Ask the Author: Tom Treweek
Answered Questions (3)
Tom Treweek
Avoidance. If I should be doing something else, it's really easy for me to write. If I should be writing, I'm doing something else. So I spend a lot of time giving myself things to do that I can avoid later by writing.
Tom Treweek
If we're talking about the one that's out, Dutchman's Mine, that idea came from two painfully obvious places. First, I smoke a pipe. I enjoy it enough that I have joined a pipe club and several online pipe forums. Secondly, two of my favorite movies growing up were Indiana Jones and the Goonies. And I put those ideas together.
If we're talking about the soon-to-be released book, Shadowless Men, that's a different story. I really don't know. I think it might have just popped in there one night, while I was in bed, right before I fell asleep. That happens a lot, and I just trust that any idea that's good enough will still be there in the morning. Apparently, this one was good enough.
If we're talking about the soon-to-be released book, Shadowless Men, that's a different story. I really don't know. I think it might have just popped in there one night, while I was in bed, right before I fell asleep. That happens a lot, and I just trust that any idea that's good enough will still be there in the morning. Apparently, this one was good enough.
Tom Treweek
Oh, it's just another Wizard of Oz plot in a different setting. Everyone's done them at this point. The hero takes a journey and picks up companions and meets new people along the way. One of my favorite is Jonathan Lethem's Amnesia Moon. Hopefully, as I'm working on this, I've put just the right twist on it to make it memorable to my readers.
Tom Treweek
You write. Pour yourself a drink and write. Smoke a cigarette and write. Blare the radio and write. Pull out another book and write. Come up with something completely new and write. And this is the key point. It really doesn't matter what you write. You can go back and fix it later. Just get your fingers going and jump start your brain with something. A horrible something is better than a beautiful nothing.
Tom Treweek
Is there really a good thing about being a writer? I write because the stories keep playing in my head, and it helps (sometimes) to get them out. It's not really a choice. It's more of a self-defense mechanism. I guess the best part of being a writer is that, when I look in the mirror, no matter what I'm wearing, I feel like myself. I'm happy with that, and before I became a writer, I wasn't. That's got to be the best thing.
Tom Treweek
The only thing no one can teach is creativity. If you even think you want to go into a creative or artistic field, you have to develop your own ability to come up with new ideas. You can learn execution, technique, plot, phrasing, pacing, spelling, grammar, and any other tools of the trade, but I cannot tell you how to be creative. If you have ideas, good or bad, let them run free in your head, encourage them, nurture them. You could write exactly like Shakespeare or Twain or Vonnegut, but without that creative spark, you'll just be a copy.
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