Ask the Author: Jan Thomas
Answered Questions (6)
Jan Thomas
YOU matter. Your point of view matters. If you don't already keep a journal, start doing it. And I don't mean a "diary" (boys, sheesh). When things catch your attention, either funny, tragic, electrifying, whatever it is, when your mind says "Wow, can you imagine if THAT happened HERE?" follow that thought. Even if you only write a sentence about a funny sign you saw, write it down. Put a notepad and pen by your bed. The next time you wake from a vivid dream, write it down! My entire fantasy trilogy came out of a dream I had in a single night! Your life experiences have shaped you. Remember the first time you realized life isn't fair? Or the first time an adult lied to you? How you mourned the death of that trust you implicitly gave the adults in your life? These experiences all shape you and make you who you are. ALL of this is grist for your mill. Material to be mined for nuggets of truth, passion, hope, love, joy. You've felt these things. What caused these feelings and how did it CHANGE you in a fundamental way?
Play the "what if?" game and talk it through or write it down. It doesn't have to fit a bigger story just yet. If it's poignant or moves you in any way, jot it down. You'll find that these are universal emotions felt by most human beings.
As a weekly columnist, I worried at first, that not only did I have to write every week, it had to be funny. But I found if people got my sense of humor, I could just riff about the world around me much like a stand-up comedian does. But every time I saw something that caught my attention or tickled my fancy, I wrote it down. I had little notes and would put them in a file. If my deadline came and I didn't already have that week's idea fleshed out, I'd go to my file and invariably find several things that shared a link. Like they were all examples of "Stupid Advertising". And it was really that simple. Then other people started noticing things and they'd pass their little notes on to me. I've never really had writer's block. I've written myself into a CORNER, but writer's block is something I just don't tolerate. Just observing the world around you should give you inspiration.
Your commute is dull? Do you ever seen the same cars day after day? Do you KNOW other cars by now? Are you having a "car affair" when you merge onto the highway? When all else fails, take a trip to Walmart. If you can't see something there that moves you in SOME way (even if it's disgust or horror!), perhaps you aren't a writer after all. But my gut says YOU ARE! I believe in you. So should you.
Play the "what if?" game and talk it through or write it down. It doesn't have to fit a bigger story just yet. If it's poignant or moves you in any way, jot it down. You'll find that these are universal emotions felt by most human beings.
As a weekly columnist, I worried at first, that not only did I have to write every week, it had to be funny. But I found if people got my sense of humor, I could just riff about the world around me much like a stand-up comedian does. But every time I saw something that caught my attention or tickled my fancy, I wrote it down. I had little notes and would put them in a file. If my deadline came and I didn't already have that week's idea fleshed out, I'd go to my file and invariably find several things that shared a link. Like they were all examples of "Stupid Advertising". And it was really that simple. Then other people started noticing things and they'd pass their little notes on to me. I've never really had writer's block. I've written myself into a CORNER, but writer's block is something I just don't tolerate. Just observing the world around you should give you inspiration.
Your commute is dull? Do you ever seen the same cars day after day? Do you KNOW other cars by now? Are you having a "car affair" when you merge onto the highway? When all else fails, take a trip to Walmart. If you can't see something there that moves you in SOME way (even if it's disgust or horror!), perhaps you aren't a writer after all. But my gut says YOU ARE! I believe in you. So should you.
Jan Thomas
You can make your characters as good or as evil as you want them to be. I used to worry that if I made a villain TOO despicable, people would know I wrote it and think I was capable of such behavior. Not true.
And you don't have to explain everything you "create". Meaning, if you say an alien aircraft landed in your back yard, you don't have to explain how it survived entry into the Earth's atmosphere! Further, you can then discover cool things amongst the wreckage and not need to know HOW they work. "Hey, it's alien technology! I just know when I pointed it at a tree and pushed the button, the tree disintegrated!" Enough said! It's freeing to know you don't need to explain EVERYTHING. I am an intensely logical thinker and that was a big personal stumbling block for me. I now know I don't have to know...ya know? All things are possible. You don't have to be the hero unless you want to be. You've made a terrible, demented bad guy? Great! When the hero defeats him, the victory will be that much sweeter knowing the evil you've rid the world of.
