Ask the Author: Jason J. Marchi
Answered Questions (6)
Jason J. Marchi
I don't deal with writer's block well, or I'd have a great many more books and stories already published. I'm a lazy writer too. I cannot sit and write 1,000 words for myself everyday like I should be doing. Unless I have a very clear emotional feeling inside where I want to go with a story, and the story is pressing itself on me to be written, I don't just sit and force myself to write.
On the other hand, if I have an assignment and an editor is WAITING for and expecting my writing then I can work very efficiently. But my own stories . . . I'll let them slide for years before I finally get motivated to complete them.
Let's face it, we all have busy lives today. We have modern technology to replace tasks of drudgery, but also with modern life comes a bombardment of things to do, things to see, etc. etc. I like a neat house and yard, and I publish other writers too, so I only have so much time for my own work.
I veered away from the topic of writer's block, but its all related. Writer's block is not such a bad thing because it allows we to get a lot of other very important tasks done each day, so I am NEVER bored. In fact, the days and weeks are not long enough for all I want to do. And if a story needs to be told badly enough -- it will PRESS me to be born and I'll eventually be able to write it.
On the other hand, if I have an assignment and an editor is WAITING for and expecting my writing then I can work very efficiently. But my own stories . . . I'll let them slide for years before I finally get motivated to complete them.
Let's face it, we all have busy lives today. We have modern technology to replace tasks of drudgery, but also with modern life comes a bombardment of things to do, things to see, etc. etc. I like a neat house and yard, and I publish other writers too, so I only have so much time for my own work.
I veered away from the topic of writer's block, but its all related. Writer's block is not such a bad thing because it allows we to get a lot of other very important tasks done each day, so I am NEVER bored. In fact, the days and weeks are not long enough for all I want to do. And if a story needs to be told badly enough -- it will PRESS me to be born and I'll eventually be able to write it.
Jason J. Marchi
The best thing inside me about being a writer is the satisfaction that comes from getting all my thoughts about different subjects into concrete form. Thoughts written down . . . that's very satisfying and truly makes me feel alive -- especially when I forget about what I've written and go back to it months, years, decades later and say, "Wow, that's pretty good! Who wrote that? I don't remember writing that but there it is!" For others finding purpose in life might come in another form: passion for painting, or sculpting, or playing a musical instrument, or composing a song, or dancing, or singing, or building electronic or mechanical machines, or making ill people well again, etc, etc.
On the outside or ME, the best thing about being a writer is inspiring others. It's seeing all the work required to make good writing GOOD finally come home to roost when you meet a reader who has fallen in love with your work. The reader might only love ONE story of the dozens or hundreds you've written and published, but such acceptance of that one story is an amazing feeling for the writer. The reader is touched and in love. And you, the writer of that story, fall in love with your own story again because someone else now loves it too. Now two people are happy were before it was only one who was happy -- and maybe no one was happy. What I mean by this, I'll forget about a story I wrote years ago that someone I know read. Out the blue one day that person will recall your story and repeat how much he or she loved it. That will awaken my own thoughts about that story -- a story that I'd forgotten about -- and then I'll be happy that that reader has never forgotten about that story. Now, two people are happy because of one story. That's a winner in my book.
On the outside or ME, the best thing about being a writer is inspiring others. It's seeing all the work required to make good writing GOOD finally come home to roost when you meet a reader who has fallen in love with your work. The reader might only love ONE story of the dozens or hundreds you've written and published, but such acceptance of that one story is an amazing feeling for the writer. The reader is touched and in love. And you, the writer of that story, fall in love with your own story again because someone else now loves it too. Now two people are happy were before it was only one who was happy -- and maybe no one was happy. What I mean by this, I'll forget about a story I wrote years ago that someone I know read. Out the blue one day that person will recall your story and repeat how much he or she loved it. That will awaken my own thoughts about that story -- a story that I'd forgotten about -- and then I'll be happy that that reader has never forgotten about that story. Now, two people are happy because of one story. That's a winner in my book.
Jason J. Marchi
Read a lot. You must crammed your head full of ideas and language -- like filling a well with water by drilling deeper and deeper into life. And as soon as your fingers twitch to tough the keyboard, listen to them and sit and start typing. As soon as you feel the stir of emotion for a character, an idea, sit and start typing (or hand writing) and just let your thoughts flow. FORGET what teachers have taught you about composing complete sentences. Forget about spelling and grammar. These are all mechanical aspects of writing that can be corrected later. Right now you're job as a writer is to react emotionally to life and explode your passionate fears, loves, hates, thoughts onto the page ... run, run, run as fast as you can. Then, later, go back and edit, clarify, clean-up. If you sit there trying to compose one perfect sentence before going to the next you are misapplying your energy and wasting time.
Jason J. Marchi
I'm currently finishing up the stories for two short story collections. I hope to have them out in the marketplace as print and eBooks in 2017 and 2018. They are both books for ages 13+ in the fantasy/mild horror genres with a smattering of science fiction.
Jason J. Marchi
Sometimes a character I've been thinking about for some time haunts my mind until I start writing that person's thoughts and feelings down. Sometimes its the idea for a story -- like a sweater that keeps growing bigger and bigger -- that drives me to explore, in words, what happens next and I HAVE to write about it until I'm satisfied that there is nothing left to write about the topic. When a story HAS to be written it keeps haunting me until I commit it to paper (or a Word file). Other times I know I have not written recently enough (no, I don't write ever day) so I must force myself to start typing. But that typing goes a lot better -- and I can truly work on a story and not just waste time writing nonsense sentences like describing trees or birds or such -- when I sit and read stories by others. When I read--both fiction and non-fiction--I will soon get a FLOOD of ideas for my own stories or articles or essays and sometimes even poems. Reading widely drives inspiration to do my own writing.
Jason J. Marchi
My most recent published book is THE GROWING SWEATER. I got the idea for it in a flash when my mother casually told me one day, many years ago, that she once knitted a sweater for my father (before I was born) that kept stretching every time she washed and dried it. It was a eureka! moment and I instantly knew it would make a fun kid's picture book, and I instantly envisioned the major final image of the book, which actually became the second to last image once I committed the story to paper.
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