Ask the Author: Bryan Cassiday
Answered Questions (9)
Bryan Cassiday
Yes, Mike. I'm working on it right now. Thanks for asking.
Bryan Cassiday
I woke up next to a coffin. Inside the coffin was my corpse.
Bryan Cassiday
The Thirst by Jo Nesbo. Shadows and Teeth Volume Two.
Bryan Cassiday
Why did the woman who committed suicide by jumping off a freeway bridge land on my coworker's car, killing both of them?
Bryan Cassiday
Scully and Mulder. The level-headed Scully and the conspiracy-theorist Mulder make an interesting pair on The X-Files. They're perpetually in disagreement, yet they get along quite well.
Bryan Cassiday
I don't wait for inspiration to strike. I grind out words even when I'm not inspired. I try to get a couple of paragraphs down, and, hopefully, they'll lead me into a story that inspires my imagination. The first sentence is important. It sets the tone for the piece. I'm a situational writer. My characters are caught in horrible situations that they must deal with. How they deal with their crises is what drives the story.
Bryan Cassiday
Read a lot of books. If for no other reason than to improve your vocabulary. A wordsmith needs to know the tools of the trade.
Bryan Cassiday
The hardest part of writing is getting started. Once I've gotten something down on the computer, and I've got at least two pages out, I can usually pursue the project to completion. The work takes on a momentum of its own as I get the ball rolling. But getting the ball rolling in the first place is the tough part. Coming up with an idea for a work can be maddening, but you can't let it seize you up. Let it flow . . . even if at first it seems like a crappy idea, just write something. Maybe it'll turn out well. There are no guarantees that you're going to create a great story. But if you don't let it flow, you have nothing. So what if I write a piece of crap? I can always throw it out. Not everything can be a gold nugget. It helps to be relaxed when you're writing, so that extraneous interruptions and disruptive emotions don't hamper your creativity. Such interruptions and emotions can exert a chokehold on creativity. I have a name for this relaxation. I call it balancing, or centering, myself. I like to take long walks to relax myself and get me in shape for the marathon of writing. Writing is hard, time-consuming work, but don't make it too hard on yourself or you will stopper your creativity. Once you get started writing, it goes easy. At this point, you are like a well-honed athlete doing his thing. And then it all falls into place.
Bryan Cassiday
I'm currently working on a scary science-fiction story. All of my stories tend to be scary, be they science-fiction, thrillers, or mysteries.
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