Ask the Author: A.D. Flint
Answered Questions (6)
A.D. Flint
I've never been totally blocked, but I have got very stuck on particular ideas at times. In those instances I've just tried to write another section or about something else. The key for me is just to keep writing something... anything. I've spent days and days churning out absolute garbage, all of it destined for the bin, but eventually something good does pop out. And sometimes good things have to go in the bin too if they don't fit. So then you've got to write some more good things.
A.D. Flint
Inhabiting another world.
A.D. Flint
If you enjoy writing just keep writing. It took me years to figure out what I write best and how I should write it. It comes easily to some, for others, it's a long hard slog. But if you enjoy sitting down and tapping away and think that maybe you could write something better, then never ever give up.
A.D. Flint
I've got a few ideas that I've been working on - currently trying to decide if I can combine them into one book, or a series of books.
A.D. Flint
A news story or a photo on the TV or radio or anywhere. I like intrigue and investigations but it's nearly always a human element that really flips the switch for me (what made that person do such a thing?).
I am also terrible for eavesdropping and people watching - everything I write echoes something I've seen or heard. I love writing dialogue but I'm also very visual and spend a lot of time thinking about how best to convey the images in my head.
I am also terrible for eavesdropping and people watching - everything I write echoes something I've seen or heard. I love writing dialogue but I'm also very visual and spend a lot of time thinking about how best to convey the images in my head.
A.D. Flint
On a June afternoon in 2000 there was a robbery just a few blocks from where I was living in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro. It turned into a hostage situation. The teenage robber had survived a notorious massacre of street children outside a Rio church years before, and the tragedy that played out in the aftermath of the robbery on live TV news was an embodiment of the desperation of life at the bottom of the heap. An ugly thing in this beautiful city, shocking, even to a society inured to everyday violence.
As a Brit new to Rio, I was beguiled by the city, and found it profoundly disturbing to watch something happening just down the road that was so out of control and so wrong.
This terrible incident gave me the foundation for my book - it took a few more years before I found the other elements that would tie my story together.
As a Brit new to Rio, I was beguiled by the city, and found it profoundly disturbing to watch something happening just down the road that was so out of control and so wrong.
This terrible incident gave me the foundation for my book - it took a few more years before I found the other elements that would tie my story together.
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