Ask the Author: J. Guenther
Answered Questions (8)
J. Guenther
"Hey, Rob! You tracked mud into the hallway!"
"I haven't been in the hallway."
"I haven't been in the hallway."
J. Guenther
It's largely an unconscious thing. Some what-if (concept) comes to me and won't go away. I wake up with story details tumbling around in my head--a title, a character, a McGuffin, a bit of action or dialogue. Or I find I'm resting from a bigger project by writing little pieces of the new idea. Eventually it reaches critical mass and has to be written.
One of my projects started as this: What if a psychiatrist realizes during a therapy session that the patient is a murderer and has the gun with him? This concept, once in my mind, absolutely had to be written.
Once I woke up the morning after seeing a play and thought, That was the worst thing I've ever seen on the stage. I couldn't possibly write anything worse. I started writing my first 3-act play that day.
One of my projects started as this: What if a psychiatrist realizes during a therapy session that the patient is a murderer and has the gun with him? This concept, once in my mind, absolutely had to be written.
Once I woke up the morning after seeing a play and thought, That was the worst thing I've ever seen on the stage. I couldn't possibly write anything worse. I started writing my first 3-act play that day.
J. Guenther
My kafkaesque, dystopian novella, A True Map of the City. takes place in the huge, grey city of "Deres-Thorm," far from my protagonist's homeland of Albion. He's come to Deres-Thorm on an important mission, representing his company at a large conference. Surprises await him from the moment he steps off the steam-driven train.
J. Guenther
Field Gray by Philip Kerr [one of the Bernie Gunther series], Masaryk Station, by David Downing, The Book Without Words, by AVI, House of Leaves, by Danielewski, and Wind in the Willows, by Grahame.
J. Guenther
Making people laugh. Or cry.
J. Guenther
I use the Monty Python approach. "Now for something completely different." I write what allows itself to be written. This helps me regain momentum and clarifies the nature of the block. One way or another, I write.
J. Guenther
Join a lot of big organizations, make a methodical effort to know everybody. Build your platform via face-to-face contact with people. Start a blog or join a coop blog and maintain it with weekly content. Join a writer's workshop and read a short work there every week. Read current fiction or non-fiction, whichever you're most interested in. Read books on writing. Take some courses at community colleges or adult ed. Write every day. Learn all about logical fallacies. When you've done all these things, write a great novel and self-publish it.
J. Guenther
I'll assume by "recent" you mean the one I'm working on now. That is "In the Mouth of the Lion." The project started when I was killing time before a workshop. I'd finished my piece for the workshop and had about a half hour. I decided to write down as many ideas for one-act plays as I could in that time. IIRC, I came up with 26 situations. I turned Idea #8 into a 50 minute play. I took it to a screenwriting course and adapted it to a screenplay. Recently, I began the task of adapting it to a novel. I'll fill you in on the more interesting story of how the situation morphed into a murder mystery.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more