Ask the Author: Michael Pugh
Answered Questions (6)
Michael Pugh
Don't worry if the first things you write are rubbish (you'll get better) and don't worry about word count, either daily total written or total overall; the story will take as long as it takes. Do enjoy yourself, do make copious notes, do get trusted friends to read your stuff and do take breaks between projects so that you stay fresh.
And do make sure that your typewriter/pc is set up right for your eyeline! Straining your optic nerve is easily done and the nausea is awful. Be comfortable as you work.
And do make sure that your typewriter/pc is set up right for your eyeline! Straining your optic nerve is easily done and the nausea is awful. Be comfortable as you work.
Michael Pugh
I have a sort of pressure cooker in my mind that forces me to write or to work on the prepration for writing. If I don't write, the pressure builds and I fall victim to a sort of all-consuming disgust that I'm not doing what I'm meant to be doing, and by that point it's a case of write, or the wheels come off. I suppose it's a sort of drive to do something worthwhile except that it manifests itself in me like a big shark following a rowboat across a sea of mental illness.It gets better when I write though, so I write.
Michael Pugh
I don't get writer's block but I do get too ill to write because of my brain injury. The only thing to do for that is rest. If I did get writer's block, I'd go to another project for a bit to shake things loose again. I had a patch during the writing of The Liverpool Vampire where I didn't want to do another word on the book because I hated the antagonist so much, but I pushed through it because "writin' books" is my job, not "cryin' on" that I detest one of my characters!
Michael Pugh
Getting to say what you want to say about some issue or other that's annoying you, the way that you'd wished you'd said it the first time it came knocking.
Michael Pugh
I'm currently working on a non fiction essay about the way humanity works. It's something that's been gnawing at me for over twenty years (so, since early childhood) and it's the reason I'm a writer at all. I hope people get sometthing out of it when it's done :)
Michael Pugh
My most recent book is Sergeant Cuddlington and The War At Sea, which is a short book containing two short stories. The book is an anti-war piece and I got the ideas for the stories at different times. The idea for The War At Sea developed out of a need I had to discuss war and how modern societies find themselves at war. I condensed thousands of years of history into a few pages and to give it the scale it needed I realised that I would need to have a cast of billions; sentient beans seemed the only way to go!
The Sergeant Cuddlington idea came from a conversation I had with my wife in the car. Ideas come like that when you can talk with somebody freely without feeling silly.
The Sergeant Cuddlington idea came from a conversation I had with my wife in the car. Ideas come like that when you can talk with somebody freely without feeling silly.
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