Ask the Author: Nils Nisse Visser
Answered Questions (8)
Nils Nisse Visser
To consider staying well away from GoodReads. After years of having an author account here, I still struggle with the interface, which is about as user friendly as a bottle of chilli sauce in the middle of the Saharan desert with no water around. Requests for help are often met with standard answers with little direct relevance to whatever I was asking, suggesting they are either not read properly or folks on the other side of the line don't really care much.
Nils Nisse Visser
Ha, thank you. :-)
I think it was the realisation that if I didn't give it my full attention it would just stay a vague ambition. I had been writing non-fiction for magazines for about four years already, so that helped to hone the skills and the realisation I could probably pull a book off.
Working on the completion of the fourth book now.
I think it was the realisation that if I didn't give it my full attention it would just stay a vague ambition. I had been writing non-fiction for magazines for about four years already, so that helped to hone the skills and the realisation I could probably pull a book off.
Working on the completion of the fourth book now.
Nils Nisse Visser
Yes there are. When the story is in full flow characters start doing things on their own account, it's hard to describe, because I am supposed to be in charge but somehow they take control of the plot and start running in directions I wasn't planning to. That can be annoying, with hindsight though, it made for a better story.
And some, reading back, are a little bit too much of this or that, but that's what editing is for.
And some, reading back, are a little bit too much of this or that, but that's what editing is for.
Nils Nisse Visser
Because I can. ;-)
More seriously, I think there should be far more female protagonists in stories, not just the blokes. Also, using this perspective kept me a bit sharp, as in asking myself (and others) whether I was getting it right.
Thanks for being interested. :-)
More seriously, I think there should be far more female protagonists in stories, not just the blokes. Also, using this perspective kept me a bit sharp, as in asking myself (and others) whether I was getting it right.
Thanks for being interested. :-)
Nils Nisse Visser
A novella called Will's War, which is mostly revision work and a new Wyrde Woods Novel called Forgotten Road.
I've taken the setting and some of the characters from Escape from Neverland and Dance into the Wyrd and travelled to 1940. Will's War describes Will Maskall's initial war experiences in Brighton before he is evacuated to the Wyrde Woods, so technically it isn't a Wyrde Woods book. Forgotten Road does the same for Joy Whitfield, this time in the Wyrde Woods and with the addition of a great character called Maisy Robbins. The two girls become friends. Maisy is what some kids were like before they started doping them up with Ritalin, a bundle of excitement and fun. Joy is more thoughtful and exploring her newly found powers as person in tune with the lifeforce the old Anglo-Saxons called the Wyrd. Though these new books have some darker moments they are, on a whole, much lighter than the Lord of the Wyrde Woods books and I am having a great deal of fun writing them.
I've taken the setting and some of the characters from Escape from Neverland and Dance into the Wyrd and travelled to 1940. Will's War describes Will Maskall's initial war experiences in Brighton before he is evacuated to the Wyrde Woods, so technically it isn't a Wyrde Woods book. Forgotten Road does the same for Joy Whitfield, this time in the Wyrde Woods and with the addition of a great character called Maisy Robbins. The two girls become friends. Maisy is what some kids were like before they started doping them up with Ritalin, a bundle of excitement and fun. Joy is more thoughtful and exploring her newly found powers as person in tune with the lifeforce the old Anglo-Saxons called the Wyrd. Though these new books have some darker moments they are, on a whole, much lighter than the Lord of the Wyrde Woods books and I am having a great deal of fun writing them.
Nils Nisse Visser
Never give up. Build up the discipline to write a little every day and get as much practice in as you can. When you're ready to ask a few proofreaders to comment on your work; accept what they say, your initial reaction might be a defensive one, but the way they experienced your words is something to take into consideration.
Nils Nisse Visser
Those moments when the characters and story take over and you really feel that you're just riding shotgun. That's the muse speaking to you, or whatever you want to call it. They are generally my favourite scenes and often surprise me because the characters really say stuff or do things I didn't see coming.
Nils Nisse Visser
I see a writer's block purely as an inability to get on with the scene I planned to write: either there's no inspiration or what I read back lacks animation, it doesn't convince. At moments like that it's best to accept this. Sometimes it's because there is another future scene which is really fighting for attention and then I write that instead. If that isn't the case I revert to proofing earlier work, more often than not that eventually leads to sudden flashes of inspiration for the scene where I got stuck.
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