Ask the Author: C. Stuart Hardwick
Answered Questions (5)
C. Stuart Hardwick
Looking at the calendar.
A wise man once said, an amateur wishes for inspiration while a professional knows only an ammeter depends on inspiration. The world is chock full of story ideas, themes, heartbreak, worries, and everything a story teller needs to get to work. When I hear authors complaining that they lack ideas, I have to assume they are in the wrong line of work.
Writing is hard--vastly harder than it appears from the outside--and writing well enough for anyone to care is harder still. But inspiration isn't what makes is hard. What makes it hard is the complex of story craft, emotional investment, crushing rejection, mind numbing revision, and exhausting self-promotional work. Inspiration to wade through all that and get back to writing is simple. Life is short--too short to get enough done.
A wise man once said, an amateur wishes for inspiration while a professional knows only an ammeter depends on inspiration. The world is chock full of story ideas, themes, heartbreak, worries, and everything a story teller needs to get to work. When I hear authors complaining that they lack ideas, I have to assume they are in the wrong line of work.
Writing is hard--vastly harder than it appears from the outside--and writing well enough for anyone to care is harder still. But inspiration isn't what makes is hard. What makes it hard is the complex of story craft, emotional investment, crushing rejection, mind numbing revision, and exhausting self-promotional work. Inspiration to wade through all that and get back to writing is simple. Life is short--too short to get enough done.
C. Stuart Hardwick
For the last few years I've been working on refining my prose and story telling. Right now I have three specific short projects and two novels in the works.
C. Stuart Hardwick
Nice notes from my readers! I've had messages comparing my writing to Heinlein, Bradbury, and Ursula K Le Guin, and I've had messages thanking me or saying how a particular story touched a reader's life--and I've had messages from young people, inspired by my writing and just writing to say so or to ask for advice. Those are absolutely the best.
The second best thing is the community. I've signed books with Larry Niven, eaten pizza with Robert J Sawyer, and closed out the bar with Mike Resnik, Erik Flint, Kevin J Anderson, and Todd McCaffrey, just to name a few. I've had dinner with Nancy Kress and George R. R. Martin! And a few weeks ago, I had drinks with my friend, Bill Ledbetter and then watched him win the Nebula! None of this is to brag, but to point out that all of these people are as nice, open, and supporting as any friends or mentors I've had or could imagine.
The second best thing is the community. I've signed books with Larry Niven, eaten pizza with Robert J Sawyer, and closed out the bar with Mike Resnik, Erik Flint, Kevin J Anderson, and Todd McCaffrey, just to name a few. I've had dinner with Nancy Kress and George R. R. Martin! And a few weeks ago, I had drinks with my friend, Bill Ledbetter and then watched him win the Nebula! None of this is to brag, but to point out that all of these people are as nice, open, and supporting as any friends or mentors I've had or could imagine.
C. Stuart Hardwick
Writer's block can have a couple of different origins, but it generally comes down to not being ready for the type of writing I am attempting. If I just don't know what comes next, the solution is to stop trying to write prose and in instead focus on brainstorming and fleshing out the outline--often by engaging in a plot-breaking exercise or or going through my outline for to see which of about a dozen structural elements might need to be fleshed out. But when I know what I need to write and and having trouble creatively, it often helps just to "write into the scene." I'll have the character wake up, brush her teeth, and begin reacting to whatever came before. This all goes in the trash bin, of course, but it can get the juices flowing.
C. Stuart Hardwick
I originally wrote Rainbows for Other days for an anthology call about Cyborgs, but by the time it won Writers of the Future, I'd realized the longer, more compelling story really, was from the girl's perspective. So that's what my current work is. It's a whole new story, but based in the same world, about a girl who realizes her world is corrupt and set against her, tries to sacrifice herself for her family, and ends up uncovering secrets she could never have imagined.
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