Ask the Author: Tom Winton
Answered Questions (8)
Tom Winton
Hi Michelle. I grew up on Sanford Avenue, right across from the JHS 189 schoolyard. Graduated from Flushing High in 1966, and played on the basketball team. Great memories.
Tom Winton
I'm doing fine, Lee, and I hope you are as well. I released my 9th novel in March but haven't been scrawling many words since. I've been kind of smelling the roses, if you know what I mean.
Tom Winton
Over a period of four decades I have visited the Florida Keys probably close to a hundred times. I've had many terrific times in that magical string of islands, and some wild and woolly ones, too. It was about time I put them down on paper.
Tom Winton
I'm just finishing up the final draft of my eighth book. Although all my others are novels this one is a memoir of sorts, about my 40 years of adventures and misadventures in the Florida Keys.
Tom Winton
The feeling of accomplishment we get after a good session at the keyboard. I call it a "writer's high." It's a similar feeling to the one we experience after a good workout at the gym, and it too lasts for several hours.
Tom Winton
I believe the best thing an author can do when their mind becomes all scrambled and they can't concentrate on their work is to walk away from it. Many of our best ideas come from our subconscious, and if those thoughts can't rise through all the clutter whirling inside our heads we are simply not going to be productive. That's when it's time to pick up your fishing rod, hit the garden, or spend some time with friends.
Tom Winton
It seems like every non-author I talk to tells me that for the longest time they've had this fantabulous idea for a book. And they very well might. But when I ask why they don't sit down and do it, the answer I get most often is something like, Oh, I could never write an entire book.
Wrong! All a would-be author needs is one good idea. Once you have that don't think about the 60, 70, or 80 thousand missing words in front of you. Just think about the very first sentence. Write it is as well as you possibly can. Make it interesting. Write it in such a way that it'll grip readers by the back of the neck and shove their noses closer to the page. After that, you just might be surprised at how easily the second sentence comes to you, and the third, and the fourth, and the..... .
Wrong! All a would-be author needs is one good idea. Once you have that don't think about the 60, 70, or 80 thousand missing words in front of you. Just think about the very first sentence. Write it is as well as you possibly can. Make it interesting. Write it in such a way that it'll grip readers by the back of the neck and shove their noses closer to the page. After that, you just might be surprised at how easily the second sentence comes to you, and the third, and the fourth, and the..... .
Tom Winton
My muse is temperamental guy, but when he's ready to rock n roll I'm always ready to start tapping away at the keyboard. All I need for inspiration is for him to "deliver" a worthwhile idea to me. Once that happens I'm on it.
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