Ask the Author: Buster Wellman
Answered Questions (3)
Buster Wellman
I hate to burden any one author with the blame for being most of my inspiration. When I was in sixth grade I was given a copy of "The Dunwich Horror". So my early horror influence was definitely H. P. Lovecraft. I read many of his works throughout high school. I believe I was about 18 years old when someone gave me "The Hobbit". I immediately devoured four books by Tolkien. Right after that I found Heinlein and he is still to this day my favorite science fiction author. When I was 19 years old, King published "Salem's Lot". I read everything that he wrote for the next 25 years. Since most of my writing is some type of horror, thriller, or suspense, I would have to say that Stephen King has had more influence on me than any other author. It is not intentional, but I let his words wonder around my brain so much that they had to have some impact.
Buster Wellman
The best way for me to deal with writer's block is to force something out. I learned this technique early on as a songwriter. Some days the ideas just didn't come. So I would strum a few chords on the guitar and just say anything. You write a lot of garbage this way, but occasionally you find something good in the trash. If I sit down to write and find that I am not in the zone, I try to write something anyway. As a songwriter I would often play a game with my friends. They could say any opening line and I would have to write a song with it. This method also works well for stories. Writing three pages of crap is better than not writing at all.
Buster Wellman
The best thing about being a writer is it literally gives you the ability to play God. Whatever you write is your creation and you have absolute control over everything you create. A lot of people seem to have trouble controlling their own lives. None of us has complete control of our individual circumstances. There is always some outside interference that impacts each of us in some way. Life is not a video game that we can just reset and start over with a clean slate. However, a writer can do just that. It is not something that I make a habit of doing. I usually follow whatever path a story is taking me on until I get to see the end. I do however, get to start a new story with a blank page each time I finish one. For me, writing is like reading on steroids. I love to read, but writing is exponentially better.
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