Ask the Author: Carter F. Smith
Answered Questions (5)
Carter F. Smith
Ask as many questions as you can get answers to, and then ask some more. That works with research, processing thoughts, and connecting with more established writers. I think the best books are written by people who thought about what the reader would wonder about and answered the question in such a way as to help us think about the question and then be impressed with the answer.
Carter F. Smith
I think about stuff that I have read about and see if it's been covered like I would want to read it.
As I said about writer's block, it's not been much of an issue for me but I do counsel my students on how to get past it. You take a pen and paper or your computer, tablet, or phone and you start writing. One of my best examples is for a student who has to (gets to) pick their topic for a paper in one of my classes. Imagine they don't know what to write about. They would start with, "I am writing for Dr. Smith's gangs class and I don't know what to write about. I saw something about a street gang on the the news last night so maybe I'll write about that. I think they were called the ThunderLords."
From that point on, the student can no longer say they "haven't started writing their paper." Now, it's all about editing and revising!
As I said about writer's block, it's not been much of an issue for me but I do counsel my students on how to get past it. You take a pen and paper or your computer, tablet, or phone and you start writing. One of my best examples is for a student who has to (gets to) pick their topic for a paper in one of my classes. Imagine they don't know what to write about. They would start with, "I am writing for Dr. Smith's gangs class and I don't know what to write about. I saw something about a street gang on the the news last night so maybe I'll write about that. I think they were called the ThunderLords."
From that point on, the student can no longer say they "haven't started writing their paper." Now, it's all about editing and revising!
Carter F. Smith
I am finishing up the polishing on a co-authored textbook on gangs and organized crime and beginning a textbook on homeland security.
In the narrative non-fiction realm, I am working on sketching out some essays (or more) on some of the more noteworthy and notorious military-trained gang members.
In the narrative non-fiction realm, I am working on sketching out some essays (or more) on some of the more noteworthy and notorious military-trained gang members.
Carter F. Smith
I'm not sure if I am qualified to answer the question. To me, writer's block is when you want to write something but cannot come up with what you are supposed to write. I don't write what I am supposed to write -- I write what I must write! With that said, I have been a criminal investigator and had to write what happened in a certain circumstance and did not know how I should say it. That's not writer's block to me. If I don't have something to write I go do something else. I make times for writing, and often have most of what I want to write planned out. I think that's the introvert in me.
Carter F. Smith
Gangs and the Military has been a topic of interest for me since the early 1990s. While at Fort Campbell, Kentucky serving in the Army, I happened across some gang members who were breaking into cars. I realized they were emulating gang members they had never met, and had only heard of through the media. We started examining them as a group (more like organized crime than individual crime) and realized there were many similarities. Before too long we had a team assigned to investigate gangs and extremists.
I retired from the Army in 1999, but returned in 2004 and picked up the topic I had left in trustworthy hands five years prior. I followed the investigations strategy for a couple of years, but realized that career option (criminal investigations) wasn't as invigorating to me as it had been.
When I realized my next career was in higher education I thought I was done with the topic of gangs. Instead, military-trained gang members became the focus of my dissertation.
I've been providing briefings and lectures to local, state, and federal police, courts, and corrections officers for many years, and briefed them on what I have learned investigating these gang members and collecting the official reports about them that have been published since 2005. It was a logical extension to start asking the folks I was briefing for their impression of military-trained gang members. I did that before the briefing, of course, so nothing I said would affect their comments.
All that's in the book!
I retired from the Army in 1999, but returned in 2004 and picked up the topic I had left in trustworthy hands five years prior. I followed the investigations strategy for a couple of years, but realized that career option (criminal investigations) wasn't as invigorating to me as it had been.
When I realized my next career was in higher education I thought I was done with the topic of gangs. Instead, military-trained gang members became the focus of my dissertation.
I've been providing briefings and lectures to local, state, and federal police, courts, and corrections officers for many years, and briefed them on what I have learned investigating these gang members and collecting the official reports about them that have been published since 2005. It was a logical extension to start asking the folks I was briefing for their impression of military-trained gang members. I did that before the briefing, of course, so nothing I said would affect their comments.
All that's in the book!
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