Ask the Author: J.L. Forrest
Answered Questions (8)
J.L. Forrest
With all the beauty of a crisp autumn day, the silvered and distant mountains smile upon the prairie, beaming upon Nell as if with all the joys of the saints, and they reflect the love in her heart, all that she has to give to her family, her friends, and her community for the rest of her chockablock days. Yet at the medical center her doctor says, "It's stage four, extremely aggressive," adding after a long breath, "and it doesn't look like your insurance is going to cover it."
J.L. Forrest
I'll be reading Kim Stanely Robinson's _New York 2140_, Jacqueline Carey's _Miranda and Caliban_, Neil Gaiman's _Norse Mythology_, catching up on some of William Gibson's works, and committing myself to reading quite a few stories and novels from my fellow SFWA authors, as well as some other indie fictions.
J.L. Forrest
It's almost a cliché at this point: The only way to be a writer is to write. That, however, is not enough.
Yes, the self-publishing world has created a kind of democratization in writing; anyone can be published, and anyone can act like a trained critic, whether they've got the chops to critique others' work or not. I could sneak onto the field of a major league baseball team, throw a couple of pitches, and call myself a professional ballplayer too. The only person I'd be fooling, I hope, is myself.
Write. Then learn to write well. Read the classics, as many as you can. If you aspire to write genre fiction, read literature. Read nonfiction. Read everything. Learn to distinguish excellent style from hack nonsense.
Dream up stories. Write them down. Keep doing this over and over until some of them are good. Get your friends and family to read them and, unless they're giddily excited about at least one or two, keep writing new stories until they are.
Once you write a few good stories, write more. Share them with more and more people. Never stop this process until you are dead.
Then you're a writer.
Yes, the self-publishing world has created a kind of democratization in writing; anyone can be published, and anyone can act like a trained critic, whether they've got the chops to critique others' work or not. I could sneak onto the field of a major league baseball team, throw a couple of pitches, and call myself a professional ballplayer too. The only person I'd be fooling, I hope, is myself.
Write. Then learn to write well. Read the classics, as many as you can. If you aspire to write genre fiction, read literature. Read nonfiction. Read everything. Learn to distinguish excellent style from hack nonsense.
Dream up stories. Write them down. Keep doing this over and over until some of them are good. Get your friends and family to read them and, unless they're giddily excited about at least one or two, keep writing new stories until they are.
Once you write a few good stories, write more. Share them with more and more people. Never stop this process until you are dead.
Then you're a writer.
J.L. Forrest
This answer contains spoilers…
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J.L. Forrest
Usually I get crabby and depressed if I don't write regularly; my psyche is a stick which threatens to beat me if I forget my pen too long.
As Picasso said, "Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working." I don't *get inspired* to write. I always have my writing implements with me—at least a pen and notebook—and I write. Writing is a practice.
As Picasso said, "Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working." I don't *get inspired* to write. I always have my writing implements with me—at least a pen and notebook—and I write. Writing is a practice.
J.L. Forrest
As of December 2014, these projects are on the burner:
* Obviously, _Delicate Ministrations_ just published. I'm still one hundred percent behind these stories, hoping to grow the book's sales and leverage them toward some awards through the coming year.
* I'm editing an anthology of short stories around the theme of *Alien Abduction*. Nine authors are contributing to the collection, and I expect we should see these in print (and eBook) by early spring 2015.
* A novel, _A Requiem Dawn_, is in its final stages of prepress. It should appear sometime in January or February. I feel confident of the book's literary merit, as well as its power as a science-fiction novel.
* I'm in the second draft of another novel, _St01en Daughters_, which I should have wrapped up and refined by fall 2015.
* And I'm always writing short stories. A new work is on my website now, and I'm also working on a series centered around a single character: Molly Black. Think modern-steampunk Cthulhuesque Sherlock Holmes, only she's a gifted young woman whose enemies also include the Old Ones and other denizens of the supernatural. The first Molly Black story, "Molly Black and the Visitation of Mr. Griff", appears in _Delicate Ministrations_. The Molly stories are for adults, not YA, but I imagine there're a lot of YA readers who will love them anyway. Sensitive parental units, be warned.
* Obviously, _Delicate Ministrations_ just published. I'm still one hundred percent behind these stories, hoping to grow the book's sales and leverage them toward some awards through the coming year.
* I'm editing an anthology of short stories around the theme of *Alien Abduction*. Nine authors are contributing to the collection, and I expect we should see these in print (and eBook) by early spring 2015.
* A novel, _A Requiem Dawn_, is in its final stages of prepress. It should appear sometime in January or February. I feel confident of the book's literary merit, as well as its power as a science-fiction novel.
* I'm in the second draft of another novel, _St01en Daughters_, which I should have wrapped up and refined by fall 2015.
* And I'm always writing short stories. A new work is on my website now, and I'm also working on a series centered around a single character: Molly Black. Think modern-steampunk Cthulhuesque Sherlock Holmes, only she's a gifted young woman whose enemies also include the Old Ones and other denizens of the supernatural. The first Molly Black story, "Molly Black and the Visitation of Mr. Griff", appears in _Delicate Ministrations_. The Molly stories are for adults, not YA, but I imagine there're a lot of YA readers who will love them anyway. Sensitive parental units, be warned.
J.L. Forrest
Living in and exploring my own personal worlds, scratching into parts of my psyche which most people in the workaday world never get to see in themselves. That, by far, is the best part of writing.
Close behind it, few things give me more joy than when someone reads my work and resonates with it. When my words speak to someone else, entertain them or show them something in their own psyche worth meeting, I'm deeply pleased.
Thirdly, comfy pants. Sometimes, I get to hang out all day in comfy pants and call it work.
Close behind it, few things give me more joy than when someone reads my work and resonates with it. When my words speak to someone else, entertain them or show them something in their own psyche worth meeting, I'm deeply pleased.
Thirdly, comfy pants. Sometimes, I get to hang out all day in comfy pants and call it work.
J.L. Forrest
I've never had writer's block. I know that's a trite answer, and of no help to those who do, so I'll try to give a better one:
Picasso said, "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working." For me, writing is a practice, not something I do only when I feel inspired. On some days, the words flowing through the pen aren't the best, but I write them anyway. Always, I find one of two things happens with those words:
Within an hour or so, the words feel better, smoother, and more inspired. The mere motion of the pen, the creation of words, leads to better words.
Or later, when I'm rewriting, it turns out those words weren't so unimportant or uninspired after all. They shine in the polish.
Writing is writing. Just keep at it.
Picasso said, "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working." For me, writing is a practice, not something I do only when I feel inspired. On some days, the words flowing through the pen aren't the best, but I write them anyway. Always, I find one of two things happens with those words:
Within an hour or so, the words feel better, smoother, and more inspired. The mere motion of the pen, the creation of words, leads to better words.
Or later, when I'm rewriting, it turns out those words weren't so unimportant or uninspired after all. They shine in the polish.
Writing is writing. Just keep at it.
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