Ask the Author: Kevin L. O'Brien
Answered Questions (5)
Kevin L. O'Brien
Ultimately, every writer is different, and writes in his or her own way. What works for one may not work for another.
Having said that, I can offer two pieces of general advice:
1. Write; stick your butt in the chair and type. No one ever became a writer by dreaming about it.
2. Finish your stories; write as far as you need to to be able to say "The End". No one ever became a writer by starting a hundred stories but never completing any.
Now, if you have adult attention deficit disorder like I do and can't seem to finish anything, you might want to try this: don't force it. Put your story aside and start a new one. Just every now and then go back and reread your old story. At some point you will probably get interested in it again and be able to finish it.
Finally, if you have difficulty getting commercially published, you might want to look into self-publishing.
Having said that, I can offer two pieces of general advice:
1. Write; stick your butt in the chair and type. No one ever became a writer by dreaming about it.
2. Finish your stories; write as far as you need to to be able to say "The End". No one ever became a writer by starting a hundred stories but never completing any.
Now, if you have adult attention deficit disorder like I do and can't seem to finish anything, you might want to try this: don't force it. Put your story aside and start a new one. Just every now and then go back and reread your old story. At some point you will probably get interested in it again and be able to finish it.
Finally, if you have difficulty getting commercially published, you might want to look into self-publishing.
Kevin L. O'Brien
I generally get writer's block because I get bored. So I put the story aside for awhile to regenerate my interest.
Sometime, however, I genuinely have no idea what to write next. That is, I know what's coming next, but I don't know how to write it. In such circumstances I do one of two things: just bull my way through, and hope a better way to write it comes to me later, or set it aside until inspiration strikes. I prefer to do the latter if I can, but sometimes I really want to get a story finished, so I have to do the former.
Sometime, however, I genuinely have no idea what to write next. That is, I know what's coming next, but I don't know how to write it. In such circumstances I do one of two things: just bull my way through, and hope a better way to write it comes to me later, or set it aside until inspiration strikes. I prefer to do the latter if I can, but sometimes I really want to get a story finished, so I have to do the former.
Kevin L. O'Brien
There's no simple answer to that question. In part, having a new idea can be inspiring enough. At other times, I get interested again in an old story I haven't worked on for some time. Otherwise, writing is a job like any other. At the end of the day, what gets stories finished is having the professionalism and dedication to put your butt in the chair and type.
Having said that, writing is not like fixing a leaky pipe or mowing the lawn. Plumbing and yard work are not artistic endeavors, but writing is. As such, some form of inspiration is required. It could be the initial idea that sparks the desire to write the story; it could be the idea that breaks writer's block, or reveals how the story should end.
Regardless, just as a story doesn't get finished unless you do the work to write it, it can't get started until you are inspired with the idea to write it.
Having said that, writing is not like fixing a leaky pipe or mowing the lawn. Plumbing and yard work are not artistic endeavors, but writing is. As such, some form of inspiration is required. It could be the initial idea that sparks the desire to write the story; it could be the idea that breaks writer's block, or reveals how the story should end.
Regardless, just as a story doesn't get finished unless you do the work to write it, it can't get started until you are inspired with the idea to write it.
Kevin L. O'Brien
My latest story idea has Team Girl in the Dreamlands carrying a vaccine for a virulent plague over a mountain range, while Leng Men try to steal it, but God alone knows where it came from.
Most of my ideas just pop into my mind out of nowhere. I liken the process to composting or fermentation; essentially, everything I experience and think about settles into the back of my mind where it accumulates and festers until it reaches critical mass and something emerges. Very few stories are specifically planned, even those that will become sequels of existing stories. For example, I had decided that my sequel to "Gourmand Hag" would involve a sister of the first hag threatening Differel and Margaret, but the story did not fall into place until I was inspired by the idea of Girl Scout cookies.
I never know when a new idea will occur to me, but when it does I generally try to work through it far enough that I will remember enough of it to write it down when I have the opportunity. After that, it is only a matter of time before I start work on writing the story out.
Most of my ideas just pop into my mind out of nowhere. I liken the process to composting or fermentation; essentially, everything I experience and think about settles into the back of my mind where it accumulates and festers until it reaches critical mass and something emerges. Very few stories are specifically planned, even those that will become sequels of existing stories. For example, I had decided that my sequel to "Gourmand Hag" would involve a sister of the first hag threatening Differel and Margaret, but the story did not fall into place until I was inspired by the idea of Girl Scout cookies.
I never know when a new idea will occur to me, but when it does I generally try to work through it far enough that I will remember enough of it to write it down when I have the opportunity. After that, it is only a matter of time before I start work on writing the story out.
Kevin L. O'Brien
I actually have a large number of projects I work on more or less simultaneously. I have adult attention deficit disorder (AADD), and as a result I find it difficult to work on one project at a time to the exclusion of everything else; I eventually become bored and move on to something new.
In the past, that usually resulted in projects being abandoned, because I believed I had to finish one before starting on another. However, I have since realized that I don't need to do that, and now I work on whatever project holds my interest the most, and when I become bored I move on to another, then I come back to my old projects when I become bored with the new ones, and so on.
The result has been that I have completed more projects in the past five years than in the entire 30 I've been writing. It may take longer for me to complete a project this way, but I do complete more because several usually get completed at almost the same time.
In the past, that usually resulted in projects being abandoned, because I believed I had to finish one before starting on another. However, I have since realized that I don't need to do that, and now I work on whatever project holds my interest the most, and when I become bored I move on to another, then I come back to my old projects when I become bored with the new ones, and so on.
The result has been that I have completed more projects in the past five years than in the entire 30 I've been writing. It may take longer for me to complete a project this way, but I do complete more because several usually get completed at almost the same time.
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