The Author Interviews, Round 3: #14: Tess Makovesky
Another round 3 interview welcomesTess Makovesky, author of Raise the Blade.
Where do you get your ideas from?Quick answer - almost anywhere! Of course, it’s not as easy as that sounds, but the sources are almost endless. Conversations I overhear, newspaper reports (especially of quirky or unusual crimes), TV shows, song lyrics, all kinds of things that mingle and mesh inside the tangled mess of my brain and lead to sudden questions popping up. ‟Why would someone do that?” ‟What if this had happened instead?” ‟What consequences could that lead to?” And off my mind scurries, and suddenly I have an idea for a story.Why do you write?I once said that being a writer isn’t what I do, it’s what I am. However difficult and demoralising writing can be at times (and it can!) I don’t honestly think I could stop, or do something else entirely different instead. I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was five years old, so in many ways it’s my dream job. And in the end, I just love exploring ideas, creating characters and telling stories too much.What do you find most appealing about your chosen genre?My genre is quite unusual - a mixture of crime, noir, and psychological thriller, but with strong elements of dark humour thrown in. I’ve always been drawn to the dark and gritty side of life (at least in theory, rather less in practice!) - I enjoyed British TV crime shows like The Sweeney and The Professionals when I was growing up, and still love good quality crime dramas and movies. What I particularly like about writing in the genre is the space it gives me to work out peoples’ motives - why they choose to do what they do, what drives them. In my debut novella ‘Raise the Blade’, for instance, I examine whether people can contribute to their own downfall by the choices they make. Nobody deserves to be a serial killer’s victim, but are some people predisposed by their nature to make bad choices in life? It’s a subject I find endlessly fascinating.How do you deal with bad reviews, rejection and criticism?Better than I used to, but it’s still incredibly hard, for all authors, not just me. You put in days, weeks, months of hard work. You never really switch off. Your pour your very soul into your work. And then someone says something negative about it, and that can really hurt. Of course, if it’s constructive feedback then that can be useful - once I’ve picked myself up off the floor I start thinking how I can use it to improve my writing, and I’ve gained some extremely valuable insights that way. But it can still be hard to listen to, especially the first time round.What do you find difficult about writing?Sometimes it can be frustrating having an idea but not being able to choose the right words to get it down on paper. I’ll sit and gaze at the computer screen for hours, writing two words and deleting three, until something eventually clicks and I can get going properly.On a more practical level, I find it hard to write in noisy environments, or when there’s something unpleasant happening in my personal life - family illness, for example. I do need to be able to concentrate one hundred per cent, because when I’m writing a scene, I have to be there, with the people, in the same place, so I can recreate exactly what’s happening to them. That’s quite hard if someone’s drilling something or there’s a baby screaming down my ear!Do you ever outsource your work?As in ghost writing, you mean? No, I’ve never tried that. I have nothing against it, but I think I’m too much of a control freak. They’re my characters, dammit, and I want the final say on what happens to them.What is your opinion on indie vs traditional publishing?My own opinion is that all kinds of publishing are paths up the same mountain. Some have different benefits or challenges, and speaking personally I would never pay a company to publish my work, but what works for one writer doesn’t work for another so it’s good to have as wide a choice as possible.On a personal level I’m very happy with my publisher, Caffeine Nights, a small independent outfit based in the UK who specialise in crime and horror. They’ll take a punt on new authors and different styles (novellas like ‘Raise the Blade’, for example), they’re switched on when it comes to marketing, and they come up with a thoroughly professional product for their authors.Talk us through your creative process from start to finish.I’m a bit of a ‘seat of the pants’ writer. I get an idea and start chewing on it, mentally, which can take hours, days, or even weeks. That leads to a more specific story arc, followed by a title, setting, the first few characters, a reasonable idea of the ending, and hopefully, a first line. Once I have those in place, I start writing. And then I go on writing until I’ve finished the book. Sounds easy? Well, er, no. In actual fact I quite often end up in a complete muddle and have to go back and add bits and sort other bits out. Sometimes it never does come together. When it does, it seems to work surprisingly well.What advice would you give to aspiring writers?All the usual stuff: go for it, believe in yourself, be realistic, don’t expect to be J K Rowling. But the most important, for me, is to know what you write, and understand who you’re writing it for. In other words, know your market. Who is going to read your work? Who is going to most want to buy it? Once you understand that, you can target your work so much better - at writers, markets, and the right publishers for your genre and style.If you could go back in time 12 months, what advice would you give yourself?Hmm, that’s a hard one! I think, for me, it would have to be to have more faith in myself, and in the fact that it will all come together and turn out for the best, even when things don’t seem to be going well. I’m a terrible worrier, and spend far too long scaring myself half to death with the thought that it will all have been for nothing. And then something nice happens, like getting my book published, and I’m surprised. But maybe I shouldn’t be!Thanks to Tess for this interesting interview. Please show your support by purchasing an ebook today.
