Ask the Author: Sean Demory
Answered Questions (5)
Sean Demory
I don't. I actually tend to get annoyed with my ideas and want to pin them down. Both in editing and writing, I've got a tendency toward clipping and shaping unto oblivion. Actually getting in there, doing the work and sending it out for consideration or putting it in print myself is a way to stop the ideas from festering and growing too self-referential and useless.
Sean Demory
Too many things. I'm finishing up a novella, "Green Man Blues," that was serialized on Beyond Stories for a while; it's a bayou-noirish thing that's heavy on atmosphere. Working on a spiritualist heist thing, "Box Man," that's going to be a lot of fun. "Prospero Defiant," the second of my three-story "Caliban Triumphant" trilogy, is in progress; I'm doing the sonnets and plotting for that one now and will build off of the skeleton later this year. Putting an anthology together for 2016 that I'm not going into much detail on yet. Trying to keep Pine Float Press (pinefloatpress.tumblr.com) from capsizing or haring off into the blue. Getting ready to roll on "Conjure Summer," which I'm still thinking of as Harry Potter if he were a black kid in rural North Carolina and Hogwarts were the local "candle store." Seeing what else swings by.
Sean Demory
Edit more. Getting the idea on the page is great, but dedication to craft is even better. Paying attention to the actual craft of writing inspires us to try new things and to actually challenge ourselves. Focus on craft keeps art from being pure narcissism.
Don't despair if you can't write everything right away. The good ideas will come back if you don't get to them immediately, and tending every fancy that crosses your field of vision is like planting a garden and watering everything that comes up. Some weeds are flowers or herbs, but some are just weeds.
Don't despair if you can't write everything right away. The good ideas will come back if you don't get to them immediately, and tending every fancy that crosses your field of vision is like planting a garden and watering everything that comes up. Some weeds are flowers or herbs, but some are just weeds.
Sean Demory
Crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you and hearing the lamentation of their women. Obviously.
Aside from that, the freedom to create and challenge one's self is just intoxicating. It's never just the woolgathering and what-if for me. It's a matter of seeing the project through and actually creating something that hadn't been in the world before. That's good stuff.
Aside from that, the freedom to create and challenge one's self is just intoxicating. It's never just the woolgathering and what-if for me. It's a matter of seeing the project through and actually creating something that hadn't been in the world before. That's good stuff.
Sean Demory
Write past it. I've found that "writer's block" means that it's time to try a different project; since I've usually got five or six irons on the fire, that makes it easy to shift gears and see what happens.
I was able to tear through "Sycorax Resplendent," one of my more recent stories, because of that gear-shifting. The dialogue's all in sonnet form, so I was forced to get outside of the standard narrative form and stretch a different creative muscle. Worked out well.
I was able to tear through "Sycorax Resplendent," one of my more recent stories, because of that gear-shifting. The dialogue's all in sonnet form, so I was forced to get outside of the standard narrative form and stretch a different creative muscle. Worked out well.
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