sound, but plotting is my weakness. This time I have decided to make a plot outline ahead of time instead of going by the seat of my pants - and the process is mountainous for me. Luckily I have found a great online course about the art of story structure that will make it all a bit more comprehensible.
Deborah L. Fruchey
In the right frame of mind, inspiration is all around you. I notice that particularly after a good poetry reading, I will be inspired by every little thing, because I have just heard so many ways that writers are reacting to their ordinary lives.I also sometimes get ideas from particular dreams at night. I dream very vividly and often keep records. I belong to a dream group which meets once a month to help each other interpret what they are seeing.
But I also collect prompts to use for times when I need help. Poets and Writers Magazine has a great free email that goes out once a week, offering a prompt each for poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction, as well as book suggestions. They have been offering this for at least two years now, and I have yet to use all the riches they have available. Rick Lupert offers a 30 day set of prompts at Poetry Superhighway every April to celebrate National Poetry Month, and there is no reason you can't use those to inspire any kind of writing you like. Nobody says it has to be poetry. There are also local sources for prompts online - again, they are meant for poetry but I can use them other ways. At Nicenet,org, there are often prompt-a-day classes for free, and I know a woman who offers 30 days of prompts every New Year and publishes people's favorites in a chapbook, if they care to send them in to her (of course it is optional).
I keep records of every one of these in a special "Prompts" file, which over the years has gotten very thick. I have literally hundreds or maybe thousands of options if I get stuck.
Of course, none of this helps if I am writing a book and get hemmed in by my own plot.
But I also collect prompts to use for times when I need help. Poets and Writers Magazine has a great free email that goes out once a week, offering a prompt each for poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction, as well as book suggestions. They have been offering this for at least two years now, and I have yet to use all the riches they have available. Rick Lupert offers a 30 day set of prompts at Poetry Superhighway every April to celebrate National Poetry Month, and there is no reason you can't use those to inspire any kind of writing you like. Nobody says it has to be poetry. There are also local sources for prompts online - again, they are meant for poetry but I can use them other ways. At Nicenet,org, there are often prompt-a-day classes for free, and I know a woman who offers 30 days of prompts every New Year and publishes people's favorites in a chapbook, if they care to send them in to her (of course it is optional).
I keep records of every one of these in a special "Prompts" file, which over the years has gotten very thick. I have literally hundreds or maybe thousands of options if I get stuck.
Of course, none of this helps if I am writing a book and get hemmed in by my own plot.
Deborah L. Fruchey
The best thing about being a writer is being allowed to play in your mind...to be able to say "I'm working" when it looks to everybody like you are staring off in space...writing as a career gives validation to a lot of intangible things that are undervalued in our culture.
There is almost no validity given in our culture to imagination, creativity, play (unless it is extreme play, as in extreme sports, or leads immediately to money). There is little validation given to quiet thought that yields spiritual and emotional gold. My very favorite part of the writing process are these parts: when you are dreaming a world and its people into being, and pictures float through your head, and anything is possible. It is awesome that there is still respect in our society for people who do this, even though there is often little financial support.
My other favorite part, besides the writing itself (which is an enormous high as well as enormous work), is when I hear back from readers. Knowing that I touched someone is worth every bit of the effort. If somehow, despite all the words and processes and computers and printers that lie between us, I managed to reach someone's heart or mind, then my whole life's work is fulfilled.My favorite parts are the dreaming and the touching.
There is almost no validity given in our culture to imagination, creativity, play (unless it is extreme play, as in extreme sports, or leads immediately to money). There is little validation given to quiet thought that yields spiritual and emotional gold. My very favorite part of the writing process are these parts: when you are dreaming a world and its people into being, and pictures float through your head, and anything is possible. It is awesome that there is still respect in our society for people who do this, even though there is often little financial support.
My other favorite part, besides the writing itself (which is an enormous high as well as enormous work), is when I hear back from readers. Knowing that I touched someone is worth every bit of the effort. If somehow, despite all the words and processes and computers and printers that lie between us, I managed to reach someone's heart or mind, then my whole life's work is fulfilled.My favorite parts are the dreaming and the touching.
Deborah L. Fruchey
The book I'm working on is a rewrite of something I finished and set aside 30 years ago. The first idea was from a very intense scene in a dream. The latest inspiration comes from a course in Shamanic Practices that I finished last year.
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