Ask the Author: James Barclay
Answered Questions (6)
James Barclay
Truthfully? Everything about the job, even the crap parts. That's because I've wanted to be an author since I was 11 years old and to be one is a dream come true. Same as my acting work - getting paid to do what you love, to share great passions with an audience, is simply wonderful.
James Barclay
I actually don't believe in writer's block. I believe in sloth and a lack of desire to write at any given moment but not something that stops me writing. If I feel I'm stuck in a scene or a description or whatever, I walk away from it (sometimes literally) and do something else. Going back to the issue later tends to give me a fresh perspective. What I never do is stress about it. Life is too short for such nonsense.
James Barclay
There is so much advice I could give but I'll stick to two. Firstly, write every day. Doesn't matter if it's seventy or seven thousand words. It's about building a discipline, a routine and a flow to your work. There's an old adage that 'a writer writes' and that's what you have to do if you want to improve and get published. There is no escaping the work you have to put in.
Secondly, read aloud everything you write. It should flow when you read it. If it doesn't it means whichever bit you tripped up on needs further editing. Try it, you'll be surprised how well it works.
If you want more, ask the question again :)
Cheers
James
Secondly, read aloud everything you write. It should flow when you read it. If it doesn't it means whichever bit you tripped up on needs further editing. Try it, you'll be surprised how well it works.
If you want more, ask the question again :)
Cheers
James
James Barclay
Quite a few things... I'm an actor as well as an author and I'm currently rehearsing 'The Ladykillers' in which I'm playing 'Major Courtney'. We're on at the Dugdale Theatre, Enfield, September 20th to 24th if you want to come along.
In writing, I'm drafting the sequel to Heart of Granite; scripting a short film that I and my great friend David Monteith are going to shoot and act in; converting a young adult novel from third person to first person present (a horrible exercise but for the fact the book works SO much better with the change of tense and POV); and working up ideas for new novels and a novella.
You asked... cheers, James
In writing, I'm drafting the sequel to Heart of Granite; scripting a short film that I and my great friend David Monteith are going to shoot and act in; converting a young adult novel from third person to first person present (a horrible exercise but for the fact the book works SO much better with the change of tense and POV); and working up ideas for new novels and a novella.
You asked... cheers, James
James Barclay
I'm not sure I 'get inspired'. I just love writing so I do it every day and I am lucky to be one of those who can write for a living. That's a gift not to be taken lightly. Perhaps that means I'm inspired by what I consider to be my good fortune. I don't know but even though there are good and bad days when I write, I never have to be dragged to the office and I never have to 'be inspired' to write. Cheers, James
James Barclay
Normally I don't know the answer to this question but for Heart of Granite, it's easy. I was playing with my, then, three year old son in a hotel room in Flims, Switzerland. We were playing using a foldaway airport map and a few toys. I landed planes and drove baggage carts etc, doing all the normal stuff. He, wit ha low boredom threshold, picked up a dragon figure and landed it on the runway. 'Ooo,' I thought. 'Commercial dragon flights.' And from that little seed came Heart of Granite. A book with no commercial dragon flights :) but that's evolution of an idea for you. Cheers, James
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