Ask the Author: James Boyle
Answered Questions (4)
James Boyle
My life has actually been pretty boring mystery-wise. However, about ten years ago my brother's best friend disappeared off the face of the earth. He was facing some prison time and had liquidated much of his personal possessions, so the theory is he disappeared himself. Still, no one--friends or family--have heard from him since. Still a complete mystery.
James Boyle
I'm working on something featuring some of the characters from my forthcoming novel, "Deception Island." At this point, it is very early in the development stage. I don't have a title and I don't know where it's going, but I have a decent first chapter written. We'll see. The Journey has just begun.
James Boyle
Every writer at some point has to deal with writer’s block. It is so common that people with no experience at serious writing know what it is. It’s part of the deal. So no one should be surprised when it show’s up, laughing at you from the blank screen of your word processor.
Writer’s block is temporary inability (or difficulty) producing written work the author finds acceptable. Sometimes it means she will be unable to generate any decent ideas to work on; sometimes, he just can’t seem to create a decent sentence to save his life. Whatever the case, it does happen to every writer and it nearly always passes, kind of like a batting slump for a baseball player.
The secret is to relax, do what you always do, and trust that your talent and skill haven’t suddenly deserted you. It’s when the writer panics and begins to doubt herself that writer’s block becomes destructive. Just like the baseball player in a batting slump should not change his swing or give up his place in the lineup, the writer needs to stick with the fundamentals and the routines that have always been successful. It’s panicking and giving in to self-doubt that ruins the writer. It re-enforces and feeds the block.
Trust yourself. Trust your talent. Relax and sooner or later something will “click” and the words will flow again just as they always had before. You just need faith and patience.
Writer’s block is temporary inability (or difficulty) producing written work the author finds acceptable. Sometimes it means she will be unable to generate any decent ideas to work on; sometimes, he just can’t seem to create a decent sentence to save his life. Whatever the case, it does happen to every writer and it nearly always passes, kind of like a batting slump for a baseball player.
The secret is to relax, do what you always do, and trust that your talent and skill haven’t suddenly deserted you. It’s when the writer panics and begins to doubt herself that writer’s block becomes destructive. Just like the baseball player in a batting slump should not change his swing or give up his place in the lineup, the writer needs to stick with the fundamentals and the routines that have always been successful. It’s panicking and giving in to self-doubt that ruins the writer. It re-enforces and feeds the block.
Trust yourself. Trust your talent. Relax and sooner or later something will “click” and the words will flow again just as they always had before. You just need faith and patience.
James Boyle
Read. Read everything you can get your hands on. Read every day. Read the classics. Read the best contemporary fiction. Read history and biography. Read cookbooks and trashy pulp novels. Read everything. Other than the act of writing itself, reading is the most effective training in the craft out there.
Back in the days of apprenticeships, a young man didn’t go to work with a master carpenter and expect to immediately start cranking out award-winning furniture. In fact, they probably didn’t make much of anything the first couple of years. What he did was watch the master at work and learn the fundamentals of the craft from him. He learned how to select the proper wood, how to cure it, shape and join it, and how to apply the proper finish. Only after years of study and practicing the fundamentals did he begin to try his own projects.
Writing is no different. Before we can expect to produce quality work, we need to study the fundamentals of the craft under a master. Fortunately for us, we don’t need to seek out a master in some grimy workshop somewhere and beg to be taken on as an apprentice. We have all the masters we could possibly want, just waiting for us at the local library.
We need to read to learn the craft of writing. We need to read to keep improving our skills. But we don’t read like our dear Aunt Edna reads her cozy mysteries. We read like writers. Which means that though we immerse ourselves and enjoy the story, we also pay close attention to the techniques and devices the author uses to tell it.
Why did the author choose to begin the work where and when she did? Why end it that way? How did the author create suspense? How did they evoke the characters? What did she do to make you care about what happens?
Those are just some of the things we can learn from reading. There are many, many others. So writers need to read all the time. Basically, whenever you aren’t physically writing something you should be reading. It will do you good.
Back in the days of apprenticeships, a young man didn’t go to work with a master carpenter and expect to immediately start cranking out award-winning furniture. In fact, they probably didn’t make much of anything the first couple of years. What he did was watch the master at work and learn the fundamentals of the craft from him. He learned how to select the proper wood, how to cure it, shape and join it, and how to apply the proper finish. Only after years of study and practicing the fundamentals did he begin to try his own projects.
Writing is no different. Before we can expect to produce quality work, we need to study the fundamentals of the craft under a master. Fortunately for us, we don’t need to seek out a master in some grimy workshop somewhere and beg to be taken on as an apprentice. We have all the masters we could possibly want, just waiting for us at the local library.
We need to read to learn the craft of writing. We need to read to keep improving our skills. But we don’t read like our dear Aunt Edna reads her cozy mysteries. We read like writers. Which means that though we immerse ourselves and enjoy the story, we also pay close attention to the techniques and devices the author uses to tell it.
Why did the author choose to begin the work where and when she did? Why end it that way? How did the author create suspense? How did they evoke the characters? What did she do to make you care about what happens?
Those are just some of the things we can learn from reading. There are many, many others. So writers need to read all the time. Basically, whenever you aren’t physically writing something you should be reading. It will do you good.
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