Austin Kleon

How did you become a writer?

Like most of our kind, I started out as a reader. I just really, really love to read. My parents read to me every night, we’d make weekly trips to the public library, and my mom would buy me a new book whenever she went to the mall on the weekend and I’d sit in a chair and read it while she shopped. In elementary school, we had a young author’s program where we wrote and illustrated our own books, in sixth grade, I won a big national essay contest, and in high school I took English courses at the local branch of Ohio University.

When I went to college I started studying writing more intensely. I took a lot of creative writing workshops, wrote music reviews and other pieces for a few rags and zines, and studied literature for a semester abroad at Cambridge University. But my senior year I discovered comics again and realized that I needed to figure out a way to bring my writing and drawing back together again.

I joined a writing group in Cleveland after college, got a job at a public library, and started submitting stories to journals. I soon decided I wasn’t a short story writer and that I had no talent for fiction. So I started a blog, drew a lot, thought I might do a graphic novel, wandered a bit, and then I started making my newspaper blackout poems. Those took off big in 2008 after I moved to Texas and got a job as a web designer, and my first book, Newspaper Blackout, came out in 2010. Based on my work on that book, my web skills, and my modest success online, I got a job as an interactive copywriter in 2011. I worked as a copywriter for a year until the release of my new book, Steal Like An Artist.

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

I think when I was younger, I was shaped by movies, comics, and pop music more than anything else. I remember watching VCR tapes over and over, stuff like Back to the Future and Ghostbusters, reading comics from the bookmobile like Far Side and Garfield, and copying down song lyrics in my notebook, from acts like Beck and the Velvet Underground. As for books, in elementary it was Choose Your Own Adventure, in middle school, Orwell’s 1984, in high school, Howard Zinn’s People’s History.

When I got to college two people really influenced me: my writing teacher, Steven Bauer, and my good friend Brandon Abood. Steven turned me on to George Saunders and Kurt Vonnegut and helped me discover my sense of humor in my writing, and Brandon turned me on to writers like Charles Bukowski and Raymond Carver.

When I moved to Cleveland after college, my (soon-to-be) father-in-law was a big influence on me. He’s such an incredible writer and a mind. He’s been at it professionally for almost 40 years, and his chops are just so honed from a life or working. He just inspired me to not bullshit, to be a good family man and a mensch.

I also befriended a writer named Dan Chaon who teaches writing at Oberlin College. He invited me to see Lynda Barry speak and to hang out with her at a bar afterwards. That night literally changed my life. Getting to know Lynda and her work just kind of unlocked something in my brain, and I saw that there was a model for putting pictures and words together in your career. Then, a few months later I saw a Saul Steinberg show on my honeymoon, and I loved his autobiographical phrase “a writer who draws” so much that I decided to steal it for myself.

After that I found myself mostly influenced by really good blogs and bloggers online. People like Hugh MacLeod, Maud Newton, Jason Kottke, and the 37 Signals guys.

When and where do you write?

I like to write and draw in the morning at my desk. (I aspire to John Waters’ routine: make stuff up in the morning, and sell it in the afternoon.) I have an “analog” desk where nothing digital is allowed — and then, when I’m finished, I’ll go over to my “digital” desk and fiddle with whatever I’ve made. Sometimes I go back and forth between the two.

What are you working on now?

I’m writing and researching a little essay about forgery vs. plagiarism as different models for creating new work, and I’m also starting to think about my next book, which is going to be about marriage and creativity.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Yes! My newspaper blackout poems were a direct response to the writer’s block I had after college. The thing about creative writing workshops in college is that they’re the perfect, artificial environment for writers: your teacher is getting paid to pay attention to your writing, and your fellow students are paying to care about your writing. It’s what every writer dreams of: a captive audience. Then, you get out of school and you realize that nobody gives a crap about you. That really paralyzed me, and it took me a while to really be honest about what I liked and what I wanted to be writing.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Well, my whole book, Steal Like An Artist, is basically a big list of advice I wish I’d had when I was 19, but four things that are really, really important to me:

1) Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started. The way you figure yourself out is by making things.

2) Write the book you want to read. Don’t screw around writing work to please your teachers or agents or literary journals. Think about the books you love, and mash them up into something of your own. Think about the writers you love, and pick up the torch from them.

3) Do good work and put it where people can see it. That’s the only real secret. The internet is the major medium of our time, so don’t ignore it, embrace it.

4) Be boring. It’s the only way to get work done. Get a day job, find a regular hour or two a day to write, take care of yourself, and be a good friend.

How has the Internet influenced your writing?

