Ask the Author: Jason Wallace
Answered Questions (5)
Jason Wallace
There are two different types of block that I encounter: (1) when I don't know where the story's heading, and (2) I don't know ANYTHING, least of all how to put coherent words together.
When I meet the first kind of block, I have to either go back to my initial notes and map out a route, in bullet-point form or whatever works. Then I go back to the script and grind through until I produce something. Sometimes you have to just force it.
When I meet the second kind, I have to walk away... listen to music, do something that makes me feel good about myself (running sometimes works for me). At these times, only a moral boost can drag you out.
When I meet the first kind of block, I have to either go back to my initial notes and map out a route, in bullet-point form or whatever works. Then I go back to the script and grind through until I produce something. Sometimes you have to just force it.
When I meet the second kind, I have to walk away... listen to music, do something that makes me feel good about myself (running sometimes works for me). At these times, only a moral boost can drag you out.
Jason Wallace
The satisfaction of having created something - not just the finished product, because a good line or paragraph can leave me feeling pretty good for the rest of the day. I need that, because writing is hard work, and (sometimes) demoralising!
Jason Wallace
Three keys bits of advice that I always keep close to my heart are these.
Read - as much as you can.
Always write, because a story won’t get written by itself. Even when you feel your story’s failed, never think it was a waste of time, because (as with everything in life) good things only come out of a whole heap of practice.
And soak it up! As in, life. Because without personal experience your story’s going be flat as a pancake.
Read - as much as you can.
Always write, because a story won’t get written by itself. Even when you feel your story’s failed, never think it was a waste of time, because (as with everything in life) good things only come out of a whole heap of practice.
And soak it up! As in, life. Because without personal experience your story’s going be flat as a pancake.
Jason Wallace
By anything. A song lyric, a line from a book, a dream ... inspiration is all around us (I'm sure that must be a lyric somewhere!). What I must have before I start any piece of work, however, is a strong voice, and one that I know is right for the book I want to right. And that comes from inside, based around (real or fictional) people I've met in my life.
Jason Wallace
Encounters was inspired by actual reports of an extra-terrestrial sighting in Zimbabwe, back in 1994 – after sixty-two children, aged between six and twelve, ran screaming back to their teachers in the staff room after the children had supposedly seen a flying saucer land beyond the edge of their playground and two creatures emerge from it.
However, the thing that really got me thinking was not just what those kids saw, but WHY they saw it. My writer’s brain really kicked in, and I started to question what was going on in the background, and from that came six entirely fictional children who each take their turn to tell their story.
However, the thing that really got me thinking was not just what those kids saw, but WHY they saw it. My writer’s brain really kicked in, and I started to question what was going on in the background, and from that came six entirely fictional children who each take their turn to tell their story.
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