Ask the Author: F.R. Larkin
Answered Questions (6)
F.R. Larkin
The best advice I can give is to not treat writing any differently than you would any other task. Think of writing as you would think about sweeping your floor, or painting your bedroom. It’s a task that must be done. And like other difficult, time consuming tasks, if you make too much out of it, you probably won’t do it.
I have a couple of full-length books sitting at the 75-85% completion stage, so I know of procrastination and avoidance. The good news is, now you can self-publish so your book can be any damn length. Write something short to start with, just so you can actually finish the damn thing… say 20,000 words, then work up to a full-length work. Besides, you’ll learn a hell of a lot about marketing (and writing) by just getting yourself out there.
Get yourself a decent sized dry-erase board and put your book title at the top. Put columns for the date, hours worked (actually writing – not surfing), the day’s word count and a final column for the total word count to date. Repeat that every day you work and add a star next to days you write at least a thousand words, and two stars for 2K. At the bottom of your dry erase board put a progress bar, fill that thing in when you hit milestones like a quarter way there, etc. It’s a great motivator. If you’re writing a full-length book, figure 80K depending on the genre less or more, but make a guesstimate and go. The idea is to write like hell, because you need volume to edit, you need to go to places that suck ass to get to places that kick ass. You need to fucking write.
I have a couple of full-length books sitting at the 75-85% completion stage, so I know of procrastination and avoidance. The good news is, now you can self-publish so your book can be any damn length. Write something short to start with, just so you can actually finish the damn thing… say 20,000 words, then work up to a full-length work. Besides, you’ll learn a hell of a lot about marketing (and writing) by just getting yourself out there.
Get yourself a decent sized dry-erase board and put your book title at the top. Put columns for the date, hours worked (actually writing – not surfing), the day’s word count and a final column for the total word count to date. Repeat that every day you work and add a star next to days you write at least a thousand words, and two stars for 2K. At the bottom of your dry erase board put a progress bar, fill that thing in when you hit milestones like a quarter way there, etc. It’s a great motivator. If you’re writing a full-length book, figure 80K depending on the genre less or more, but make a guesstimate and go. The idea is to write like hell, because you need volume to edit, you need to go to places that suck ass to get to places that kick ass. You need to fucking write.
F.R. Larkin
I wanted to write a book on sex that I would actually read and enjoy, one where I felt more connection with the person or character having sex. I just haven’t bought into much of the sex I’ve read; I’ve always desired something more personal. I wanted to write something so profoundly personal that I wouldn’t want anyone who’d ever met me to read the fucking thing. I think I’ve accomplished that. Well, I’ve definitely accomplished that – if you know me don’t read this fucking thing, or at least don’t tell me you’ve read it.
F.R. Larkin
If you’re waiting for inspiration, you’re in the wrong field… what’s that old adage about 99% perspiration 1% inspiration. Well I would say whoever said that forgot about the friggin’ aggravation. Which is not to say I don’t enjoy writing, hell I may be my biggest fan sometimes, laughing my ass off at some bullshit I just put on the page, but to get to that stage, you have to actually sit down and grind it out. Of course, I do get inspired, I think of crazy, stupid shit all the time, and much of it is just that, shit. The key is sticking with one of your ideas until the very end, book completion.
F.R. Larkin
I’m writing another short guide book called “How to Talk to Your Dog About Sex”. It will be another entry in our “Fast and Filthy Guide” series under the Heat & Stir brand my wife Irene and I started. It’s about that conversation you have (with your dog of course) after your dog sees you having sex. It’s exactly as crazy as it sounds, probably a lot crazier if you’re not familiar with my work, but I look forward to sitting down to it every day possible.
What’s your advice for aspiring writers?
The best advice I can give is to not treat writing any differently than you would any other task. Think of writing as you would think about sweeping your floor, or painting your bedroom. It’s a task that must be done. And like other difficult, time consuming tasks, if you make too much out of it, you probably won’t do it.
I have a couple of full-length books sitting at the 75-85% completion stage, so I know of procrastination and avoidance. The good news is, now you can self-publish so your book can be any damn length. Write something short to start with, just so you can actually finish the damn thing… say 20,000 words, then work up to a full-length work. Besides, you’ll learn a hell of a lot about marketing (and writing) by just getting yourself out there.
Get yourself a decent sized dry-erase board and put your book title at the top. Put columns for the date, hours worked (actually writing – not surfing), the day’s word count and a final column for the total word count to date. Repeat that every day you work and add a star next to days you write at least a thousand words, and two stars for 2K. At the bottom of your dry erase board put a progress bar, fill that thing in when you hit milestones like a quarter way there, etc. It’s a great motivator. If you’re writing a full-length book, figure 80K depending on the genre less or more, but make a guesstimate and go. The idea is to write like hell, because you need volume to edit, you need to go to places that suck ass to get to places that kick ass. You need to fucking write.
What’s your advice for aspiring writers?
The best advice I can give is to not treat writing any differently than you would any other task. Think of writing as you would think about sweeping your floor, or painting your bedroom. It’s a task that must be done. And like other difficult, time consuming tasks, if you make too much out of it, you probably won’t do it.
I have a couple of full-length books sitting at the 75-85% completion stage, so I know of procrastination and avoidance. The good news is, now you can self-publish so your book can be any damn length. Write something short to start with, just so you can actually finish the damn thing… say 20,000 words, then work up to a full-length work. Besides, you’ll learn a hell of a lot about marketing (and writing) by just getting yourself out there.
Get yourself a decent sized dry-erase board and put your book title at the top. Put columns for the date, hours worked (actually writing – not surfing), the day’s word count and a final column for the total word count to date. Repeat that every day you work and add a star next to days you write at least a thousand words, and two stars for 2K. At the bottom of your dry erase board put a progress bar, fill that thing in when you hit milestones like a quarter way there, etc. It’s a great motivator. If you’re writing a full-length book, figure 80K depending on the genre less or more, but make a guesstimate and go. The idea is to write like hell, because you need volume to edit, you need to go to places that suck ass to get to places that kick ass. You need to fucking write.
F.R. Larkin
Finishing a book. It’s also the hardest thing. Please gift yourself a completed book, it can be short, it can be fiction or non-fiction or any damn thing at all, but complete something.
F.R. Larkin
If you don’t believe in the boogeyman does the boogeyman exist? Please read above, to be a writer means to write. There are always a million things to write about, and there’s a million ways it could all go to shit, but if you’re sitting there worried about all the ways it could go to shit or all the things you can’t think of, that’s not writer’s block, that’s just sitting there and not writing. Stop believing this fucking thing you’re working on has got to be some fucking masterpiece and start moving your brush. Look at all the masterworks that are essentially do-overs, literally painted on top of some other fucking thing that artist put shitloads of time into and said, fuck it, this isn’t working. Go be that artist, but don’t call it art. Call it sweeping the floor and you’ll get farther. Let others or history itself decide whether or not it’s fucking art. If you’re not doing it for you, I don’t think it can be art, but if you’re not doing it at all, I know it can’t be.
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