Ask the Author: Jack Messenger
Answered Questions (6)
Jack Messenger
It simply came to me one day. It was a mixture of character (two brothers), a city (Paris) and a style (first person narration). Then the story led me to other things, particularly humour and wit. In other words, I don’t write the story, I follow it.
Jack Messenger
Inspiration, for me, is a rather vague term and a vague process. Usually, a scene, a line of dialogue, a character or a situation will pop into my mind. If it stays with me then I know it is worth pursuing. I have to think about it for a long time. ‘Farewell Olympus’ began with an idea about two brothers and a desire to write in the first person. It quickly exploded from there.
Jack Messenger
I’ve just finished a novel called ‘Farewell Olympus’. I am pleased with it. I’m not yet thinking of anything else to write, as I’m caught up in all the business of preparing the book for launch in a few months.
Jack Messenger
Persevere. Keep writing. Keep reading. Rest. Always do the best you can and strive always to better than you are.
Jack Messenger
Writing can be a kind of personal therapy that helps the writer understand his or herself and other people. It provides the writer with another world to inhabit, one that might be more interesting and stimulating than the real world. Characters can take on a life of their own and begin to dictate what happens: I find that fascinating. Finding a shape and rhythm to a story is also very gratifying (and very hard work!).
Jack Messenger
I’ve never encountered it. Writing involves a great deal of pondering and mulling and staring into space. Often, there can be long pauses between projects, when the subconscious work of writing is going on. That is why I like this quotation from Graham Greene: “So much of a novelist’s writing … takes place in the unconscious: in those depths the last word is written before the word appears on paper. We remember the details of our story, we do not invent them.”
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