David Heska Wanbli Weiden

How did you become a writer?

I’ve been obsessed by language, narrative, and books as long as I can remember, and always had the idea that perhaps I could be a writer someday. But I grew up in a financially challenged home and felt compelled—like many first-generation college students--to follow a secure career path, so I became a lawyer and later a teacher. But the dream stayed with me, and when my children were past the infant stage, I started writing some short stories. I thought they were great at the time, but I cringe now at the truly terrible prose and dialogue I wrote! But I stuck with it, and took some classes at a writing center in Indiana. There, my teacher encouraged me to get formal training in creative writing, so I enrolled in the low-residency MFA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and later the Institute of American Indian Arts. It was wonderful to connect with like-minded people at those schools, and I soaked up as many craft books and articles as I could. Those years were really important to me, and I’m delighted now to help emerging writers as a faculty member at two MFA programs and a local writing workshop. 

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

My teachers at Vermont College of Fine Arts and the Institute of American Indian Arts were all fantastic. They guided me in a very supportive way and helped me identify the (many!) weaknesses in my writing. In particular, David Jauss’s craft books and articles were tremendously helpful, and I assign them now to my writing students. For learning plot and narrative structure, I recommend reading screenplay writing books, especially the Save the Cat! series. Although some people don’t like the screenplay template used in those books, I advise that it’s wise to first learn the standard three-act narrative structure before you try alternatives. In terms of novels, the works of Larry McMurtry and James Welch were crucial to me, both as a reader and writer. 

When and where do you write? 

As the father of two teenage boys, I have to carve out writing time whenever I can. Generally, that means very, very early in the morning and sometimes late at night. I have a home office with a wonderful view of some maple trees, but I get cabin fever easily and find that a trip to the coffeehouse will often help my writing. I strongly recommend changing your writing routine (time, place, music, anything different) if you feel you’re stuck.

What are you working on now? 

The sequel to Winter Counts! I’m truly delighted to share that there will be another Virgil Wounded Horse novel. The working title is Wounded Horse, and I’m working on it now. Virgil, Marie, Nathan, and Tommy will be back, as well as a surprising new character. Writing the second book in a series presents some challenges I haven’t faced before, and I’m learning as I go. For example, there’s a balancing act between presenting enough information for readers who may not have read the first book but not boring those who did. There’s also the challenge of having your characters grow and change, but not so much that you lose their fundamental nature. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Certainly. There have been times that I just can’t get my creative work going, and that’s when I turn to editing, research, or some other task related to my current project. I think it’s important to realize that sometimes you just won’t be able to create, for whatever reason. But it’s critical to use your time productively and keep your momentum going on a project. 

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Be ruthless when editing your own work! When you think you’ve done as much revision and editing as you can, go over your manuscript one more time and take out any unnecessary language. A writing instructor said this to me years ago, but I didn’t really understand it until I had to edit the final manuscript for Winter Counts and take out 10,000 words. I didn’t think I could cut that much out, but I was wrong. I looked at every scene and every paragraph and mercilessly edited it. I ended up with a much tighter and cleaner book and learned a valuable lesson.

What’s your advice to new writers?

I often hear the advice, “Write every day without fail!” But I don’t agree with that. We all deal with family and career issues, and sometimes you have to put your writing down for a period of time. So, forgive yourself if you need to focus on other tasks for a bit. But let me be clear:  being a serious writer requires a considerable time commitment. Writing a novel, memoir, or other creative work takes a massive amount of time, and you will most likely have to sacrifice something to achieve the dream of completing your work. While writing Winter Counts, I had to give up watching movies and attending concerts, some of my favorite activities. But I promise it will be worth it when you finish your project.

Bonus advice! In a workshop, I find that new writers often discount the suggestions from fellow students and only listen to their instructors. That’s a mistake. Every reader—even if they’re not a well-established author—has something to tell you, and you should consider carefully what they’re saying. Of course, you’ll end up discounting many of those comments, but you may find that someone has discovered an area for revision that you (or the teacher) hadn’t realized. In other words, be open to all good-faith suggestions, whatever the source. 

David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota nation, is the author of the novel Winter Counts (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2020), a New York Times Editors’ Choice, Amazon Best Book, Best of the Month by Apple Books, Indie Next Great Reads pick, and main selection of the Book of the Month Club. He also wrote the children’s book Spotted Tail (Reycraft, 2019), winner of the 2020 Spur Award from the Western Writers of America and finalist for the Colorado Book Awards. He’s the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship, a Ragdale Foundation residency, the PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship, and was a Tin House Scholar. He received his MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts, and is professor of Native American studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Andrew Martin

How did you become a writer? 

