r/books • u/terribleminds AMA Author • Apr 07 '20
ama 3pm Ahoy, Reddit, I’m Chuck Wendig, Author of Wanderers (And Other Books) — AMA!
Chuck Wendig here, author of way too many books, including the Miriam Black series, Invasive, the Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy, and my newest Wanderers — which is about a bat-originated presymptomatic pandemic set during an election year. So, totally not relevant at all! Feel free to bop by and ask me whatever, and I’ll endeavor to A your Qs starting around 3pm today. Thanks, Pandemic Pals!
Proof: /img/nj79vdikp2r41.jpg
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u/labanlieue Apr 07 '20
Do you ever get...productivity paralysis? Or writer's block? What gets you through it?
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
Oof. Timely, tough question, innit.
As I'm wont to say, you first have to figure out if your "writer's block" is actually depression or anxiety, because you can't treat depression/anxiety as if it's writer's block, because if you do? You'll just sink deeper into that quicksand. You can't "write your way through" a mood disorder or mental illness.
If it's writer's block, then understand it's so normal that it's not even worth being called writer's block. Everyone gets some kinda version. Shit, sometimes I don't know what I want for dinner. Solutions range from taking a walk, taking a day off, doing more research, going back to read earlier portions of the book to see if you took a wrong turn, or just grumpily writing your way through it and fixing it later.
To know the difference between the two (writer's block and depression/anxiety), I find that with writer's block, it's like being stumped by a video game -- you're fuckin' pissed at the boss fight, but you're excited to keep coming back to it and try again. Anxiety/depression just means you can't even muster the frustrated enthusiasm. You just have nothing in the tank. But YMMV, of course. I am by no means a professional therapist.
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u/OurLadyOfCygnets Apr 07 '20
Do you know where your towel is?
In all seriousness, what challenges have you encountered during this time of pandemic and toilet paper panic?
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
DON'T PANIC
Anyway, yeah -- the challenge NOW is everything. Just trying to figure out what to do and where to go and how to do it and when time will unstick itself and who you are and where are your pants and oh god am I dying is this it is this COVID no wait it's just allergies and heartburn. It's just hard. All of it is hard. So I let it be that way and just do what I can.
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u/Noctrals Apr 07 '20
Hi Chuck! Thanks for doing this AMA. My question - how do you source quality feedback on your writing? How has that changed now that you are so well established? Do you do have a writing group or work with trusted friends to give it to you straight?
Also, if you had to choose one type of apple tree to plant in your backyard, what kind would it be?
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
Quality feedback is difficult because it's not like... there's math involved, you can't just prove the feedback right or wrong. Mostly it's by credentials and/or trust level. A good agent or editor will likely have useful feedback. So will someone who seems to favor the kind of stories you do, too. To me the biggest thing to look for is someone who doesn't tell you HOW to fix the problems but rather, instead will identify them in service of helping you bring out the best version of YOUR story instead of shaping it into THEIR story.
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u/Noctrals Apr 07 '20
Thank you! It certainly makes it a bit more nebulous than just do "this" or "that" and then it will be great.
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u/SJWilkes Apr 07 '20
Hi Mr Wendig,
I feel like I'm developing an anxiety disorder or something from all the bad news online. You are pretty online yourself, how do you stay productive and interested in the good things.
I'm in analysis paralysis mode and I can't get any art done because I have to keep checking social media to see who's sick and my parents might need me or they might die or something
Fucking I'm just whining at this point.
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
I try to put good things out, which helps me counterbalance the bad stuff. Also you might just need to cut yourself off -- or at least give yourself a window where it's okay to look. Gorging on news isn't really gonna be healthy. You need some information, but not ALL the information.
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Apr 07 '20
Tell us about your bird-watching hobby!
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
Honestly it's inappropriate and if birbs could call the birb police, they would, and report stalking by a bearded weirdo.
I have a Canon 100-400mm lens, and I use that and just follow the bird calls.
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u/justpenfold Apr 07 '20
Hi, Chuck-- I'm a writer trying to get my first batch of stories complete, and my biggest challenge so far (aside from a freaking pandemic) is carving out time from day job, family, life, etc. What does a typical working day look like from your side of the pen? Do you keep a strict routine? How much writing do you get in on the average day? Thanks!
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
Well, my day won't look like yours because I'm privileged enough that I do this full-time, and I have built myself a little writer's shed I go to every day -- so I make breakfast, get up, come out here coffee in hand and do the work. But back when I was day-jobbing it, I carved out time from whatever space I could -- it was an act of thievery, of CHRONOBURGLARY. I'd write during lunch or during the day job, however I could.
