Ask the Author: Pete Marchetto
Answered Questions (6)
Pete Marchetto
Writer's block is a self-indulgence. I write for a living as well as for 'pleasure', and when you have a deadline and a customer waiting for a piece of work, you just write your way through the block.
I get writers' block in my creative work because I can. And I do, frequently. In the end, though, I recognise it as an indulgence.
However, be warned on this one if writing yourself. I'm a great believer that blocking can sometimes result from a work not being ready. I shan't go into my philosophy of the subconscious as the muse here - too long - but I would say to listen to your instincts on this one. If your subconscious is clearly fighting you, it means it's working on some way of improving the idea. Leave it alone if that is the case, and work on something else.
I get writers' block in my creative work because I can. And I do, frequently. In the end, though, I recognise it as an indulgence.
However, be warned on this one if writing yourself. I'm a great believer that blocking can sometimes result from a work not being ready. I shan't go into my philosophy of the subconscious as the muse here - too long - but I would say to listen to your instincts on this one. If your subconscious is clearly fighting you, it means it's working on some way of improving the idea. Leave it alone if that is the case, and work on something else.
Pete Marchetto
Emptying my head out and into the pixels so as to leave more room up there for other things.
Pete Marchetto
Don't.
Writing fiction is a waste of time and a waste of energy. Few people will ever read your work. Any money you earn from it will in no way repay you for the hours, blood, sweat, and tears you put into it. It's a ridiculous thing to do.
If your response to that is 'I have no choice, I have to write', then go ahead; no one can stop you. Otherwise, seriously... don't bother.
Writing fiction is a waste of time and a waste of energy. Few people will ever read your work. Any money you earn from it will in no way repay you for the hours, blood, sweat, and tears you put into it. It's a ridiculous thing to do.
If your response to that is 'I have no choice, I have to write', then go ahead; no one can stop you. Otherwise, seriously... don't bother.
Pete Marchetto
I've got several projects on the go at the moment.
'Caught' is a 15,000 word short about a gay couple who find themselves the victims of a pair of armed racketeers. I wanted to put people into a situation to which they were entirely unsuited and face them with a dilemma. Or not. As the work progresses, I hope the reader will realise there is only one solution.
'Chapter One' is a novel, albeit a short one clocking in at around 60-70k. To call it 'postmodern' may distract from the easy read I intend it to be. It parallels 'Three' thematically on some levels. A fairly humorous work - I tend to find it difficult to keep humour out even when I want to - 'Chapter One' is, beneath the story, a quest for male self-identity in the post-feminist world. That makes it sound very dry. It isn't. The idea is there if people want to consider it at that level, but I hope the story is enough in itself, something to read and depart from, or something to mull over depending upon the reader's inclination.
'Darkness So Dark it Sparkles' - a title which inspired me to call the black kitten I recently rescued from the street 'Sparkle' - is a psuedo-Victorian novel about a man who discovers the secret of Creation - and uses it to ill-effect.
'Billies' is a new idea. That one I'm keeping under my hat, but it will be another novel, a rather strange one, an easy read but with philosophical undertones about the conception of self.
There's plenty more in the pipeline beyond these... when I get down to writing and editing having cudgeled myself to do them.
'Caught' is a 15,000 word short about a gay couple who find themselves the victims of a pair of armed racketeers. I wanted to put people into a situation to which they were entirely unsuited and face them with a dilemma. Or not. As the work progresses, I hope the reader will realise there is only one solution.
'Chapter One' is a novel, albeit a short one clocking in at around 60-70k. To call it 'postmodern' may distract from the easy read I intend it to be. It parallels 'Three' thematically on some levels. A fairly humorous work - I tend to find it difficult to keep humour out even when I want to - 'Chapter One' is, beneath the story, a quest for male self-identity in the post-feminist world. That makes it sound very dry. It isn't. The idea is there if people want to consider it at that level, but I hope the story is enough in itself, something to read and depart from, or something to mull over depending upon the reader's inclination.
'Darkness So Dark it Sparkles' - a title which inspired me to call the black kitten I recently rescued from the street 'Sparkle' - is a psuedo-Victorian novel about a man who discovers the secret of Creation - and uses it to ill-effect.
'Billies' is a new idea. That one I'm keeping under my hat, but it will be another novel, a rather strange one, an easy read but with philosophical undertones about the conception of self.
There's plenty more in the pipeline beyond these... when I get down to writing and editing having cudgeled myself to do them.
Pete Marchetto
I need to start. That's the hardest part. Sometimes it's just a matter of cudgeling myself to get a document open in the first place. Once it's open, once the first word is typed, I'm away.
Pete Marchetto
Life.
On some levels, each of the male characters in "Three" is me; somewhat lacking in confidence with women, prone to turn relationships into a farce. I've been surprised looking back over my work the degree to which romance finds its way into it. I am not - as partners inform me with monotonous frequency - a romantic person. That's why most of my stories have romance with a twist. I don't deal with 'love' as such, but rather relationships in their complexity and, as often as not, in their humour.
On some levels, each of the male characters in "Three" is me; somewhat lacking in confidence with women, prone to turn relationships into a farce. I've been surprised looking back over my work the degree to which romance finds its way into it. I am not - as partners inform me with monotonous frequency - a romantic person. That's why most of my stories have romance with a twist. I don't deal with 'love' as such, but rather relationships in their complexity and, as often as not, in their humour.
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Aug 31, 2014 06:24AM · flag
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