Ask the Author: Brian Paone
Answered Questions (10)
Brian Paone
My police schedule is four days a week, so I write on the other 3 days and treat it like a secondary job. I try to put in anywhere between 8 - 10 hours on my days off. With that said, my last day at work is February 15. Starting next month, I will be hanging up the badge and gun to be a full-time author. I'm hoping to devote 40-50 hours a week to nothing but writing, editing, and marketing. My wife is the biggest variable with me being able to write while having 4 kids. She treats my writing career just as seriously as I do, so she makes sure the kids "stay out of my hair" when I'm in my office working.
My novels are fiction, but doesn't mean I don't have to research them. An upcoming novel I have planned is about a fictional veteran returning from the Falklands conflict. But because it's about a real war, that involved real people and real afflictions, my wife and I are flying to London to do on-location research and interview a handful of veterans, so I can make my character as authentic as humanly possible.
My next novel about my wife's deployment to Djibouti already has a title: "The Nightly News". My other works in progress do have working titles, but I only publicly reveal the final, official title of any piece I'm publishing.
My novels are fiction, but doesn't mean I don't have to research them. An upcoming novel I have planned is about a fictional veteran returning from the Falklands conflict. But because it's about a real war, that involved real people and real afflictions, my wife and I are flying to London to do on-location research and interview a handful of veterans, so I can make my character as authentic as humanly possible.
My next novel about my wife's deployment to Djibouti already has a title: "The Nightly News". My other works in progress do have working titles, but I only publicly reveal the final, official title of any piece I'm publishing.
Brian Paone
Shard's End. Because it's on the moon, and it's always a party! It's basically a mix of Tokyo and NYC on the moon. Nightline galore.
Brian Paone
Stephen King - "Cell"
Pam VA - "An Enlightened Symphony"
Joe Haldeman - "The Forever War"
Ernest Cline - "Ready Player One"
Pam VA - "An Enlightened Symphony"
Joe Haldeman - "The Forever War"
Ernest Cline - "Ready Player One"
Brian Paone
growing up living in a funeral home...
Brian Paone
Beware the Procrastination Demons!!
There is good procrastination and then there is bad procrastination. When I think of good procrastination, I think of the artist’s end result being that much more superior because they procrastinated and allowed the idea to really blossom over time. Now, don’t get me wrong. Don’t confuse procrastination with “spending extra time to get it right.” Procrastination’s little sister is the word “lazy.” And yet, sometimes being lazy allows enough time to pass in the world, so the world can be ready for your release. Unfortunately, this only happens about 5% of time. The other 95% of the time, procrastination is evil and can kill momentum and a career faster than you can say “Crocodile Dundee for President.”
So what demons will try to tempt you to taste the fruit of laziness, or making excuses? First, I’d like to talk about the internet and social media. The internet (and I also mean to include social media from this point on) is a fantastic tool to help market and promote yourself after your work is released, or just prior, to get fans or potential new fans to know that your book is coming out. Where the internet can become a black hole of procrastination, is when someone “takes a break” to check their Facebook, or Twitter, or even their email. Social media platforms have algorithms in place, designed by some of the top programmers in the world, to subliminally try to keep you on the page. Everything from the layout, and the manner in which new notifications come in, are designed to keep you put. So, I would suggest only checking your email, Facebook, Twitter etc. AFTER you have finished writing for the day. If you need to take a break, do something that keeps the creative juices flowing, but gives you an emotional break. Listen to a few songs, take a walk around the block, alphabetize your spice rack. Anything but falling down the rabbit hole of social media sites. Now, when I write, I keep my internet browser closed. Completely closed. Not minimized. Closed. If I need to research anything about what I am writing, I use my google or Wikipedia app on my iPhone. That way I know I am only trapped in those functions and I won’t wander into distraction that eventually leads to full-blown procrastination.
