The Universe of my WIP: or, a totally fabricated interview with James Lipton

Ok, so I found some questions from something called 30 days of writing. It might be an old meme, but I had fun answering the first question so I might just keep it up.


Besides my jilted blog needs content! Haha.

Let us pretend that I am being interviewed by James Lipton from the Actors Studio:



James Lipton will burn holes in you with his eyes.

 James Lipton: Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.

This is tricky because like most writers it’s usually “What I’m working on now” since that is the most vibrant and fresh and compelling.

But I really really really love the universe I created for my fantasy series.

James Lipton: Fantasy? Why not a sweeping epic about Depression era farmers?

No... I don't think--

James Lipton: Can there be some Depression era farmers in your fantasy novel?

Well, there are farms I suppose...
But The first book in the first series is titled THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS and I’m doing some edits before looking for a potential agent. And I’ve written about half of book two just because I can.

James Litpon: That's a lot of work into something that hasn't been published yet. Did you just go crazy like my hairline?

More like your tie. When I just tallied it up for this blog, I’ve written almost a million words in this world, mostly myths and histories and a bunch of interconnected short stories.

Whenever I’m overwhelmed by my WIP, or I just want to be unfettered in creativity, I can always slip into the world and make magic. Sometimes it’s sweeping epic history, sometimes high mythmaking, but many times a character catches my imagination and draws out a close story, intimate and personal.

It’s a great feeling, going from the macro to the micro within such a wide scope of history.

James Lipton: Do you feel like you need to have an epic rap battle with Tolkien?

I can't rap in Old Norse yet, so he'd prolly win that one.


Stay tuned for more madcap interviews!

Pounding Out the Word Count

So doing this ghostwriting has really opened my eyes to pounding out the word count.

I've always looked for tricks and tips to help motivate me to write constantly, instead of just when the inspiration strikes. (Bradbury likens it to leaning out of a belltower gripping a lightning rod and screaming for the storms to come.)

Now let me just point out that there is a difference between having goals and being motivated.

One trick on the goal side is to set a word count goal. Every day you must hit 2000 words at the very least.
That's a pretty good goal, IMO. It's helped me churn through.

But, we can set goals for ourselves all day long and still get nothing done.

So what actually MOTIVATES you to write?

Well, I learned an interesting thing that may very well be a no-brainer: Money was a pretty darn good motivator.

When cold hard cash was dangled in front of my eyes, I wrote. And I wrote fast. And I wrote pretty darn good. (Did I mention I'm the humblest guy I know?)

How motivated was I?

I wrote 51K words in 52 hours spread out over one month.

Looking back it doesn't seem like that really was possible... but there it is, when i tally my hours (which i had to log) I spent 52 hours (stolen in 1-4 hour increments--sometimes several writing spots a day) and in effect wrote a thousand words per hour.

My keyboard is a little raggen now.

I won't lie. Sometimes I stared blankly at the screen. But the proof is in the pudding and the delivered manuscript stands currently at 51,357 words.

So folks, what motivates you? Figure that out, and make it happen.

Is it chocolate? Because i can come to your house and withhold chocolate from you (and eat is slowly in front of you) until you hit your daily word goal. I can do that. No really, I'd like to do that.

Is it money? Well, if you're a writer that dream will be nice and crushed soon enough...

Is it the burning need to say something into the void?

Well? Go find out and get back to writing!