Ask the Author: Syrus Durham
Answered Questions (2)
Syrus Durham
The primary way I deal with writer's block is to work on something else. I don't always write my chapters in sequential order or even from start to finish within the chapter! If I know other scenes or passages in the story, I'll jump to one of them and start writing. Or sometimes I'll work on another project, as I often have more than one thing going on at the same time. If neither of those work, I'll try outlining something for yet a different project, as I have several under-developed ideas floating around in my head. And if all else fails, Words With Friends anyone?
Syrus Durham
My most recent book is "Short Time," which is about a scientist who starts shrinking due to sabotage of her miniaturization project. I'm a fan of classic sci-fi, and the movie "The Incredible Shrinking Man" had an impact on me when I was younger. I thought that situation would be both interesting (the world would appear very different) and terrifying (giant objects, people, and animals posed perilous problems). Later in my life, I was reading a murder mystery, and I wondered if I could write a murder-by-shrinking mystery. But the twist would be that the murder hadn't yet happened; it was in process, like the film-noir "DOA." So I came up with a plausible situation how it could happen and populated the story with a supporting cast that could have a grudge against the main character, and then I wrote. And revised. And revised some more. And now people have bought it, which is something I still find surreal!
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