Now I try to write 2k a day. Then I aimed for 1k a day. But everybody's process and needs are different, long as you keep chipping away at it.
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u/Chtorrr Apr 07 '20
What is the very best cheese?
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
whatever kind is about to enter my mouth and provide me with goddamn cheese deliciousness
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u/PhoenixUNI Apr 07 '20
Hi Chuck!
You probably know me as that one idiot that doubted how delicious a Wendigo is on Twitter.
My question is: what's something else tasty and delicious that you can recommend for us to make in these trying times?
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
MANY HAVE DOUBTED THE SANDWICH. ALL HAVE FAILED. Or something.
Um. Something tasty? Man, I dunno. Roasts are great right now because you can get a lot of mileage out of them. Pork shoulder is a good one. Chuck roast. I've seen a lot of Brussels sprouts available because nobody wants to eat those but they're WRONG, and here's how you make 'em, and again you're gonna think it's weird (fish sauce and maple syrup?) but it's dang delicious.
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Apr 07 '20
Hey Chuck, I'm new to writing and loving everything you're giving out here. My question is this: how do you personally know when something is "finished?" I'm diving into editing some things I've done, but I don't quite know when to stop editing and call it good.
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
I don't know that you really, really KNOW. You just have to figure out when to stop. You have to make peace with it, and find satisfaction in its state. Sometimes, external eyes can help on this.
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u/Hiscana Apr 07 '20
I just wanted to say thanks, Chuck. You take time out of your day every day to tweet or blog or do things that make other people's day a little brighter, even when you are having your own challenges. You're a good, honest man and a great writer. Also, Wanderers haunted me for MONTHS...
All that aside, would you consider restarting your podcast?
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
RAGNATALK with Mister Doctor Anthony Carboni? Sure. I'm finally in a NEW SPARKLY writer's shed, so I once again have a space in which to record...
And thanks!
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u/Ioannidas_Storm Apr 07 '20
Anthony’s just restarted We Have Concerns, so he’s all about reboots these days!
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u/Ioannidas_Storm Apr 07 '20
Hey Chuck, big fan. I liked the Aftermath trilogy and was disappointed when Disney cut ties with you. My question was if they invited you back for another book, be it standalone or trilogy, and you were given carte blanche to write whatever you wanted, what would it be? Brand new or established characters, where in the timeline, ideal plot, etc.
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u/terribleminds Apr 08 '20
I mean, we're at a point where I'd be very reluctant to write more Star Wars -- it's just, you take a whole lot onto your shoulders, and I don't mean responsibility. I mean abuse and entitlement. Not from 99% of fans, to be clear, who are awesome people, but from an online contingent of relatively awful humans. Plus, I don't own my output there, and honestly in publishing, it helps to own the work, because you can continue to do things with it in your own way. BUT, if I had like, a dream SW gig, I'm a cheap date: I'd just write a continuation of the AFTERMATH books. Same characters, 'cause I love 'em.
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Apr 07 '20
Two questions: 1) If you could bring one nugget of knowledge or wisdom or understanding back to your 15 year old self, what would it be? 2) What's the best alcoholic beverage for quarantine?
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
Oooh. HMM.
The market isn't worth chasing. You can't write to the market. You just have to hope the market bends to you.
GIN AND TONIC. It's medicine, probably.
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Apr 07 '20
Hi Chuck, big fan checking in!
I was wondering, having just finished my second reread of Wanderers, if you have any freaking psychic powers? I mean, seriously! The world of the novel seems so effing prescient right now.
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
Well, I joke about being prescient but really, nearly all of this was predictable in some capacity. We always knew a pandemic would roll along on us -- it's why Trump and such were warned in 2017, 2018, and on. We knew.
The one that gets me, though, that makes me look at WANDERERS with a haunted gleam in my eye, is that in the book, the AI that predicts what's coming is called Black Swan, and in this reality, there was an AI called Blue Dot that predicted it.
Two words, each starting with a BL- color? Brr.
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u/Lindsay1970 Apr 07 '20
There’s a news headline going around right now that includes the phrase “black swan.” I have to find it. Something about Covid-19. It freaked me out so much at the time that I avoided it.
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u/PhoenixUNI Apr 07 '20
I finished up Wanderers in early Feb, right before shit really hit the fan everywhere, and simultaneously thought "oh god this is awful" and "thanks Chuck for preparing me for this".
