Ask the Author: John Pappas
Answered Questions (7)
John Pappas
The one I'm working through the last edit on. First memoir. What they say is true - you feel naked on a stage. All I can promise at this time is that it will surprise . . .
John Pappas
See previous. Lives of the Spirits is the direct sequel to When Wolf Comes. Lives picks up three days after Wolf stops. After the story I'm working on is published I have to get back there because the story of Aidan and Neveah isn't over.
John Pappas
I'll answer that first with a Bukowski quote: "You don't chose writing, it chooses you." I have many interests and on any given day any of them might inspire me. When I decided to write When Wolf Comes the story wasn't going to focus on native culture, it was about adventure on the NW Coast, the last semi-pristine coastline in the U.S. It was because I love wilderness and knew the area. But the more I researched the more fascinated I became with the people that lived there 200 years ago. It went on and on until I had to find every little scrap of historical information that had been recorded about the region. It took time, but I wanted to get it right.
Inspiration is always there, you just have to get enthused and direct it.
Inspiration is always there, you just have to get enthused and direct it.
John Pappas
My present story is actually a memoir of sorts, and a cautionary tale. And being short of cash in a foreign country, immersion in another culture, love and loathing, a drunk policeman, interesting places and a nearly geriatric guy having his last big adventure. Maybe not his last.
It is different than what I just finished, Lives of the Spirits. That story left me exhausted and I had to do something else to get back my senses. So I began writing a story I had been encouraged to write for a few years and told everyone I would never do it. Now I think it will be of interest to a lot of people. But I'm already thinking about the sequel to Lives while I'm writing the current story. That's how it works when you know you have to keep writing until you can't anymore.
It is different than what I just finished, Lives of the Spirits. That story left me exhausted and I had to do something else to get back my senses. So I began writing a story I had been encouraged to write for a few years and told everyone I would never do it. Now I think it will be of interest to a lot of people. But I'm already thinking about the sequel to Lives while I'm writing the current story. That's how it works when you know you have to keep writing until you can't anymore.
John Pappas
Don't quit your day job and keep at it. You have to get past thinking everything you write is conveying deep beauty and meaning - that's something your readers will tell you. You probably feel these things and see them going down on the page, but you are in the communication biz and if nobody but you can understand and feel it you just have to keep practicing. Writing clubs are good if it's a small, serious group that tells each other the truth. You have to become an editor to be a good writer. You have to be mean to yourself and get mad, maybe shed a few tears, and then the next day you go back and rewrite that damn scene so it works. Then you write the next one.
John Pappas
For me it's making something. When you write a story or article, it's yours, you made it and no one else can do it just like you did it. I also make things with my hands, but writing is more challenging. You have to think of it as a craft first, a craft like any other. If you love the craft you will continue to work to get better. You hope you can eventually practice this craft well enough so some will consider what you made art. The path to get there is not supposed to be easy.
John Pappas
I don't actually get writer's block anymore. It's something you get over after you write enough (and throw a lot away). When I have trouble writing it's about knowing what to write. This usually happens when you start a new story because there are a lot of decisions to make about where you come in, characters, etc. One tip for new writers: Don't agonize over how to correctly write a scene - just write it even though you know it won't be quite right. Once you've done that and can step back and look at it you will usually see how you can do it right.
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