Ask the Author: Ian Welke
Answered Questions (5)
Ian Welke
I'm reading year round. Summer only differs in that there'll probably be a couple of road trip books. Right now my to be read pile includes a lot of Larry Niven, Scott Nicolay's Noctuidae, Horror Library Volume 6, and Lisa Randall's Warped Passages.
Ian Welke
The ideas for The Whisperer in Dissonance came from a number of places. The most obvious is the title, which derives from HP Lovecraft's The Whisperer in Darkness. The Whisperer in Darkness has one of my favorite eerie moments in any story, when the reader realizes that the person the narrator is communicating with is no longer the person the narrator thinks he is. I experienced something similar to this talking with someone online who turned out to be a hacker rather than my friend and the slow realization that "my friend" didn't sound right was damned eerie.
A large part of the inspiration came from my own insomnia and sleep deprived craziness.
At the time I wrote the first outline, I was working in the computer games industry. I realize of course that there are worse jobs. But one thing about it was whenever we'd work long hours, someone would say you do this because you love it. I thought, what happens when the same long hours of often unpaid overtime gets applied to a job you don't love? Given that right now any attempt to protect workers is seen as equating with complete and total communism, how far can workers get exploited simply to maintain their jobs? So that led to the setup for the novel, the state the narrator is in when things really go off the rails.
A large part of the inspiration came from my own insomnia and sleep deprived craziness.
At the time I wrote the first outline, I was working in the computer games industry. I realize of course that there are worse jobs. But one thing about it was whenever we'd work long hours, someone would say you do this because you love it. I thought, what happens when the same long hours of often unpaid overtime gets applied to a job you don't love? Given that right now any attempt to protect workers is seen as equating with complete and total communism, how far can workers get exploited simply to maintain their jobs? So that led to the setup for the novel, the state the narrator is in when things really go off the rails.
Ian Welke
I read constantly and am obsessed with stories. So my main motivation comes from wanting to tell a story that's as good as what I've read.
That said, sometimes the motivation isn't there and inspiration comes in the form of the dread of knowing that I'll feel terrible if I don't accomplish anything.
That said, sometimes the motivation isn't there and inspiration comes in the form of the dread of knowing that I'll feel terrible if I don't accomplish anything.
Ian Welke
It's pretty rare that I run into a real block. I'm usually working on a few things at once, so I can usually switch if I'm stuck on one thing. Sometimes though, I have to get past what I'm stuck on, so the best thing I find is to, since I work in Scrivener, create a new text file outside of the main manuscript and write things like:
What if the characters find the answer in X?
Wouldn't it be cool if Y happened?
Or I list 5 things I'd like to happen in the section I'm stuck in.
Usually one of those questions I ask myself will prompt a way past the block.
What if the characters find the answer in X?
Wouldn't it be cool if Y happened?
Or I list 5 things I'd like to happen in the section I'm stuck in.
Usually one of those questions I ask myself will prompt a way past the block.
Ian Welke
The first on the list has to be the Lord of the Rings trilogy. My father read it to me when I was five or six, and I wanted to read it myself enough that I went from basic reading (understanding individual sentences and such) to seeing the narrative play out in my head as I read so that I could read and reread that story. I read it pretty much every summer for most of my childhood.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy came along a few years after that and was another one I read and reread.
Both those series became like comfort food for me.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy came along a few years after that and was another one I read and reread.
Both those series became like comfort food for me.
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