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u/mfmaxpower Apr 07 '20
Hey Chuck, big fan and aspiring writer-type here. I absolutely loved Wanderers and had two questions about the writing style.
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I couldn't help but notice that word count devoted to establishing setting was fairly limited. I didn't think this took away from the experience at all, but I was just wondering if this was a cognizant choice or maybe just more your style.
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I noticed too that you did some unusual things with punctuation, and when you chose to break paragraphs or even lines. I've always been interested in the visual side of how words on the page look and how space is used, and I'm just curious if this too was intentional and why.
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
Yeah, I'm not huge into worldbuilding -- I think it needs to serve the story, not the other way around, so I aim for as little as I can to make the whole thing work. But also WANDERERS exists in our world, so I don't need much worldbuilding. A lot of stage setting! But not worldbuilding, per se.
All of the way I write is intentional (I don't mean that to sound snarky) -- but I had a writing teacher, Mike Kobre, a long time ago say it was important to look at the shape of the words on the page, meaning, how paragraphs look and their size and the lines and breaks -- and so I want the pages to be dynamic in how your eye finds them and how your inner ear hears them.
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u/mfmaxpower Apr 07 '20
Thanks Chuck. I too had a writing mentor who preached about the same thing and I thought your use of space (and I figured it was intentional) in Wanderers was just so good; best I've seen.
Keep doing what you're doing.
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u/nookienostradamus Apr 07 '20
Loved the 'Aftermath' trilogy! I'd love to know what advice you may have for SFF writers in terms of hooking readers and tapping into the market? Thank you so much for your positivity and no-bullshit attitude.
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
Hey thanks! Um -- shit, I dunno. Hooking readers is the easy (easier) part compared to tapping the market. Hooking readers is all about thinking about how you'd be hooked, and how you want people to feel, and then writing with intentionality. Introduce a problem on page one and we're compelled to want to see the solution as readers. The market is hahaha yeah it's an unknowable beast, a limitless void, a HUNGRY EYE OF SAURON. Mostly just write the best book you can and hope someone wants to read it.
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u/Chewbacta Apr 07 '20
You probably get asked this, but why was the aftermath trilogy written in present tense?
I really enjoy the audiobooks with Marc Thompson (it's the only series of audiobook I own on CD) and I felt the present tense suited it better, was that a factor when making that decision?
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
I find present tense to be urgent and "now" -- the difference between looking at a painting and watching, say, Bob Ross paint the painting. It's a very cinematic style, ideally, and given that we hadn't yet had novels in the new canon cover this period, I wanted it to feel urgent and cinematic. So, present tense.
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u/LitaDB Apr 07 '20
Hi, Chuck - have you written a book, or blogpost - or anything - about revising a novel? And do you have a favourite variety of apple? Mine is the, rarely-seen in our neck of the woods, Blenheim Orange. It's a cultivar, apparently, but its scent and taste are fabberrooniville. Stay well.
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
Probably a lot of posts about it at terribleminds, sure. And some bits in KICK-ASS WRITER.
As for apple: Cox's Orange Pippin, Holstein, GoldRush, all come to mind.
I had a Blenheim Orange: https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/1061776344273563648
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u/mentakatz Apr 07 '20
Hey, Chuck, how did you find your writer voice?
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
I hunted it across the veldt with blunderbuss and moxie
(More seriously, writers spend a lot of time trying to find their voice when in reality, they were their own voice all along.)
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u/shazamallamadingdong Apr 07 '20
How do you build a daily writing habit with a pandemic, a 9-5, 2 preteens, a newborn and a wife who wants help at the end of the day? Is there an old god, demon or devil I can bargain with?
As it stands right now, I can barely get a thought into my head before someone comes in and shatters it.
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
I do not have preteens and a newborn, so I can't speak to that. I do sacrifice a lot of goats to a lightning-struck bone tree in the woods, so maybe try that.
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u/shazamallamadingdong Apr 07 '20
Do you remember that time we met in Toronto at the romance writers conference and you promised me unimaginable powers if I took a selfie with you while both our mouths were open?
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u/terribleminds Apr 08 '20
I don't, but I believe it. I assume you received your unimaginable powers.
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u/chlcrc Apr 07 '20
I feel like the answer to this is “there’s no right answer,” but I’ve had some lingering ideas for a couple books. I’m just never sure how much to flesh out character and plot and setting-wise before I start putting words on a page? Are you a planner when it comes to this or do lots of those details unfold for you as you do a first draft? Thanks!
