Ask the Author: Jay Pelchen
Answered Questions (3)
Jay Pelchen
Break the process down! Writing an entire book seems like a gargantuan task but breaking it down into more manageable steps makes the whole process less daunting. I shared my "Engineers Approach to Writing" on Reddit, showing how I: started with a single paragraph capturing the idea; turned that into an A4 page; turned that into a sentence for each chapter; then created a 500 word summary for each chapter. Turning that 20,000 word summary of the entire book into a 120,000 word novel sounds hard but turning 500 words into 2500 words sounds (and was) much more achievable.
Jay Pelchen
I think everyone has an idea (or twelve) for a book and that alone can serve as an inspiration. However, the writing process is long and motivation is tough to maintain. I promised myself to make at least some minor progress on the story each day, even if just a post-it note with a character's hair colour or some other detail. Seeing consistent progress was super inspiring. I also printed out a physical copy of my book with each few chapter that I wrote, providing further evidence of tangible progress. Finally, researching specific details for the book or going to visit locations in person was hugely inspiring and provided weeks of boosted energy for the writing and editing process.
Jay Pelchen
The idea for The World That Was came to me in a university physics class, when the lecturer was describing that we use a certain historical convention but in reality the universe works completely the opposite. This got me thinking about other dumb conventions and how the world would be much more efficient if we could change them. My list of things that I would change slowly grew until it eventually spun out into a time-travel adventure. Noting the science-based origins of the idea, I wanted to try creating a story that was as realistic and scientifically plausible as possible. This led to my characters' one-way journey to the past and years of research about forging steels, medieval mining and typical wheat yields!
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