Ask the Author: Robb Lightfoot
Answered Questions (10)
Robb Lightfoot
Knock, knock, who's there?
Your just-paroled ex-boyfriend.
Your just-paroled ex-boyfriend.
Robb Lightfoot
Nothing dysopian, for sure. Hmmm.... Maybe a go at living on the island of the Swiss Family Robinson to see if I could manage things off the grid and without big-box deliveries.
Robb Lightfoot
OMG. I have stacks and stacks of books on the early days of aviation full of fascinating, eccentric people. I also have many books on guitar theory and technique, and I keep buying low-carb diet books.... but eating popcorn after dinner. So, hard to say where all this will land, other than on my overcrowded bookshelf. Most recent purchase is a Kurt Vonnegut compilation, and I probably will get to that before the other stuff.
Robb Lightfoot
The suspects and circumstances surrounding the murder of my Grandmother's next-door-neighbor, a woman that my grandmother despised.
Robb Lightfoot
Not always well. Most of my block comes from just letting life get me too busy to write. I have bills to pay, and I'm not yet where writing does that. When I do break through, it's usually a matter of sitting down and doing what Anne Lammott says: Allow yourself to write shitty first drafts. In fact, it's not a matter of letting it happen. For me, it's usually the ONLY way it can happen. Once I have something on paper, then it can me massaged. My friends tell me that I write fast (but not always well) some of this comes from being hyperactive and some of it comes from being a former newspaper reporter and learning to turn SOMETHING in on deadline.
As to being hyperactive. I have not been diagnosed, but I have all the symptoms of family members who have. I drink gallons of coffee because it calms me, and I find it hard to site down for more that short stretches. Professionally, I am a speech teacher, and I find that after 10 minutes of listening to a speech I want to--and do--bounce up to the front of the room to have a brief discussion with the class about what they just heard.
This restlessness goes as far back as I can remember. I had my own special desk in the principal's office, and went there almost every day because I was talking in class. Learning to write allowed me to channel some of this in a way that I quit talking so much, but it makes for tons of journals. These are not really suitable for publication. But they do make me think about things that CAN be helpful. I used the Julia Cameron method of journal writing for a number of years--even studied under her for a weekend at Esalen. But I find that journal writing can get in the way of my regular writing.
When I'm writing fiction with an intent to publish, I have to be in character, and this character must be walking around in a space I know or am learning about. Just writing about how much I hate my wife's minivan isn't going to get me into my story world. I have to have a problem that I'm working out. The classic elements of comedy can all be brought to bear, but it must start with "something goes wrong."
So, my advice is pick a problem, inflict it one someone, and start writing. I think this is true even for non-fiction.
As to being hyperactive. I have not been diagnosed, but I have all the symptoms of family members who have. I drink gallons of coffee because it calms me, and I find it hard to site down for more that short stretches. Professionally, I am a speech teacher, and I find that after 10 minutes of listening to a speech I want to--and do--bounce up to the front of the room to have a brief discussion with the class about what they just heard.
This restlessness goes as far back as I can remember. I had my own special desk in the principal's office, and went there almost every day because I was talking in class. Learning to write allowed me to channel some of this in a way that I quit talking so much, but it makes for tons of journals. These are not really suitable for publication. But they do make me think about things that CAN be helpful. I used the Julia Cameron method of journal writing for a number of years--even studied under her for a weekend at Esalen. But I find that journal writing can get in the way of my regular writing.
When I'm writing fiction with an intent to publish, I have to be in character, and this character must be walking around in a space I know or am learning about. Just writing about how much I hate my wife's minivan isn't going to get me into my story world. I have to have a problem that I'm working out. The classic elements of comedy can all be brought to bear, but it must start with "something goes wrong."
So, my advice is pick a problem, inflict it one someone, and start writing. I think this is true even for non-fiction.
Robb Lightfoot
It's hard to name just one best thing, but for me it's the dream-like state I get in when I'm really in the zone. I get to create a dream world and crawl into it for a while. This world can be that of an idealized recollection, one that turns pain into laughter, or one that has me saying the witty things I wish I'd said at the right moment. Soon, I hope to launch a science fiction series that will allow me to crawl into a world where some people have powers that allow them to take advantage of others. I want to explore what that would do to a person and to the society in which they live.
Robb Lightfoot
One of the best tips I heard came from Tony D'Souza, an award-winning author and a person who has coached me. He says that we all must write alone, but none of us succeeds that way. You need to form a brain-trust of friends. They need not all be writers, but it helps. You need first-readers and people that you can talk to about your work. They can offer encouragement, suggestions and ask key questions. The best feedback I get is from my writing group. They often will point at passages that are unclear or that repeat what I said before. I can be repetitive. Did I just say that? Darn.
Robb Lightfoot
I am between books, and have several prospects ahead of me. I am debating whether to continue on with my Problem Child series--I already have much of it lined out--or work on a non-fiction book. I have a presentation this summer on the art of asking questions. It comes out of my teaching job, and I'm exciting to talk with others about how being a used-truck salesman, journalist, and debate coach each shaped my life experience and how I approach question-asking.
Robb Lightfoot
It varies. When I'm writing a column, my deadline is a GREAT inspiration! Other things that help are writing prompts in my writing group, pictures, and funny items in the news. Of course, what I find funny isn't always what other people do.
Robb Lightfoot
Problem Child - The View From The Principal's Office was prompted by suggestions from my wife, Karin. The book is a collection of 25 stories, many of them oft-retold tall tales of my hyperactive childhood. She says that these stories are like seeing Marley and Me from the dog's point-of-view.
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