The second procrastination demon that I find rears its ugly head often, is believing that “I will get to writing today after I finish the list of A, B, and C things.” If today is a Writing Day, then writing should be A on your list. When I am writing a novel, I set aside three of the seven days of the week to just writing. The other four days can be filled with cleaning the house, laundry, grocery shopping, vacuuming etc. Pick the days you are going to write… and WRITE. It’s so easy to say, “Well, today I’m going to write after I put in a load of laundry, vacuum the house, and go get an oil change.” And what happens is, you get home from the oil change, somehow it’s already two o’clock (probably because you spent a wasted hour on Facebook) and now it’s time for the kids to come home from school. You really think you’re going to get anything of quality written after the kids come home from school? No. I have three little kids, and trust me, my writing ended when that bus pulled up. But guess what, if today was supposed to be a writing day, then make tomorrow the day to do laundry, vacuum, and get your oil change. Those household tasks aren’t going anywhere. Now don’t misunderstand me. I hate a dirty house, dishes in the sink, laundry piled up. What I am trying to say is, if today is a writing day, make it a Writing Day (proper noun). It should never be something to check off on a to-do list. Because guess what… you’ll never check it off, and the procrastination demon will go to bed that night with a tummy full of victory.
There is good procrastination and then there is bad procrastination. When I think of good procrastination, I think of the artist’s end result being that much more superior because they procrastinated and allowed the idea to really blossom over time. Now, don’t get me wrong. Don’t confuse procrastination with “spending extra time to get it right.” Procrastination’s little sister is the word “lazy.” And yet, sometimes being lazy allows enough time to pass in the world, so the world can be ready for your release. Unfortunately, this only happens about 5% of time. The other 95% of the time, procrastination is evil and can kill momentum and a career faster than you can say “Crocodile Dundee for President.”
So what demons will try to tempt you to taste the fruit of laziness, or making excuses? First, I’d like to talk about the internet and social media. The internet (and I also mean to include social media from this point on) is a fantastic tool to help market and promote yourself after your work is released, or just prior, to get fans or potential new fans to know that your book is coming out. Where the internet can become a black hole of procrastination, is when someone “takes a break” to check their Facebook, or Twitter, or even their email. Social media platforms have algorithms in place, designed by some of the top programmers in the world, to subliminally try to keep you on the page. Everything from the layout, and the manner in which new notifications come in, are designed to keep you put. So, I would suggest only checking your email, Facebook, Twitter etc. AFTER you have finished writing for the day. If you need to take a break, do something that keeps the creative juices flowing, but gives you an emotional break. Listen to a few songs, take a walk around the block, alphabetize your spice rack. Anything but falling down the rabbit hole of social media sites. Now, when I write, I keep my internet browser closed. Completely closed. Not minimized. Closed. If I need to research anything about what I am writing, I use my google or Wikipedia app on my iPhone. That way I know I am only trapped in those functions and I won’t wander into distraction that eventually leads to full-blown procrastination.
The second procrastination demon that I find rears its ugly head often, is believing that “I will get to writing today after I finish the list of A, B, and C things.” If today is a Writing Day, then writing should be A on your list. When I am writing a novel, I set aside three of the seven days of the week to just writing. The other four days can be filled with cleaning the house, laundry, grocery shopping, vacuuming etc. Pick the days you are going to write… and WRITE. It’s so easy to say, “Well, today I’m going to write after I put in a load of laundry, vacuum the house, and go get an oil change.” And what happens is, you get home from the oil change, somehow it’s already two o’clock (probably because you spent a wasted hour on Facebook) and now it’s time for the kids to come home from school. You really think you’re going to get anything of quality written after the kids come home from school? No. I have three little kids, and trust me, my writing ended when that bus pulled up. But guess what, if today was supposed to be a writing day, then make tomorrow the day to do laundry, vacuum, and get your oil change. Those household tasks aren’t going anywhere. Now don’t misunderstand me. I hate a dirty house, dishes in the sink, laundry piled up. What I am trying to say is, if today is a writing day, make it a Writing Day (proper noun). It should never be something to check off on a to-do list. Because guess what… you’ll never check it off, and the procrastination demon will go to bed that night with a tummy full of victory.
Brian Paone
Listening to music...