Pretty much everything good that’s happened in my career has been the result of my engaging with the internet. Having a blog meant I felt like I needed to fill it with something which made me make a lot of new work. Both my books started on my blog. Blogging also meant I could post not just my own work, but I could point to the things I loved, and I gained a readership that valued me as not just a writer, but a kind of curator and thinker. Now, with Twitter, I find myself constantly being influenced by my readers — they send me good stuff just as much as I send it to them. I’m so happy to be alive and working right now.

Austin Kleon is a writer who draws.

http://www.austinkleon.com

Robert Masello

How did you become a writer?

I don't actually know when I wasn't a writer, or at least trying to be one. My mother gave me a toy typewriter when I was about six, and even on that I started to bang out ghost and horror stories.  What's odd is that my tastes haven't changed very much all these years later. My most recent novels, "Blood and Ice" and "The Medusa Amulet," for instance, are still gussied up supernatural tales, and I could swear I'm still doing versions of scenes, and going for effects, that I was striving to achieve on that little red typewriter in my bedroom in Evanston, Illinois.  

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

Boy, I had so many influences over the years, from terrific English teachers in high school  (Curtis Crotty, Ronald Gearing, Barbara Pannwitt -- thank you so much!) to various writers ranging from W. Somerset Maugham (who taught me how critical it was to create characters the reader cares about) to Ian Fleming (who taught me how to hold off the conclusion of an action sequence) to the great English writer of ghost stories, M.R. James, whose tales still give me the creeps every time I re-read them.

When and where do you write?

Anytime, but only in my messy little upstairs office. I have no set schedule, but I usually feel most creative at night when the phone stops ringing, the e-mails slow down, and the dog, my sole companion, goes to sleep.  

What are you working on now?

Right now I'm doing the copy-edit (a hard, but vitally important chore in the progress of any book) on my upcoming novel, "The Romanov Cross." And in any spare time I have, I'm working on the idea for the next one. I have a general arena for the action, and a main character I'm excited about, but the plot is still escaping me. Plot, for me, is far and away the hardest part of any project, and I so much admire writers -- from Dickens to Stephen King -- who seem to never want for one.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Not really. There are certainly times when the work is not going well, but I usually just turn to writing something else -- an essay, say, or an article -- until the big project (a book, or script) gets moving again. Sometimes, all it takes is a day or two away from the project to come back to it with fresh eyes and energy.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Stick to it, if you're serious. It doesn't necessarily get any easier, but you do get better at it. I know so many people who WANT to write, but very few of them can force themselves into a quiet room, for hours at a stretch, to get it done. It's lonely work, and isolating -- and that's, without a doubt, the most difficult aspect of it for me. I'm a sociable guy by nature, but much of the time I have to sequester myself in this little room (in need of a paint job) that I'm in right now. Thank god for the dog!

Bio: I grew up, as mentioned earlier, in Evanston, Illinois, studied writing under Robert Stone and Geoffrey Wolff (two marvelous writers) at Princeton, then moved to New York, where I wrote for magazines and newspapers for many years. I also turned out a few books in those years -- "Black Horizon," "The Spirit Wood," "Private Demons," "Fallen Angels," "Raising Hell" ---- which have now been reissued on-line by Premier Digital.  It's nice, but strange, to have those old titles available again.  It's like meeting up again, years later, with children  you had been forced to abandon. (I wonder if I have the nerve to read them again.)  I moved to Los Angeles in 1991, wrote for some TV shows (such as "Charmed" and "Sliders"), and then returned to my first love, books. The most recent, a supernatural thriller rooted in the Renaissance, is called "The Medusa Amulet," and it came out in a paperback edition from Bantam just last week.

Andy Ihnatko

How did you become a writer?

The Sensitive Artiste answer is that I became a writer on some school night in the 6th grade, when I entered a contest in a computer magazine. You were supposed to explain why Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak named their new company "Apple" and I wrote a three-page short story about it. It was, I think, the first time I ever wrote something strictly for fun as opposed to because an authority figure promised dire consequences if I didn't. When I got to the end of the story, I was filled with the as-yet unfamiliar sensations of joy and pride, and I was eager to keep right on chasing that dragon.

Around this same time, I read "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy" for the first time and was introduced to another unfamiliar sensation: reading something for sheer pleasure and enjoying every single page. I sat down and wrote my Magnum Opus: a twelve-page story (my longest to date) that was an utterly shameless ripoff of Douglas Adams' style. It wasn't good writing but it was a great moment. I recognized it was weak sauce but instead of discouraging me, it made me eager to write something better straight away.

The Cold Capitalist answer to the question is that I started writing the monthly meeting report for my local user group's newsletter. I did it for a couple of years, receiving no reward other than a byline. But! When a magazine editor invited me to send him some samples of my writing, I had plenty of stuff to show him. And when he gave me my first paying gig, I already had enough experience to not be intimidated and forge right ahead.

