Ask the Author: Ross Young
Answered Questions (4)
Ross Young
Only book...currently. The idea came from talking to people who have their minds on higher things than my own. Other people philosophising on the afterlife, talking about religion, while I am that irritating person in the corner playing devil's advocate and never able to take things too seriously. Argue with enough people just for the sake of it and you can stumble down a rabbit hole which is where Dead Heads made its entrance.
Ross Young
Write. Don't say, "I want to be a writer," or any other nonesense. Nobody cares. People might care if you write something then you can show them, and if they read it they'll usually tell you what they think of it. Or they'll give you inane platitudes when you're not that good. There's always fear involved because writing is a deeply personal thing. It's a solitary task that requires you to pour your insides out onto the page and then you're supposed to let other people see it. If you don't let anyone see it you're getting nowhere fast. So write for you, but let people read it, take a risk, but minimise it. Polish your writing, check it again and again. Stick it in a drawer for a while, write something else, then look again, is it still amazing...it's never still amazing. Writing takes a long, long, long time, get used to it or don't bother at all.
Ross Young
Ah, well now, this probably changes for me every day, and many days is probably something I struggle to see at all. Right now it's having the freedom to change the rules in the world I'm creating. Nobody can tell you what you're writing is wrong, there's no such thing as 'wrong' in a fictional world I'm creating. It can be badly written, or not interesting, or many other things, but it's not wrong. I suppose that means I'm always right...definitely fiction then! Then it's getting to know characters that are in my head. As an exercise it's also extremely therapeutic.
Ross Young
I write gibberish until something sticks. It can be tangential to what I'm writing or completely unrelated- Never let a blank page stare back at you, even it it's just typing "all work and no play..." over and over again don't let the blank page win. There are times when I'm not writing anything I'll ever use but it's all part of the game, sometimes you'll write crap even when you aren't feeling uninspired...
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