Ask the Author: Adam Lewis Schroeder
Answered Questions (6)
Adam Lewis Schroeder
This answer's on my Goodreads blog too:
I’d written half of a historical novel set here in Penticton, it was going well, but I've always read a lot of comic books so I took one of the early Walking Dead collections out of the library, a while before the show came out. My wife was talking about this fictional character she loved, a massive American ex-MP named Jack Reacher, and all of his traits like wearing clothes for three days then throwing them away, only ever eating the same meal which involved a haystack of bacon, and how he wandered the country kicking ass in the name of homegrown justice. So thanks to the Walking Dead in my hands we spit-balled how Reacher might get along as a zombie—some cross-country mission, kicking ass even while his limbs dropped off, craving bacon instead of brains. We have wonky conversations like that all the time but this particular hodgepodge had momentum. Plus I’d have to eat heaps of bacon as, you know, research, so All-Day Breakfast got to jump the line in front of the historical piece. It would be non-stop good times.
I’d written half of a historical novel set here in Penticton, it was going well, but I've always read a lot of comic books so I took one of the early Walking Dead collections out of the library, a while before the show came out. My wife was talking about this fictional character she loved, a massive American ex-MP named Jack Reacher, and all of his traits like wearing clothes for three days then throwing them away, only ever eating the same meal which involved a haystack of bacon, and how he wandered the country kicking ass in the name of homegrown justice. So thanks to the Walking Dead in my hands we spit-balled how Reacher might get along as a zombie—some cross-country mission, kicking ass even while his limbs dropped off, craving bacon instead of brains. We have wonky conversations like that all the time but this particular hodgepodge had momentum. Plus I’d have to eat heaps of bacon as, you know, research, so All-Day Breakfast got to jump the line in front of the historical piece. It would be non-stop good times.
Adam Lewis Schroeder
It's like running around a playground for a living, though it more or less pays the same.
Adam Lewis Schroeder
Edit every sentence for unnecessary words, eg. "and then she ate some pie" could be "then she ate pie." Not a huge difference right there, but spread across your book it keeps your prose from eventually feeling like a slog.
Adam Lewis Schroeder
I love doing it, every part of the process, so I get a shiver every morning or late at night when I sit down with a cup of coffee and power up my ancient computer. There is always something to work on.
Adam Lewis Schroeder
A mess of things, and the specific one I've fallen into has a deliberate mess for its structure. Only drawback is deciding which piece of it write on a given day.
Adam Lewis Schroeder
Read, especially if it's related to research, and that sometimes will get me going again after a minute, or go back a few pages and start editing.
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