Brian Paone
One of my favorite albums of all time, is Electric Light Orchestra’s 1981 concept album, Time. Somewhere in my late teens / early twenties, I thought that the storyline of the Time album should be flushed out either as a novel or a movie. I knew, at the time, that I was nowhere NEAR talented enough yet to take on such a task as writing the adaptation of the album. After publishing two novels, one in 2007 and the other in 2010, I believed that I was ready to tackle turning the plotline and story-arc of ELO’s Time album into a full length novel. I began working on the outline in February 2012, and the first step was to take the lyrics of all 16 songs, and dissect their meaning (both literally and figuratively) and put together a cohesive linear storyline. I wanted to do what The Who’s Tommy, and Pink Floyd’s The Wall movies did for those albums… but just in novel format. The Time album has a very concrete characters and storyline (as does The Wall and Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway) but there is enough unsung moments in the progression of the story, that I knew I had to fill in the gaps of the lyrics with my own literary license. In the lyrics we are told, flat-out, that the main character (Jeff) is from the 1980’s and wakes up in 2095, with no idea or explanation how he got there, that there is a woman who is a perfect robotic replica of his wife (Julie) from the 80’s, he wants nothing more to return to his wife but there is some issued that need to be resolved in their marriage, that he takes a one way trip to the Moon to find his way back, and there are multiple new organizations controlling the world’s power. These are very specific lyrics that move the album forward. After pulling out the lyrics that could not be disputed, I then went through line by line and interpreted the lyrics that could be left up to the imagination of the listener of what the lyrics meant, and how I was going to make it a concrete part of my book. For instance, there is a lyric in the album that says: “Someone has broken out of Satellite Two, look very carefully it might be you!” That was pretty ambiguous inside the song, so I had to make a decision to what exactly Satellite Two even WAS, who the “someone” was, why it might be a clone of someone else… and then I had to try to make it work inside the storyline around it. The album is 16 tracks, and just shy of 50 minutes in length. The book took me almost 40 months to write because I wanted to stay as true to every single word on the album that I could.
Brian Paone
I will begin outlining my 4th book in a few months. Tentatively untitled, it’s going to be a comedic-military novel, almost in the style of the film Mr. Mom with Michael Keaton. This will be about the true adventures I had when my wife, who is an Officer in the Navy, left me alone with our two toddlers when she got deployed for 8 months, and the learning curve and craziness that ensued during those months. I’m hoping to have a 2017 release schedule for that.
Brian Paone
The best and most rewarding thing about being a writer is the vindication that I touched somebody; either somebody suffering from drug abuse or depression or somebody who just needed an escape. The five star reviews on Amazon are all good and dandy, but it’s the people who read any of my three novels, and feel like it touched them the way certain books have touched me in my life. For example, one of the most influential books I have ever read was The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I read it at a time where I needed to connect to a character like that. So whenever I get an email, or Facebook message, from someone who has read any of my books and tries to convey how much my writing meant to them personally, is way better than anything I could ever dream of with any success. I didn’t realize it until recently, but all 3 of my novels conclude with some kind of “redemption”. Maybe it’s because I am a die hard Star Wars fan, and at the core, Star Wars is really about Vader’s redemption and that shines through in my own writing, but nevertheless, there is some form of redemption. I think that’s why my books resonate with people so much. Sure, you can have a story that ends in retribution, or revenge, but redemption is a different monster. I think that’s that what we are really all after in the long run. The reader may not like the outcome of my stories, but they can’t argue that there isn’t a strong grasp of human decision and redeeming actions by the main characters to end the book. So when I get random emails and messages from readers who tell me that a part of my book really spoke to them on a personal level, THAT is above and beyond the most rewarding thing.
Brian Paone
Coming up with ideas for a novel when your mind goes blank.
The only thing worse than a blank mind, is a blank screen. When there isn't even a single word on the screen to kick start any sort of inspiration. This seems to be when procrastination starts. All of a sudden checking your email, answering ignored messages on Facebook, tweeting about the secret ingredient in your grandmother's pasta sauce, looking to see how many undefeated NFL teams there are left, taking a shower... all seem to become more important and none of those are good reservoirs for finding ideas.
You tell yourself: "Self, just start writing words and then make sense of it later."
Stephen King is my favorite author. I have a bookcase in my writing office that is my "Stephen King Bookcase." It has every single one of his books in hardcover, all in chronological order. I started collecting his books 1989, when I got The Dark Half for Christmas that year. I have never missed a new release. My daughter and I were looking through them, and it boggles my mind that he is never short on ideas. I also don't believe that he has a team of ghostwriters like some authors have been accused of having.
It took me 20 months to write my first published novel, Dreams Are Unfinished Thoughts (2007), a total of 19 years to write my second published novel, Welcome to Parkview (2010), since technically I started writing it in 1991 but really truly worked on it between 2008-2010, and a total of 3 years to write my new novel, Yours Truly, 2095. I am very fortunate to have published 3 novels, and have 3 of my books out in the world (and selling), but man, it sounds exhausting to publish 2 novels a year like King does. I've started the preliminary outlining for my 4th novel, and the real writing probably won't start until November or December, and I'm still mentally exhausted from finishing Yours Truly, 2095.
So, I learned, for novelists, short stories are a perfect way to keep the juices flowing with minimal pressure and expectations. Short stories are like a proverbial exhale before trying to hold the weight of a 90k word manuscript again. I finished a short story titled, "Outside of Heaven," that is coming out in November in an anthology, and it felt really good to be able to just write... and write something under 10k words. I have solid plans and plotlines worked out for my 4th and 5th novels (which should bring me somewhere to about 2018 or 2019), but I really think I'm going to bang out a handful of short stories throughout that time to help fill in the empty spaces of "novel writing."
And if they are any good, I just might, in good ol' Stephen King fashion, publish a book of all my collected short stories sometime in the future.
So that's what I have on the horizon. Two new full length novels to be published over the next 3-4 years, and a book of all the short stories I'm going to write while those 2 novels are being worked on.
The only thing worse than a blank mind, is a blank screen. When there isn't even a single word on the screen to kick start any sort of inspiration. This seems to be when procrastination starts. All of a sudden checking your email, answering ignored messages on Facebook, tweeting about the secret ingredient in your grandmother's pasta sauce, looking to see how many undefeated NFL teams there are left, taking a shower... all seem to become more important and none of those are good reservoirs for finding ideas.
You tell yourself: "Self, just start writing words and then make sense of it later."
Stephen King is my favorite author. I have a bookcase in my writing office that is my "Stephen King Bookcase." It has every single one of his books in hardcover, all in chronological order. I started collecting his books 1989, when I got The Dark Half for Christmas that year. I have never missed a new release. My daughter and I were looking through them, and it boggles my mind that he is never short on ideas. I also don't believe that he has a team of ghostwriters like some authors have been accused of having.
It took me 20 months to write my first published novel, Dreams Are Unfinished Thoughts (2007), a total of 19 years to write my second published novel, Welcome to Parkview (2010), since technically I started writing it in 1991 but really truly worked on it between 2008-2010, and a total of 3 years to write my new novel, Yours Truly, 2095. I am very fortunate to have published 3 novels, and have 3 of my books out in the world (and selling), but man, it sounds exhausting to publish 2 novels a year like King does. I've started the preliminary outlining for my 4th novel, and the real writing probably won't start until November or December, and I'm still mentally exhausted from finishing Yours Truly, 2095.
So, I learned, for novelists, short stories are a perfect way to keep the juices flowing with minimal pressure and expectations. Short stories are like a proverbial exhale before trying to hold the weight of a 90k word manuscript again. I finished a short story titled, "Outside of Heaven," that is coming out in November in an anthology, and it felt really good to be able to just write... and write something under 10k words. I have solid plans and plotlines worked out for my 4th and 5th novels (which should bring me somewhere to about 2018 or 2019), but I really think I'm going to bang out a handful of short stories throughout that time to help fill in the empty spaces of "novel writing."
And if they are any good, I just might, in good ol' Stephen King fashion, publish a book of all my collected short stories sometime in the future.
So that's what I have on the horizon. Two new full length novels to be published over the next 3-4 years, and a book of all the short stories I'm going to write while those 2 novels are being worked on.
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