Where do you get your ideas from?Quick answer - almost anywhere! Of course, it’s not as easy as that sounds, but the sources are almost endless. Conversations I overhear, newspaper reports (especially of quirky or unusual crimes), TV shows, song lyrics, all kinds of things that mingle and mesh inside the tangled mess of my brain and lead to sudden questions popping up. ‟Why would someone do that?” ‟What if this had happened instead?” ‟What consequences could that lead to?” And off my mind scurries, and suddenly I have an idea for a story.Why do you write?I once said that being a writer isn’t what I do, it’s what I am. However difficult and demoralising writing can be at times (and it can!) I don’t honestly think I could stop, or do something else entirely different instead. I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was five years old, so in many ways it’s my dream job. And in the end, I just love exploring ideas, creating characters and telling stories too much.What do you find most appealing about your chosen genre?My genre is quite unusual - a mixture of crime, noir, and psychological thriller, but with strong elements of dark humour thrown in. I’ve always been drawn to the dark and gritty side of life (at least in theory, rather less in practice!) - I enjoyed British TV crime shows like The Sweeney and The Professionals when I was growing up, and still love good quality crime dramas and movies. What I particularly like about writing in the genre is the space it gives me to work out peoples’ motives - why they choose to do what they do, what drives them. In my debut novella ‘Raise the Blade’, for instance, I examine whether people can contribute to their own downfall by the choices they make. Nobody deserves to be a serial killer’s victim, but are some people predisposed by their nature to make bad choices in life? It’s a subject I find endlessly fascinating.How do you deal with bad reviews, rejection and criticism?Better than I used to, but it’s still incredibly hard, for all authors, not just me. You put in days, weeks, months of hard work. You never really switch off. Your pour your very soul into your work. And then someone says something negative about it, and that can really hurt. Of course, if it’s constructive feedback then that can be useful - once I’ve picked myself up off the floor I start thinking how I can use it to improve my writing, and I’ve gained some extremely valuable insights that way. But it can still be hard to listen to, especially the first time round.What do you find difficult about writing?Sometimes it can be frustrating having an idea but not being able to choose the right words to get it down on paper. I’ll sit and gaze at the computer screen for hours, writing two words and deleting three, until something eventually clicks and I can get going properly.On a more practical level, I find it hard to write in noisy environments, or when there’s something unpleasant happening in my personal life - family illness, for example. I do need to be able to concentrate one hundred per cent, because when I’m writing a scene, I have to be there, with the people, in the same place, so I can recreate exactly what’s happening to them. That’s quite hard if someone’s drilling something or there’s a baby screaming down my ear!Do you ever outsource your work?As in ghost writing, you mean? No, I’ve never tried that. I have nothing against it, but I think I’m too much of a control freak. They’re my characters, dammit, and I want the final say on what happens to them.What is your opinion on indie vs traditional publishing?My own opinion is that all kinds of publishing are paths up the same mountain. Some have different benefits or challenges, and speaking personally I would never pay a company to publish my work, but what works for one writer doesn’t work for another so it’s good to have as wide a choice as possible.On a personal level I’m very happy with my publisher, Caffeine Nights, a small independent outfit based in the UK who specialise in crime and horror. They’ll take a punt on new authors and different styles (novellas like ‘Raise the Blade’, for example), they’re switched on when it comes to marketing, and they come up with a thoroughly professional product for their authors.Talk us through your creative process from start to finish.I’m a bit of a ‘seat of the pants’ writer. I get an idea and start chewing on it, mentally, which can take hours, days, or even weeks. That leads to a more specific story arc, followed by a title, setting, the first few characters, a reasonable idea of the ending, and hopefully, a first line. Once I have those in place, I start writing. And then I go on writing until I’ve finished the book. Sounds easy? Well, er, no. In actual fact I quite often end up in a complete muddle and have to go back and add bits and sort other bits out. Sometimes it never does come together. When it does, it seems to work surprisingly well.What advice would you give to aspiring writers?All the usual stuff: go for it, believe in yourself, be realistic, don’t expect to be J K Rowling. But the most important, for me, is to know what you write, and understand who you’re writing it for. In other words, know your market. Who is going to read your work? Who is going to most want to buy it? Once you understand that, you can target your work so much better - at writers, markets, and the right publishers for your genre and style.If you could go back in time 12 months, what advice would you give yourself?Hmm, that’s a hard one! I think, for me, it would have to be to have more faith in myself, and in the fact that it will all come together and turn out for the best, even when things don’t seem to be going well. I’m a terrible worrier, and spend far too long scaring myself half to death with the thought that it will all have been for nothing. And then something nice happens, like getting my book published, and I’m surprised. But maybe I shouldn’t be!Thanks to Tess for this interesting interview. Please show your support by purchasing an ebook today.
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