In 1988, I won a competition run by The Spectator magazine, and so became their Young Writer of the Year. At the time, I was a postgraduate law student trying to decide whether to give up the law for journalism. Winning that competition persuaded me to do so, in that I didn’t see myself ever becoming Young Lawyer of the Year.

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

I try to learn from my favourite writers, who include Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Vladimir Nabokov, Patricia Highsmith, Martin Amis. But any writer who said they were influenced by, say, Nabokov could expect to be laughed it. It’d be like saying you were influenced by Shakespeare. 

When and where do you write? 

In the morning, between about 9.30 and 1pm, while lying in bed. Sometimes, I feel guilty about proceeding in this way, so I get up, make the bed and write while lying on it rather than in it. I might do an extra hour later in the day, perhaps sitting in my garden shed while smoking a cigar. One petit corona (that’s a cigar, not a virus) equals about eight hundred words. But mornings should be enough. Charles Dickens, I think, wrote only between about 9am and 2pm.

What are you working on now? 

I’m reading the proofs of the latest novel in my series of historical thrillers about a railway policeman called Jim Stringer. It’s the tenth one in the series. The ninth appeared about seven years ago, so my publishers are billing this as ‘the return of Jim Stringer’. It’s called Powder Smoke and is a kind of western set in the north of England in 1925. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

No – can’t afford it. I always need the delivery money. 

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

When I was at university, a friend who was reading English (whereas I was reading History) looked over a job application letter I’d written. It began something like, ‘Dear Sir, I wonder if, by any chance, you might possibly be willing to consider my application for…’ My friend said: ‘There are too many words here.’ 

What’s your advice to new writers?

Keep writing until you are genuinely pleased with what you’ve produced, by which I mean that you still like it a week later. That’s your tone. Don’t analyse it too closely, because you don’t want to become self-conscious about it, but keep trying to re-locate that groove. 

Andrew Martin is the author of fifteen novels and seven works of non-fiction. His novels are mostly in the historical crime genre, and include the award-winning Jim Stringer series, set on the railways of early twentieth century Britain. A new Jim Stringer novel, Powder Smoke, is forthcoming in January 2021. Martin’s latest stand-alone novel is The Winker, which is set in 1976, and concerns a would-be pop star who winks at people and then kills them. Andrew Martin’s website is at jimstringernovels.com.

Stephen Graham Jones

How did you become a writer?

Just an avid reader who wanted to participate, probably. Stories and comics and novels gave me so much, growing up, and still, that I wanted to step onto that board. Either that or I grew up with a lot of brothers, and was always having to make up more and more convincing lies about who's fault this mess actually was, and I found that I could skate, pretty much, I could spin stories that would completely get me out of trouble. So I just kept doing it.

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

William J. Cobb and Janet Burroway were both big parts of the graduate programs I was, and I see traces of their work and words all through my stuff. Philip K. Dick, Louise Erdrich, Octavia Butler, Stephen King, Kurt Vonnegut, Louis L'Amour, they're all part of my writer DNA as well. Along with Conan the Barbarian. Of course.

When and where do you write? 

Just when—and wherever I can find a moment out of the wind, pretty much. I do a lot of writing in airports, in hotels, waiting for buses. And of course my study at home, my office at work. And I'm always pulling my bicycle over to jot a line or two down. Or, sometimes I think I can just pedal and write at the same time. Sometimes it works out. Often it doesn't.

What are you working on now? 

Edits for a slasher novel out next summer. And some scripts—feature, television, and comic. And of course short stories. I'll always be writing short stories. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Nope. Doesn't seem like it'd be fun, and I think it's all made-up anyway. 

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Leave the door to my study open, so my family can come in when they need to, since they're more important than words on a page. That's from Janet Burroway.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Read outside your genre. Choose writing over everything but family and health. Specifically, always choose it over reality television or the bar.

Stephen Graham Jones is the author of twenty-five or so novels and collections, and there’s some novellas and comic books in there as well. Stephen’s been an NEA recipient, has won the Texas Institute of Letters Award for Fiction, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, a Bram Stoker Award, four This is Horror Awards, and he’s been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and the World Fantasy Award. He’s also made Bloody Disgusting’s Top Ten Horror Novels, and is the guy who wrote Mongrels and The Only Good Indians. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado.