Ask the Author: Tarn Richardson
Answered Questions (7)
Tarn Richardson
"Isn't it time you turned out the light?" my wife asked me, from her side of the bed. I broke down and wept, having buried her in the shallow grave earlier that day.
Tarn Richardson
Looking the loud obnoxious person at the boring dinner party in the eye when you tell them what you do!
Tarn Richardson
It was 2012 and I had just come back from France where I had been visiting the trenches with my father and brother in law on the trail of two great uncles who fought out there, one who came back and one who did not. It was an incredible trip, really moving and inspirational and I just felt I had to write about the experience.
So, when I got home from France I started planning this grand epic of World War One, sort of like Game of Thrones meets Band of Brothers. Which no one really wants. And pretty soon I had got myself tied into knots and wasn't making much progress. Then one night I was sitting down and reading Artemis Fowl to my youngest son Will and he stopped me and said that it was 'boring'. "Boring?!" I exclaimed. "This is one of the greatest books ever written for kids!" But he wasn't having any of it. So I went off to find something else, and got the same reaction. So I asked him what he would write a book about and he immediately replied, "World War One and werewolves" and a light came on in my head and after that I was off and running!
In an early draft, the main character Tacit was a Russian Major. But then I rewrote the entire thing with the Inquisition and he re-appeared as an Inquisitor. I've read that writers of songs say that some of their best ideas just come to them out of the blue, like gifts from heaven. Tacit was like that. He just came to me. I really liked the ideal of someone who was a hero but fundamentally flawed.
So, when I got home from France I started planning this grand epic of World War One, sort of like Game of Thrones meets Band of Brothers. Which no one really wants. And pretty soon I had got myself tied into knots and wasn't making much progress. Then one night I was sitting down and reading Artemis Fowl to my youngest son Will and he stopped me and said that it was 'boring'. "Boring?!" I exclaimed. "This is one of the greatest books ever written for kids!" But he wasn't having any of it. So I went off to find something else, and got the same reaction. So I asked him what he would write a book about and he immediately replied, "World War One and werewolves" and a light came on in my head and after that I was off and running!
In an early draft, the main character Tacit was a Russian Major. But then I rewrote the entire thing with the Inquisition and he re-appeared as an Inquisitor. I've read that writers of songs say that some of their best ideas just come to them out of the blue, like gifts from heaven. Tacit was like that. He just came to me. I really liked the ideal of someone who was a hero but fundamentally flawed.
Tarn Richardson
First thing I don't think about it. I just sit down and get on with it. I'm not a procrastinator. I hate sitting around and not doing anything. And usually I have ideas screaming around in my head, demanding to be typed up. As long as I have my laptop, I can write pretty much anywhere. I'm not someone who needs particular conditions, like utter silence or a hotel lobby! As long as it's vaguely quiet, I can get on and get stuff done. Years of living and working in a house with two noisy children, I suppose. But there can never be any music. That is an absolute must.
As for inspiration, if you soak up enough from around you, you can find inspiration from always every day you live and interact with the world.
As for inspiration, if you soak up enough from around you, you can find inspiration from always every day you live and interact with the world.
Tarn Richardson
Book two of the Darkest Hand trilogy. It's called The Fallen, and it's also called 'Shit', 'Bastard', 'The Death of Me', and many other offensive terms.
Tarn Richardson
Write. Write every day. And if you're not writing, think about writing. If you can't do that, or the thought fills you with dread, give up.
Be unique, be different with your writing. Don't follow the pack. Do something which no one else has done before (tricky I know!). Come at things from a different angle.
Be selfish. Focus on yourself and your 'writer's voice'. Your friends will resent you for shutting yourself away whilst you're writing and hate you when you get published - but if they do then they were never really friends in the first place.
Finally, don't write to become famous or rich. Write because you want to and you feel you have something to say. If you think you'll make a living out of it or be able to do it as a full time career, you're going to be sadly disappointed.
Be unique, be different with your writing. Don't follow the pack. Do something which no one else has done before (tricky I know!). Come at things from a different angle.
Be selfish. Focus on yourself and your 'writer's voice'. Your friends will resent you for shutting yourself away whilst you're writing and hate you when you get published - but if they do then they were never really friends in the first place.
Finally, don't write to become famous or rich. Write because you want to and you feel you have something to say. If you think you'll make a living out of it or be able to do it as a full time career, you're going to be sadly disappointed.
Tarn Richardson
Just don't let it beat you. Just don't give it the opportunity to dig its claws into you.
Write - just write whatever comes into your head. Don't worry if what you're writing is rubbish and you know it's rubbish. You're writing. And that's all that matters. Don't even worry about tpyos (sic) or grammar. Just get the words out, get them flowing, turning that intimidating white sheet of paper black with words and then turn it over and fill that page and turn the next over and then the next and keep going and filling them until something resembling sense and style appears in your writing. And even if it doesn't I bet that they'll be something you can use in what you've just scrawled.
Another more painful technique is go for a run - or, for the less active, a decent stomp. It's amazing what billows up from the deepest recesses of the mind when the body is made to sweat a little.
Lastly, get up at 3am and write. The writer Simon Toyne gave me this neat suggestion - and it really does work. It's amazing where your brain is at at 3am in the morning and what it is capable of. (Just write the rest of the day off afterwards!)
Write - just write whatever comes into your head. Don't worry if what you're writing is rubbish and you know it's rubbish. You're writing. And that's all that matters. Don't even worry about tpyos (sic) or grammar. Just get the words out, get them flowing, turning that intimidating white sheet of paper black with words and then turn it over and fill that page and turn the next over and then the next and keep going and filling them until something resembling sense and style appears in your writing. And even if it doesn't I bet that they'll be something you can use in what you've just scrawled.
Another more painful technique is go for a run - or, for the less active, a decent stomp. It's amazing what billows up from the deepest recesses of the mind when the body is made to sweat a little.
Lastly, get up at 3am and write. The writer Simon Toyne gave me this neat suggestion - and it really does work. It's amazing where your brain is at at 3am in the morning and what it is capable of. (Just write the rest of the day off afterwards!)
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