Ask the Author: Mark Souza
Answered Questions (6)
Mark Souza
Writer's block comes in a host of varieties. I have a few ways to deal with it. All are guaranteed to work, and all are guaranteed not to work. It depends on what your specific variety is.
Switch to writing something else - sometimes the problem is spending too much time with a single story to the point where you're bored, can't see that it's any good anymore, and it feels like a waste of your time. Take some time away from it while you work on something else. It's not that you're sick of writing, it's that you're sick of spending all your time on the same thing. When you come back with fresh eyes, the bright spots of your story will excite you again and you'll realize it doesn't suck.
Force yourself to write - this works when it's the natural tendency toward laziness that causing you to not want to write. When you force yourself to write, usually the first bit sucks until you get on a roll. It's no big deal because you can go back and fix the sucky part later.
Take a week to a month off. Many writers (most I think) have day jobs. They write when they can, every free minute. Over a long span of time burning the wick at both ends between your two jobs, you can become exhausted. Taking time away to recharge the batteries can be just what you need. Sometimes writer's block is merely exhaustion.
Switch to writing something else - sometimes the problem is spending too much time with a single story to the point where you're bored, can't see that it's any good anymore, and it feels like a waste of your time. Take some time away from it while you work on something else. It's not that you're sick of writing, it's that you're sick of spending all your time on the same thing. When you come back with fresh eyes, the bright spots of your story will excite you again and you'll realize it doesn't suck.
Force yourself to write - this works when it's the natural tendency toward laziness that causing you to not want to write. When you force yourself to write, usually the first bit sucks until you get on a roll. It's no big deal because you can go back and fix the sucky part later.
Take a week to a month off. Many writers (most I think) have day jobs. They write when they can, every free minute. Over a long span of time burning the wick at both ends between your two jobs, you can become exhausted. Taking time away to recharge the batteries can be just what you need. Sometimes writer's block is merely exhaustion.
Mark Souza
The best thing is the non-stop adulation (I almost hurt myself laughing as I wrote that).
The best thing is creating worlds and characters from nothing but your own imagination and experience. And then finding that one reader that sees what you want them to see, who feels the way you intended them to feel. Finding those that get you.
The best thing is creating worlds and characters from nothing but your own imagination and experience. And then finding that one reader that sees what you want them to see, who feels the way you intended them to feel. Finding those that get you.
Mark Souza
My best advice is to write (practice may not make perfect, but it will make you better) and know in the beginning that you're going to suck. Actively seek criticism, and after you get past how bad it stings, work to make your writing better, to realize the weaknesses in your own writing and get past it. You'll grow a thicker skin with time. Not every criticism is accurate, but it's a writer's job to look at it all, determine what is true, and work to make themselves better at their craft.
Mark Souza
I keep an "ideas" folder on my computer. Just daily events or imaginings can create an idea for a story. I jot them down. Some are strong enough to propel a story on their own. Some gain that kind of power when combined with another idea or two from the folder. My first novel started out when I tried to write a science fiction short. Science fiction paid much more per word than horror. For the short story, I wondered what the internet would look like in a few generations. It became clear to me that eventually there would be an implant infants would receive to gain access merely by thought. I developed characters, a strong motivation for them, some powerful opposition, deception, and 116,000 words later it was no longer a short story.
Mark Souza
My most recent book, Zombie-saurus Rex, will be out December 23rd on Amazon. I got the inspiration from my daughter who has epilepsy. The medicine she took to keep her seizures in check left her in a stupor, a walking zombie through her junior high and high school days. The abuse she took because of it was horrifying and saddening. Rex is a means of showing what she had to deal with and overcome.
Mark Souza
I have a book coming out on December 23rd called Zombie-saurus Rex. It's not your usual zombie story. Rex doesn't fit the zombie stereotype, though if he is to reach his goal of living an ordinary life, he has to overcome what people think of him.
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