That fantasy about a co-worker? Write it down! Be as bold as you want to be on the page. It's freeing! Imagine if you got stuck in an elevator with six other people. And then you stay stuck, for quite awhile. What would THAT look like? Would you be a leader or a follower? Would you keep everyone calm or have a claustrophobic meltdown of epic proportions? I say "You", but I mean your characters. Because aren't our characters all part of us? Even if it's just to say "I would never want to be as universally hated as Bob." And then describe WHY he's hated. The world is your playground. The Universe is your playground! Your MIND is your playground! PLAY!
And you don't have to explain everything you "create". Meaning, if you say an alien aircraft landed in your back yard, you don't have to explain how it survived entry into the Earth's atmosphere! Further, you can then discover cool things amongst the wreckage and not need to know HOW they work. "Hey, it's alien technology! I just know when I pointed it at a tree and pushed the button, the tree disintegrated!" Enough said! It's freeing to know you don't need to explain EVERYTHING. I am an intensely logical thinker and that was a big personal stumbling block for me. I now know I don't have to know...ya know? All things are possible. You don't have to be the hero unless you want to be. You've made a terrible, demented bad guy? Great! When the hero defeats him, the victory will be that much sweeter knowing the evil you've rid the world of.
That fantasy about a co-worker? Write it down! Be as bold as you want to be on the page. It's freeing! Imagine if you got stuck in an elevator with six other people. And then you stay stuck, for quite awhile. What would THAT look like? Would you be a leader or a follower? Would you keep everyone calm or have a claustrophobic meltdown of epic proportions? I say "You", but I mean your characters. Because aren't our characters all part of us? Even if it's just to say "I would never want to be as universally hated as Bob." And then describe WHY he's hated. The world is your playground. The Universe is your playground! Your MIND is your playground! PLAY!
Jan Thomas
Write from your heart, edit from your head. But not at the same time. First, write everything you are thinking (and feeling about what you're thinking). Don't worry about your spelling or punctuation. Just get it all out of you and onto the page. You don't have to have all of the answers in the moment. If thoughts are free flowing, don't let your attention to grammatical detail stem the flow.
And if you really want to be a writer, "dare to". "Dare to" try it. Dare to dream it. Dare to push words around and dictate their place in a sentence. And in the absence of stimuli, write what you know. Even if you are simply writing down the details of an otherwise mundane job. Stuff will start popping out of your brain about someone you work with, or a ridiculous policy made by a small-minded supervisor. Then, slowly a character will take shape. Or an idea about what you would change if YOU were in charge. (Like nixing the stupid policy and hanging the supervisor by his necktie!)
Let me give an example. I was in an online chat one day with a friend in New York and he said he'd always wondered if he could be a writer, but he didn't know how to start or what to write about. So I asked him what he knew. He talked about a prior military stint and then later worked in computer sciences. He excused himself for a moment because he said someone had just slipped a note under the door to his apartment. When he returned he said "It's just inviting me to a pot luck this weekend." I said "That's not what it says." And he said "What do you mean?" and I said "It says 'Leave your apartment. You have two minutes.'" So I quickly said "What are you taking with you?" and he gave a few answers. So I reminded him of the time and pressed him 'Go! You've got to GO! Move!" He started to get excited and talked through what he would take and why. Then I said "Okay, you're out of the building. It just blew up." He said "It did? Why?" I said "I don't know why, but someone KNEW it was going to happen and WARNED YOU to get out!" He said "But WHY?" And I said "How should I know? What do YOU know that could be of interest or a danger to anyone else? What do you know that you SHOULDN'T know?" And he said "Well, I don't know, but...but, well, I was a code-breaker in the Military." And I said "Okay, go with that. Were there shortcuts or ways to give your commander one message when you'd really received another? After all, how would HE know, you're the one deciphering the code for him. You could tell him anything! But what could you tell him that would cause trouble during your time in the military?" and he began to get it. He started describing how it was known that in some areas of a country, drugs were being moved through a certain small airstrip and the code-breakers would pick up the "skip" (hear a transmission they might not normally receive.) sometimes.
Suddenly, in his mind, a damn broke open of what they "knew" but looked the other way, and WHY they looked the other way. He then started typing all this detail about the type of notes he was supposed to hand up the chain (one color), or directly to the Officer In Charge (a brighter color!). I had to leave him for an appointment but I told him to keep going. Follow it through.
