Ask the Author: Mike Crowl
Answered Questions (11)
Mike Crowl
Hmm. I can't think of anything mysterious enough in my life to make a plot for a book. But in some unpublished novels, I've certainly used different aspects of my life as part of the overall story.
Mike Crowl
Once upon a time a reader asked me to tell them a two-sentence horror story. I couldn't...
Mike Crowl
Hmm. Narnia, I think. As long as there wasn't a war going on!
Mike Crowl
When I'm not procrastinating, by sitting down at the computer and just writing: often this may be lots and lots of notes, or chapters that don't go into the book in the end, or stuff that gets heavily revised. Inspiration isn't a word I think about much...
Mike Crowl
Seeing your work completed, and then going onto the next thing.
Mike Crowl
Well, for me, Summer is still a long way away: I'm only just coming into Winter...!
But I try each year to read at least one or two old classics, because if they've survived this long, they're obviously worth reading. I read The Three Musketeers recently, for example. It's a terrific book that zips along at a great pace.
Otherwise, I tend to read whatever comes along. Don't have any plan...
But I try each year to read at least one or two old classics, because if they've survived this long, they're obviously worth reading. I read The Three Musketeers recently, for example. It's a terrific book that zips along at a great pace.
Otherwise, I tend to read whatever comes along. Don't have any plan...
Mike Crowl
Trick question, Dom! All my children are my favourite children...! LOL
Mike Crowl
Be willing to let other people critique your work. Build up two or three good, sensible people as your support group. They don't have to be writers (though it's helpful), but they do have to be able to see whether the structure of your book works, they have to ask you why you wrote something that doesn't make sense to them, they have to be able to say to you 'You can do better than this.' And they have to keep saying it.
People who merely praise your work, whatever it's like, are nice, but not helpful to you as a writer.
If your support group just consists of other writers wanting you to critique their work, find other people. You can't work on your own stuff as the same time as you're critiquing others. This is why I don't think writers' groups are much help.
People who merely praise your work, whatever it's like, are nice, but not helpful to you as a writer.
If your support group just consists of other writers wanting you to critique their work, find other people. You can't work on your own stuff as the same time as you're critiquing others. This is why I don't think writers' groups are much help.
Mike Crowl
I'm currently working on a fourth children's book which combines some characters from the other three. It's already in its second major draft, and is about to be redone from scratch: not a complete wipe-out of the draft material, but some major changes, improving the interactions of the characters and such. Unlike some writers who seem to be able to get everything to work from day one, I have to write and rewrite until I know that I've done the best I can...and I wasn't happy with the way this book was going...
Mike Crowl
Keep writing, even if you write absolute rubbish. I read some of a book by Peter Elbow years ago called Writing without Teachers, in which he put forward the idea that often you just have to write and write until you find what you're looking for. The brain often seems to have the answer in there somewhere, but likes to hide it, and our reaction is to think we can't write anymore. It's been the downfall of many a good writer, unfortunately.
Mike Crowl
Right from the time we produced the musical version of Grimhilda! I'd thought it be fun to do a sequel. Originally there was an idea that this might be another musical but in the end it became a sequel to the book version of Grimhilda!. The characters I'd always thought of as having some value in the sequel were the Mumbersons, a grumpy pair who'd said their 'own son was as selfish as they were.' I wanted to explore what the relationship would be like when the Mumbersons finally returned home after twenty years...but then other aspects to the story got added in...
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