Bryan Murphy's Blog - Posts Tagged "process"
The Writing Process Blog Hop Tour comes to Turin, Italy
The author Marta Merajver-Kurlat (http://www.martamerajver.com.ar/marta...), author of Just Toss the Ashes and Why Can't I Make Money? among other works, kindly invited me to participate in this blog hop tour and answer four questions about my writing process.
1) What am I working on?
I’m working on a novel, set in Portugal in the 1970s. It’s my first novel – usually I write short stories or poems. And usually I write about the future, in order to write about the present.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Well, in the novel, I’m using the past, for once, to write about both the present and the future. I don’t read enough historical fiction to know how different that makes it. Most of my work, though, is speculative fiction. It’s really too low-tech to be true science fiction, though it tends to be set in the future, the near future. Perhaps a better descriptor is social science fiction. Wherever and whenever it is set, I aim to write literature first and genre fiction second.
3) Why do I write what I do?
I like to set my stories in places where I have lived and worked, like England, Italy, Portugal and China, but to move away from the present in order to get a clearer perspective on them.
4) How does my writing process work?
Writing a novel has changed this. Before, I would write the story or poem on paper. Then I would type it on to the computer, print it out and revise it (several times) using pen on paper, before keying in the changes to leave a final version on the computer. Now, the first version of each chapter goes straight on to the computer. It saves time and speeds me towards the goal of a completed first draft. I’m hoping to reach that particular target by the end of this year, after which I’m prepared to spend another year turning it from a finished novel into a good novel, if I can.
Three fine authors will be taking up the baton next week and explaining their writing process: Jacob Singer, Leigh M. Lane and David Whippman.
Here are their bios and links.
LEIGH M. LANE
Leigh M. Lane has been writing for over twenty years. She has ten published novels and twelve published short stories divided among different genre-specific pseudonyms. She is married to editor Thomas B. Lane, Jr. and has recently returned to the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas after a three-year stay in the beautiful but desolate mountains of western Montana.
Her traditional Gothic horror novel, Finding Poe, was a 2013 EPIC Awards finalist in horror. Her other novels include the supernatural thriller, The Hidden Valley Horror, inspired by Barker, Bradbury, and King; World-Mart, a tribute to Orwell, Serling, and Vonnegut; and the dark allegorical tale, Myths of Gods.
http://www.cerebralwriter.com
http://www.cerebralwriter.com/blog.html
DAVID WHIPPMAN
David Whippman was born and raised in Bristol, then lived in Devon and is currently based in Lancashire, England. He spent most of his working life in healthcare. Now retired, David is a poet, storyteller and essayist. He also devotes time to art, chess and music. His blog on his writing process will appear at http://on.fb.me/1fOYs3Z
JACOB SINGER
Jacob Singer was born in Potchefstroom South Africa. After he matriculated, he studied Pharmacy at the Chelsea Polytechnic in London, England. Five years later he returned to South Africa, met and married Evelyn Jackson, and opened a pharmacy in Potchefstroom.
In 1985 he retired and in December 1992, with his family, he emigrated to Canada. His family had been threatened by the South African Security Police because of his work against the apartheid Government.
In 1995 he started writing his first book, BRAKENSTROOM, self-publishing it in 1999. In 2006 he started writing his second book, The VASE with the MANY COLOURED MARBLES, a story about a mother and daughter he knew when he was a boy, a story that explains in detail the horror of being classified a second class citizen in apartheid South Africa.
He is presently working on a third book, a true story about three friends.
You may visit his website at www.jacobashersinger.com
You can find his blog here: http://patroosp.blogspot.ca/
Join them next Sunday!
1) What am I working on?
I’m working on a novel, set in Portugal in the 1970s. It’s my first novel – usually I write short stories or poems. And usually I write about the future, in order to write about the present.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Well, in the novel, I’m using the past, for once, to write about both the present and the future. I don’t read enough historical fiction to know how different that makes it. Most of my work, though, is speculative fiction. It’s really too low-tech to be true science fiction, though it tends to be set in the future, the near future. Perhaps a better descriptor is social science fiction. Wherever and whenever it is set, I aim to write literature first and genre fiction second.
3) Why do I write what I do?
I like to set my stories in places where I have lived and worked, like England, Italy, Portugal and China, but to move away from the present in order to get a clearer perspective on them.
4) How does my writing process work?
Writing a novel has changed this. Before, I would write the story or poem on paper. Then I would type it on to the computer, print it out and revise it (several times) using pen on paper, before keying in the changes to leave a final version on the computer. Now, the first version of each chapter goes straight on to the computer. It saves time and speeds me towards the goal of a completed first draft. I’m hoping to reach that particular target by the end of this year, after which I’m prepared to spend another year turning it from a finished novel into a good novel, if I can.
Three fine authors will be taking up the baton next week and explaining their writing process: Jacob Singer, Leigh M. Lane and David Whippman.
Here are their bios and links.
LEIGH M. LANE
Leigh M. Lane has been writing for over twenty years. She has ten published novels and twelve published short stories divided among different genre-specific pseudonyms. She is married to editor Thomas B. Lane, Jr. and has recently returned to the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas after a three-year stay in the beautiful but desolate mountains of western Montana.
Her traditional Gothic horror novel, Finding Poe, was a 2013 EPIC Awards finalist in horror. Her other novels include the supernatural thriller, The Hidden Valley Horror, inspired by Barker, Bradbury, and King; World-Mart, a tribute to Orwell, Serling, and Vonnegut; and the dark allegorical tale, Myths of Gods.
http://www.cerebralwriter.com
http://www.cerebralwriter.com/blog.html
DAVID WHIPPMAN
David Whippman was born and raised in Bristol, then lived in Devon and is currently based in Lancashire, England. He spent most of his working life in healthcare. Now retired, David is a poet, storyteller and essayist. He also devotes time to art, chess and music. His blog on his writing process will appear at http://on.fb.me/1fOYs3Z
JACOB SINGER
Jacob Singer was born in Potchefstroom South Africa. After he matriculated, he studied Pharmacy at the Chelsea Polytechnic in London, England. Five years later he returned to South Africa, met and married Evelyn Jackson, and opened a pharmacy in Potchefstroom.
In 1985 he retired and in December 1992, with his family, he emigrated to Canada. His family had been threatened by the South African Security Police because of his work against the apartheid Government.
In 1995 he started writing his first book, BRAKENSTROOM, self-publishing it in 1999. In 2006 he started writing his second book, The VASE with the MANY COLOURED MARBLES, a story about a mother and daughter he knew when he was a boy, a story that explains in detail the horror of being classified a second class citizen in apartheid South Africa.
He is presently working on a third book, a true story about three friends.
You may visit his website at www.jacobashersinger.com
You can find his blog here: http://patroosp.blogspot.ca/
Join them next Sunday!