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

Every writer has a thousand unconscious influences. Douglas Adams was my first conscious one. Later, though, I came to realize that I was more strongly influenced by P.G. Wodehouse and Monty Python _via_ Douglas Adams. I'm still in awe of Wodehouse...his ability to hone a sentence to perfection and make all of the segments of an intricate plot just click right together as though there was no other way for this story to develop.

There's a book of Wodehouse's collected correspondence with a friend and fellow novelist. The whole book is about his interest in the cricket and football teams of the school they both went to, AND his philosophies and methods for breaking and developing a story. I bet I re-read "Performing Flea" six times a year...it's packed with practical advice and powerful inspiration. As if the fact that he wrote 100 novels and kept writing nearly until the end of his century on this planet isn't inspiring enough!

It's out of print but it's easy to find from secondhand sellers via Amazon.

From Monty Python, I learned two things: no idea is too wild...but it's the execution of the idea that really matters.

Other than those? Two awesome newspaper columnists: Ernie Pyle and Roger Ebert.

When and where do you write?

I chop my entire waking day into three sessions, and I usually work during 1 or 2 of those sessions. My most productive time is usually from after dinnertime until bedtime.

Real writing requires a desk and a chair. I used to be able write like a hobo. Now, for whatever reason, I value a chair and a desk.

That said, I love grabbing my iPad and my bluetooth keyboard and setting off for a different writing environment. I get a little extra energy from being in a crowded space. Plus, being in a library or a coffeeshop gives you a real deadline to work against. They'll kick me out of the Panera at 10 PM, so I need to get SOMEthing done by then or else I feel like a poser.

What are you working on now?

I've always got my tech columns but I'm also working on two specific fiction projects that I'll be self-publishing later in the year.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

No. There have been times when I haven't been confident about what I was writing; times when I've had no clue about how to continue something; certainly there've been days when I haven't felt like writing and even a few days when I've felt like I'd already written my last thing, ever.

These are all tangible problems with workable solutions. I can deal with tangible problems. If I were to believe in "Writer's Block" I'd be taking a fear that I haven't explored and I'd be amplifying its paralytic power by giving it a name.

No, no, no. You don't have "Writer's Block." You're bored with what you're writing right now. So write something else! You think what you're writing stinks. You're probably right; well, keep working and make it better! You don't know how to continue? This means that you've encountered a problem and the problem won't just resolve itself so you should just keep hammering at it. 

You don't feel like writing? Don't beat yourself up. Read something. Or admit to yourself that there's more to your life than just writing. Take the day off. It'll be fine.

And if you ever find yourself moaning that you feel like you'll never write again...oh, please. Stop being a baby and write something, already.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Build your whole workflow around the "vomit draft." When you create a blank document, empty your mind of any expectations or aspirations. Just start typing. Never edit anything. Just get it all out of you and into the document. Type, type, type until you get to the end. The results will be horrible, but the hardest work is done: you'll have taken a nebulous idea out of your head and created something that really exists. Then you fix, fix, fix.

I learned this lesson stupid-late. I became paralyzed when writing fiction. Finally, I used a gimmick: I ditched my word processor and wrote the first draft in longhand. When you're writing with a pen, there's no reverse gear: you have no choice but to forge ahead and fix later. And thus, the novella that I'd been starting and stopping for months spilled out in just a few weeks.

The first draft of anything is going to be horrible. That's okay. Writing is a linear process by which you keep taking pass after pass after pass over the material until you find that miraculously the thing you're reading is somewhere inside the ballpark of what you hoped it'd be.

So don't get hung up on that first draft. Get right to work. You have to finish, or else it doesn't count. If you keep waiting for The Perfect Idea or continually restart the first eight pages of something, you'll never ever finish it. Puke it all out and then work from there. You can always lie to your editor about how effortless the writing process is for you. But only if you're handing in a finished piece.

Second advice: write outlines for anything longer than a few thousand words. If you proceed without a plan, it'll show in the final work...and you'll be making much, much more work for yourself later on.  

Besides, outlines are a wonderful scam. All you need to do is write your story in the form of a paragraph. Then you develop that one idea into a page of ideas, then several pages, expanding and shuffling and trimming as you go. Within a few weeks, you'll have the whole thing mapped out as a series of easily-manageable scenes and you can't wait to get going. And it all started with a few sentences that you tapped up as a note on your iPhone.

Third advice: Progress is your most important product. "Some days, you're just trying to keep moving the cursor to the right." The screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie said that in a podcast interview and it's stuck with me ever since. If all you managed to do today was sit down at the keyboard and push the cursor to the right...you did OK. Writing is a muscle that responds to exercise and atrophies in its absence.

Bio: I've been writing about technology professionally for 20 years, and writing fiction for fun for longer than that.