Ask the Author: Rafe Jadison
Answered Questions (6)
Rafe Jadison
I got the idea for the book I am about to publish, Seduced by Shark Shifters IV: Mark's Midlife, actually from a character in another book in the series. My whole premise with the Seduced by Shark Shifters series has been to show a variety of different men, most of them gay or bisexual, and to highlight the various differences in their sexuality. I think that people often assume that the story of a gay man is the same all around, but those stories are so different. There are men who were practically born knowing they were gay and others who didn't deal with it until they had grandchildren. There are men who never even realized they were attracted to men until they met a special someone, and there are men who, for whatever reasons, will never be comfortable with being gay. There are also a million types of relationships, and in this series I want to show a lot of them. Mark, the protagonist, has a different story than everyone else in the series, yet I can imagine a lot of people in the real world can relate to him. There is another character in the series, Stefano, who I dearly love, but he's just not right for the guy he was chasing. Mark came about as a character who would have a strong reaction to Stefano, as well as to several of the other characters. His characters is introduced at the end of the previous book, but he is not fully explored until this fourth book. I think he's an incredible character not only for the life he's led, but also for his interactions with Stefano and the rest of the crowd in Shark Beach. Did I mention that this book sets up the premise for a spin-off series?
Rafe Jadison
As usual, I am currently working on several things at once, with a few of them on the back burner. I am about to publish Seduced by Shark Shifters IV: Mark's Midlife, and I also have a paranormal m/m romance and a sci-fi m/m romance in the works. I am terribly excited about all of them, and as often happens, I have found that life and that whole day job thing have kept me a little busier than I had planned to be.
Rafe Jadison
I think the best thing about being a writer is that all of those odd little things that happen in my life can be used as a material. I have often felt that there are times in our life to write and times to live. We can do things for the life experience that we might not do were we not writers. It's amazing how a less than wonderful day can make for a brilliant story.
Rafe Jadison
I don't know that I'm qualified to answer that question. I think there are many areas where I would love some advice. On the other hand, I don't know that anyone is qualified to answer that question. When writers advise other writers, we are simply telling others what worked for us, although there are certain things that work for many people. I think the first thing you have to do is write. I think we all know people who talk about how they are going to write. They buy beautiful foo foo writing accoutrements, and plan these great writer weekends, but then they don't write. I think most writers like to fiddle around, but we all have to get to that point where we set aside a time to ignore all the many other things we need to do, and we just write. That time can be anytime, but you need to find that time. For some people it may be daily, for others it may be all day Saturday. We're different, and so are our schedules. Don't be afraid to make time for yourself. I actually came up with an idea to tell people that I was having dinner with a friend on nights I needed to write and just tell them the friend's name was the name of a character. I don't think I've had to do that much, but I keep it on the back burner. Another thing that I think people can do is to write for themselves. I think when you are able to knock out all the ideas that you have of what a good book is and write that thing you want to write, you free yourself up mentally. I think it's great to take classes and read books on writing. Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction is amazing. It teaches you all the basics and is used by writers at a variety of levels. Ultimately though, you have to be confident in what you've learned and just write. One thing that has really worked for me is to keep a side project on the back burner. If I find myself struggling with my work in progress, I can go to the side project. One of my favorite pieces started off as a play project because I was stuck with the work I considered to be my serious piece. The side project flowed like Niagara Falls, and I think a great deal of that was due to the fact that I had low expectations for it and so the pressure was off. I also suggest that writers read. Don't just read the people who write as you think you want to, read everyone. It usually doesn't hurt to learn different ways to do something.
Rafe Jadison
If you read the blog on my webpage, you'll see that an ageless and beautiful muse inspires me to write. She, of course, uses a variety of things to inspire me to write. Sometimes, it's a song. On other occasions, it might be an idea that comes when I'm showering in the morning--perhaps it arose in my subconscious overnight. Usually though, I am inspired by situations. When I was in college, and I was seriously writing a lot, I found myself using my writing to better understand an odd situation. I think as a participant in life we are often just left with our reactions to a particular situation. When writing, you have the opportunity to take those situations and look at them from multiple points of view. You are suddenly putting yourself in the situation as all of the characters. It's like a dream where every character is some aspect of you, except as a writer you start to understand why each party did what they did. Also, like many writers, sometimes I play the what if game. It's where you simply wonder, what would happen if this happened? As a writer, you frequently make up stories to find out.
Rafe Jadison
Writer's block can look different for different authors. For some people, it's just not coming up with ideas. For me, I usually experience the opposite of that, meaning that I frequently have ideas for another story while working on my current one, and I find it hard to get all of these things done. I often have a list of possible projects, and when I finish one, I jump into the next. One way in which writer's block does affect me is that I occasionally get stuck in a story. I heard someone say once that writer's block comes from not knowing enough about your characters, or not having asked enough questions about them yet. Taking that into consideration, when I get stuck in a story, I usually take a really long walk, or a drive if a walk isn't possible, and ask myself what should happen in this moment of the story. I look at what the characters would do, and I also look at my end goal, something I might end up changing if it doesn't work with a particular set of characters. Sometimes you think you're writing about one thing, but when you get into the heart of it, you find that you are actually telling a completely different story. Most of the time, my characters lead and I follow, typing as we go.
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