Ask the Author: Jon Ballard
Answered Questions (4)
Jon Ballard
I am sometimes juiced after reading writers I love, and that "juice" makes it easier for me to begin my own work in earnest. But I don't sit around waiting to "get inspired" to write. That's like waiting for a special invitation, and the universe doesn't hand many of those out. It's as if you're plan for financial security was to buy a lotto ticket and then sit back and wait for the drawing. Surely the odds are definitely you, and in the meantime you're not doing anything constructive about the real problem.
Jon Ballard
Get yourself alone in a room without the Internet, without distractions, and write. To paraphrase some philosopher or other, we need to get past loving the idea, and learn to the love the thing itself. The "thing" in this case is the writing. The other thing I would say is that aspiring writers need to be committed to, and interested in, reading widely and deeply. A would-be writer who isn't interested and engaged with other people's words is simply refusing to learn their craft.
Jon Ballard
Any time I subject myself to this notion that I need to be "inspired" to compose, I think I invite writer's block into my writing life. I really do believe this condition is self-inflicted. Good writing is a struggle, sometimes bordering on drudgery, and nothing will ever change that. Writer's block, at least for me, happens when I'm not committed to sweating out the horror of the blank page, and expect something like divine inspiration to save me. As an agnostic, I should know better.
Jon Ballard
I don't really remember the moment that the basic idea for the novel came together, though it was driven primarily by the formation of the two main characters. So, even from the beginning, as should be the case with literary fiction, the characters were driving the story and determining where it would eventually lead.
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