Chuck Wendig

How did you become a writer?

That's always a strange question, because I feel like the answer should be, "I was bathed in gamma radiation," or, "I was bitten by a radioactive Harlan Ellison." Really the answer is fairly straightforward: I wanted to become a writer, and so I worked to become one.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

I read a lot as a child: Lloyd Alexander, C.S. Lewis. I read a lot as a teenager: Robert McCammon, Christopher Moore. I read a lot in college: Joe Lansdale, James Joyce, Robin Hobb. I had a great professor in college, too -- Mike Kobre. Plus the standard gamut of great writing books by the likes of Lawrence Block and Stephen King.

Oh! And life. Life is the biggest writing influence of them all.

When and where do you write?

Anywhere and anywhere I have to, really, but the more common answer day to day is, I get up at 6AM and write until I'm done for the day (which is a swiftly moving target, this word "done"). I write in my office, which overlooks a forest so thick I can see nothing but that forest.

What are you working on now?

Writing BAIT DOG. Outlining the next Miriam Black book and also BEYOND DINOCALYPSE.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Mmmnope.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Finish what you started. You can't move forward until you finish something. Though, to be clear, I dispense a great heaping helping of dubious writing wisdom over at my blog, terribleminds.com, which is strongly writer-focused.

Chuck Wendig is a novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. He's the author of DOUBLE DEAD, BLACKBIRDS, and DINOCALYPSE NOW, and is co-writer of the short film PANDEMIC, the film HiM, and the Emmy-nominated digital narrative COLLAPSUS. He lives in Pennsylvania with wife, taco terrier, and tiny human.