Ask the Author: Les Edgerton
Answered Questions (5)
Les Edgerton
Writing always changes. Nothing will be the same tomorrow that is true today. That said, there is very little I would change from what I said then with one exception. Transitions have changed greatly--we're fast getting over marking switches in pov, place and time to more subtle switches today. Eventually, marked space breaks will cease to be as common as those switches will be more subtly marked. The thing is, Hooked dealt with traditional story structure and I don't foresee that changing in major ways--the way human beings accept and process story is firmly ingrained in our consciousness and for good reason--it works.
Les Edgerton
Steve Hamilton's EXIT STRATEGY, Reavis Z. Wortham's UNRAVELED, Dennis LeHane's SINCE WE FELL, Larry Watson's LET HIM GO, Donald Ray Pollock's THE HEAVENLY TABLE, Gerald O'Connor's THE ORIGINS OF BENJAMIN HACKETT, Richard Brautigan's IN WATERMELON SUGAR, Linwood Barclay's FAR FROM TRUE, Les Edgerton's THE DEATH OF TARPONS, Tim Dorsey's COCONUT COWBOY, John Hart's DOWN RIVER, John Sandford's ESCAPE CLAUSE, Anthony Neil Smith's THE DEAD MAN, William Kent Kruger's MANITOU CANYON, Joe Lansdale's MIRACLES AIN'T WHAT THEY USED TO BE and many, many more.
Les Edgerton
Good question! One of the things in my own life that forever bothered me was that my father treated me very differently than my brother and three sisters. Finally, when I was 68 one of my sisters told me she and the other siblings had often talked about that, which I didn't know. She also said one of our aunts on my father's side had said to her that I wasn't my father's real son and suggested we get a DNA test. We did and through that I discovered he wasn't my birth father. My mother was still promoting that lie. And, I've used that not as a plot for a story, but as the thrust for the memoir I was writing. I can see it was a very viable plot for a novel.
Les Edgerton
Don't believe there is such a thing. Just like I don't believe in "plumber's block" or "plastic surgeon's block." Writing is a job, just like any other job, and just like the plumber who may not feel like running that snake down the drain some days, but does it anyway and with no appreciable difference in the quality of his work, so does a writer write every day. A study was done years ago in which professional writers were asked to provide a note on each day's work as to its quality and after a year, an independent panel judged their work. They found absolutely no difference in the quality on those days in which the writer had to struggle to write than on the days when the words flowed. The only difference was in the writer's mind. Accepting that there is such a thing as "writer's block" is only creating a ceiling to bump one's head into. Don't acknowledge such a thing exists... and it doesn't.
Les Edgerton
Don't think so, DB. Would you mind asking it again? Thanks! Best way to reach me is via email. My email is (all lower case) butchedgerton at comcast dot net.
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