Ask the Author: Denise Thompson-Slaughter
Answered Questions (6)
Denise Thompson-Slaughter
So far, I have not had to write to a deadline (except one in my head), so I just ride a block out. (I think having tight deadlines probably causes writer's block in many cases!) Maybe I'm lazy, or maybe I just honor my own rhythms, but I know I have creative periods and fallow periods. The fallow periods are just as important because that's when you are germinating the ideas and energy to follow them through. When I'm in a fallow period, I READ. A lot. Or I turn to some other creative pursuit like drawing or craftwork. I'll know when I'm ready to get back to writing. At times I've worried that I wouldn't get back to it at all, but I always do. It's like any other cycle in nature. I know other writers don't always have the luxury of going with the flow, of course. They have contracts--and undoubtedly make more money than I do!--but they don't have the pleasure of waiting for inspiration to strike.
Denise Thompson-Slaughter
The many mysteries in my life are described in my book, CLEANING THE COINCIDENCE CLOSET, where I seek to find answers to them: an object flying through the air without human agency, psychic and precognitive dreams, recognition of a place I'd never been before, feeling someone else's health problems from 200 miles away, and so many coincidences! Any one of these could be the opening event and driving force in a novel!
Denise Thompson-Slaughter
Get a paying job that has nothing to do with sitting at a desk and staring at a screen--otherwise either your eyes and certain other parts of your body will get burned out too soon. Then set aside a regular time when you will sit down and work on your writing, even if it's just an hour a day or two nights a week. Also, if you a are writing longer pieces, do not consider yourself above the homework of laying the groundwork. Make an outline! Break it down into scenes. Many a book has fallen by the wayside halfway through because the author didn't have a clear road map for where it was going. (I'm telling you things I've learned the hard way.) If you're writing fictional characters, make sure you know them and their life history thoroughly before you start. And if you get discouraged because your job and your family seem to be taking over all your time, remember that you will have more time after you retire and/or the kids are in college! Whatever you outline or scribble in the little free time you have in the thick of your life will be waiting for you to finish and will be an impetus for you to actually go back to it someday. Of course, if you don't have kids or a full-time job yet, take advantage of the time you do have now to take writing classes, join a writing group, or set yourself a firm schedule at home to do as much as you can--whatever will force you to keep writing and learning from the experience in a disciplined way.
Denise Thompson-Slaughter
A collection of memoir pieces, the longest of which is about the 1960s/early '70s and covers things like Woodstock and being pepper-gassed during an antiwar demonstration. It's tentatively titled "Since You Weren't There & Other Prose."
Denise Thompson-Slaughter
Setting your own schedule for writing. Also, as for any creative art or craft--from music to woodworking--there is nothing like the thrill of realizing you have brought something solid into the world that started as an idea in your own head. And when you can share it and other people also appreciate it, that's the cherry on top!
Denise Thompson-Slaughter
By thinking about my belief systems and attitudes and realizing they were inconsistent with my own experiences. For instance, I had gone from being a "believer" to being an agnostic to being an atheist who thought she didn't believe in anything less solid than lunch. But I knew I also believed in ghosts and precognitive dreams because I'd experienced them. Well, there was obviously a logical inconsistency there. After I thought about it for awhile, I decided to make a list of all the evidence I personally had in my own life that something more than a material universe existed. And life was constantly revealing to me that there was something very funny about time. My list of anomalies got longer and longer. I originally thought it would be an essay, but I realized I had enough material to write a book instead, so I started researching what the latest scientific research was saying about these subjects. Not much of quantum physics had trickled down the the general public, and what had was in bits and pieces. I hope that I have done a service in synthesizing all this material for people who are interested in the topics in my book.
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