Ask the Author: Tomas K.L. Martin
Answered Questions (3)
Tomas K.L. Martin
There is never a best thing about any career. However, for me, the best thing about being a writer is not that you work on your own schedule, or work for yourself as everybody would like to believe; It's that you work against yourself. You compete with yourself. In writing, there are no absolute measurements or scores - unless of course you count James Patterson's financial success as a gauge of literary quality. And if you are gunning for that kind of result as a writer, perhaps you shouldn't be one. Writers must work at their art, push themselves to constantly improve at what they are trying to achieve artistically (we all have a unique concept) and even then, financial security and fame are not "givens" at all. The best thing about being a writer, is that you work at something that may go nowhere and yet you wake every morning with conviction. You have to impress yourself every day. If somebody eventually loves your work, great, but you measure yourself up against yourself. What better challenge in life. It's that type of challenge that makes being a writer so great! I have heard, in person, Junot Diaz tell an audience that while he is deemed a great writer (a Pulitzer Prize is not too shabby), the fact of the matter is that he "won the lottery" as he calls it. Certainly he is a great writer, but what if he didn't find an agent? It's all subjective, right? What if a publisher didn't think they "could make any money off of him?" If the right person had not liked his manuscript, he'd be another artist living in obscurity. Pushing yourself to achieve a great work of art without the promise of such recognition - money and a pulitzer prize - that's fortitude and belief in yourself. I love that about being a writer.
Tomas K.L. Martin
Writer's block can be handled in three manners, and quite frankly three alone:
1. If you are already underway with a work, follow Ernest Hemingway's advice and stop writing for the day before you finish your "thought." Don't run your ideas all the way through for the day. In following this advice, you already have a point of entry and momentum with which to pick right back up in the morning. To be honest, this has proven so effective, that I often can't sleep; I'm too anxious to get up and get started. I just want to be awake and working. It's like a five year-old trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve.
2. Do absolutely nothing; don't even think about writing. No joke. Writers are professional "observers." If you are being a writer, but not a self-conscious one desperately looking for "inspiration," you will eventually see something, and then it will all come to you like Marcel Proust and his tea and a Madeleine. And when that great thought comes to you, rush for pen and paper, not a computer, and start writing everything that is flashing before you. I guarantee you won't be able to keep up with the rush of ideas, narratological perspective, characters, possibilities....
or
3. Do everything. Where's the harm in entertaining every idea that comes to you? Think of it as photography in the digital age. When you go on vacation, you snap hundreds of photos with your ipone, then you delete all but the best and make an album out of it, no? Write down every idea, any at all: good, bad and the ugly. Eventually something will stick, you'll be pleased with it, enamored with the fact that you came up with it, and you'll be off...
Hope that helps!
1. If you are already underway with a work, follow Ernest Hemingway's advice and stop writing for the day before you finish your "thought." Don't run your ideas all the way through for the day. In following this advice, you already have a point of entry and momentum with which to pick right back up in the morning. To be honest, this has proven so effective, that I often can't sleep; I'm too anxious to get up and get started. I just want to be awake and working. It's like a five year-old trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve.
2. Do absolutely nothing; don't even think about writing. No joke. Writers are professional "observers." If you are being a writer, but not a self-conscious one desperately looking for "inspiration," you will eventually see something, and then it will all come to you like Marcel Proust and his tea and a Madeleine. And when that great thought comes to you, rush for pen and paper, not a computer, and start writing everything that is flashing before you. I guarantee you won't be able to keep up with the rush of ideas, narratological perspective, characters, possibilities....
or
3. Do everything. Where's the harm in entertaining every idea that comes to you? Think of it as photography in the digital age. When you go on vacation, you snap hundreds of photos with your ipone, then you delete all but the best and make an album out of it, no? Write down every idea, any at all: good, bad and the ugly. Eventually something will stick, you'll be pleased with it, enamored with the fact that you came up with it, and you'll be off...
Hope that helps!
Tomas K.L. Martin
My current project follows a few techniques which have been used by several successful French authors: Andre Gide and Jacques Roubaud. Without letting out any themes, plot lines, or too many of the self-imposed constraints to my writing of this book, I will say that I am adding to the book daily, without fail, and without reversing any plot lines which evolve or are introduced throughout the course of my writing. Overall, I'm finding that constraint breeds creativity. Think of the sonnet. Despite the absolute formality of its construction, some of the greatest poems of all time have been sonnets. Confine someone to a space, and they will find a way to best inhabit it; ask anybody who has lived in Manhattan! Let's hope that each day for me continues to be fresh and somewhat calculating.
N.B. Not being an absolute machine, I will of course cut myself some slack, and check for grammar and spelling. I want it to be free-flowing - not stream of consciousness - but nobody wants to read typos and the occasional grammatical fault.
N.B. Not being an absolute machine, I will of course cut myself some slack, and check for grammar and spelling. I want it to be free-flowing - not stream of consciousness - but nobody wants to read typos and the occasional grammatical fault.
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