Ask the Author: Jim Lynch
Answered Questions (12)
Jim Lynch
Great question. I'm not sure how to answer it. The truth is I don't know until I actually try to write a book whether it will work or not, whether the idea is strong enough to not only sustain my interest but to get richer and stronger with each draft. I trust my instincts on what sort of book I would like to read next, and then I set out to craft that book. It's a gamble that can be both exasperating and thrilling. Good luck.
Jim Lynch
Thanks, Sean. I invented Skookumchuck Bay to suit my needs. It does not exist ... although it does for me and for fans of The Highest Tide.
Jim Lynch
I love coming up with ideas and then seeing if they snowball in my mind. If they do, they have a chance to be a short story. If they really gain momentum, perhaps they can be a novel. I suggest writing about things that fascinate you, that way the material will get richer with each draft.
Jim Lynch
Find an agent who has agented a similar book, and pitch your book to her or him in hopes that they will want to represent you and your book. The best strategy is often to offer them a peak at the first 50 pages. Good luck!
Jim Lynch
The idea for Before the Wind has been brewing inside me since I was a child. I've always thought that if I could write precisely about the exhilaration and serenity and fear and danger and chaos of sailing that it could work as a microcosm of life. I've also long wanted to write about the push and pull of family, the way we are shaped by our family's demands and expectations, whether we try to meet them or rebel against them.
Jim Lynch
Reading, exercise, daydreaming, funky jazz music, espresso, beer.
Jim Lynch
Another novel. This one will be the first to bust out of the Northwest. It'll be more about America.
Jim Lynch
Study and re-study the stories and the books and the authors you love. Don't edit yourself in a bad mood.
Jim Lynch
When the writing is going really well and I feel a novel finally rising up beneath my fingertips it is exhilarating and makes me forget all the tedious and exasperating writing days.
Jim Lynch
I think about my scenes before I write them. That way, I can trick my mind into thinking I'm remembering instead of inventing these scenes. It also takes some of the pressure off when you don't feel like you have to sit down and CREATE. I also don't believe in writing when I don't know what I want to write. I like to come to the keyboard with pent up writing energy.
Jim Lynch
Well, that's a good question that requires a long answer. But the short one I'd give is that the narrator is usually a first-person point of view, so the "I" voice. And that narrator's role is usually to tell you the story from their vantage. Preferably, they are someone readers will want to hang out with for a few hundred pages. There are also omniscient narrators who feel free to tell the story from everybody's view, including a more remote, pulled back God-like sort of narration. And there are more invisible narrators who simply put you in a character or characters heads and get out of the way.
Jim Lynch
Yes, Chula. My father was a fanatical sailor. So I sailed since I could walk. And while I've never been a great sailor, it's always made sense to me, and it's always been something I love to share with people who've never done it before.
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May 21, 2017 01:34PM · flag
May 21, 2017 01:37PM · flag