When I came back later he had written for two and a half hours. Stuff he knew but forgot he knew or didn't think the knowledge was worth anything. He had the outline of a story and how it all tied back to the note slipped under his door! It was one of the greatest moments of my life, to see that happen for HIM.
And if you really want to be a writer, "dare to". "Dare to" try it. Dare to dream it. Dare to push words around and dictate their place in a sentence. And in the absence of stimuli, write what you know. Even if you are simply writing down the details of an otherwise mundane job. Stuff will start popping out of your brain about someone you work with, or a ridiculous policy made by a small-minded supervisor. Then, slowly a character will take shape. Or an idea about what you would change if YOU were in charge. (Like nixing the stupid policy and hanging the supervisor by his necktie!)
Let me give an example. I was in an online chat one day with a friend in New York and he said he'd always wondered if he could be a writer, but he didn't know how to start or what to write about. So I asked him what he knew. He talked about a prior military stint and then later worked in computer sciences. He excused himself for a moment because he said someone had just slipped a note under the door to his apartment. When he returned he said "It's just inviting me to a pot luck this weekend." I said "That's not what it says." And he said "What do you mean?" and I said "It says 'Leave your apartment. You have two minutes.'" So I quickly said "What are you taking with you?" and he gave a few answers. So I reminded him of the time and pressed him 'Go! You've got to GO! Move!" He started to get excited and talked through what he would take and why. Then I said "Okay, you're out of the building. It just blew up." He said "It did? Why?" I said "I don't know why, but someone KNEW it was going to happen and WARNED YOU to get out!" He said "But WHY?" And I said "How should I know? What do YOU know that could be of interest or a danger to anyone else? What do you know that you SHOULDN'T know?" And he said "Well, I don't know, but...but, well, I was a code-breaker in the Military." And I said "Okay, go with that. Were there shortcuts or ways to give your commander one message when you'd really received another? After all, how would HE know, you're the one deciphering the code for him. You could tell him anything! But what could you tell him that would cause trouble during your time in the military?" and he began to get it. He started describing how it was known that in some areas of a country, drugs were being moved through a certain small airstrip and the code-breakers would pick up the "skip" (hear a transmission they might not normally receive.) sometimes.
Suddenly, in his mind, a damn broke open of what they "knew" but looked the other way, and WHY they looked the other way. He then started typing all this detail about the type of notes he was supposed to hand up the chain (one color), or directly to the Officer In Charge (a brighter color!). I had to leave him for an appointment but I told him to keep going. Follow it through.
When I came back later he had written for two and a half hours. Stuff he knew but forgot he knew or didn't think the knowledge was worth anything. He had the outline of a story and how it all tied back to the note slipped under his door! It was one of the greatest moments of my life, to see that happen for HIM.
Jan Thomas
I'm doing a re-write on the first script in a live-action fantasy trilogy I wrote several years ago. I've been away from screenwriting for a few years while writing "Done in One" (novel) so I'm anxious to get back to that format and test out some of my new writing skills. I am, as always, a work in progress.
Jan Thomas
I see material virtually everywhere I look. I was a weekly humor columnist for 15 years and over that time, I honed my skills in the art of the witty, editorial essay. I see inspiration in daily life, newspapers, current events, movies, commercials, virtually everywhere. I see dramatic material, action/thrillers, fantasy adventures. My brain is constantly playing the "what if" game. And the answers to those "what if" questions are often compelling enough to piece together a story. I'm much more naturally a screenwriter, but I enjoyed the freedom and extra space the novel format allotted me to flesh characters out and fill details in.
Jan Thomas
This book began its life as a screenplay based on my life with my sniper. It can't get more personal than it already is. It was intended for the big screen, but an odd set of circumstances brought Grant Jerkins and I together and he broached the subject of "Done in One" as a novel, instead. We dug deep, peered into corners we perhaps would have rather left unchecked and poured it all out onto the page. My sniper is horrified. Well, horrified and proud. I had to answer some tough questions about the life we lead and give as much of ourselves to these characters as possible. I hope it translates well to the page and people will understand these characters and know that snipers have been among us for decades, serving in silence and anonymity, trying to be normal when they are anything but. So now we've "outed" all of them without "outing" a single one of them. Each sniper can claim his spot or not. As usual, it's his call whether he pulls that "trigger" or not. This is our homage to these SWAT warriors.
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