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
I plan some of it, but a lot of it is organic, too -- a lot of what's on the page grows out of itself, if that makes sense.
One little trick, and this works sometimes, is doing what I call a character test drive. You write a character for a few pages, not even in the story -- not even "canonical," if you will. You just write them. See how they talk, how they act, give them a problem, force them to reckon with it. You end up getting a feel for who they are, and you might be able to even use a little bit of what you wrote later on in the larger, "real" story.
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Apr 07 '20
Hello, I've read nearly everything you've written and I just wanted to first say thank you for your writing. I started with The Blue Blazes and went on to Atlanta Burns and then just ordered everything I could get. I particularly enjoyed Invasive. I'll never look at ants the same way again.
No questions here I guess, just praise and gratitude, thank you again!
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
THANK YOU as a reward, please enjoy this cup of ants poured over your head
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u/hhhwsssiii Apr 07 '20
How many books do you read in a year? What genre do you usually read?
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u/terribleminds Apr 08 '20
Hard question. I don't have a set number? A read more non-fict than fic, unfortunately, because I'm often writing and while writing, I don't want another author's (often very good) ideas. Non-fic helps me formulate my own ideas, I find.
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Apr 07 '20
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u/terribleminds Apr 08 '20
Technically, I don't have actual cooking cred, so nobody in the industry probably wants a cookbook from me. :)
So, stuff like that remains at YE OLDE BLOGGE.
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u/stumblednorth Apr 07 '20
One question, Mr Wendig, but first: I love everything you write. Those last three posts about the situation we're all in (even though I'm in the opposite half of the world) were amazing. Obviously I could relate 100% but more importantly your tone was so... gentle, about the whole situation. Normal is gone and panic is everywhere and you were both sombre yet gentle about it.
I don't know how to put it really except that it lifted my spirits and I went about the rest of my day in a much better headspace.
(Also I often use that genius post of yours about pronouncing gif to silence grammar snobs and it's awesome! So thank you for that, and for everything else you've written.)
Here's my question: I've been ghostwriting non-fictional online content for a few months now (I've been a freelance translator for over a decade). I've also had a few things published and will continue to submit my writing. Do you think the ghostwriting is a waste of time?
I'm torn because while it has helped me immensely (I'm getting better at not agonizing over whether or not my writing is "perfect" because deadlines are super short), it's still not fiction. While the odd client requests a funny or tongue-in-cheek tone in an article on, say, the best unicorn collars, and I enjoy scattering that throughout the article, it's still not building a world or creating strong characters and so forth. Do you think (as long as I'm still writing and submitting fiction on the side) that I'm gaining anything from this, writing-wise?
Thank you for taking the time to read this, whether or not you have time to reply. And a million thanks again for everything you write. Have a wonderful day.
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
I can't say for sure, but I'm sure it's good to sharpen your writing and your attention to deadlines. Though there may eventually be a point where you need to disengage from the ghostwriting to do your own work. And it'll take a different set of muscles, because non-fic and fic are different animals to wrestle.
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u/Noctrals Apr 07 '20
Hi again! Hope you dont mind if I double dip!
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What works inspired you to want to become an author?
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What works do you feel you draw the most inspiration from? (If different from the above)
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What are you currently reading?
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u/terribleminds Apr 07 '20
Tough one, but Robin Hobb, Robert McCammon, Toni Morrison, James Joyce, Stephen King, Lloyd Alexander, Douglas Adams, Christopher Moore, Joe Lansdale, etc.
I try not to draw inspiration, really -- though I'd also argue I unconsciously draw inspiration from all that I've read every time I sit down to write.
Lauren Beukes' forthcoming AFTERLAND, which is amazing.
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u/MachaMorr Apr 07 '20
Hello!
I’ve been obsessed with “Wanderers” since reading it and am also a big fan of your wrk on twitter.
I’m curious about the character of Shana - she’s the protagonist but also the only character in the book that is almost completely devoid of any physical description. Do you have a picture of Shana in your mind? And is there a reason her appearance is somewhat ambiguous?
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u/SakugaDaichi Apr 07 '20
Hey Chuck, The Aftermath books were my first novels in a while after completely falling off for over a decade and since reading them I'm back in the swing of things reading things that interest me here and there and not pressuring myself to finish things quickly. Thank you so much for writing them, I don't think I'd be quite as happy as I am now without books in my life again.
My only question is who would legit win in a fight between Norra Wexley and Rae Sloane. I animated a little scuffle between them a few years ago and had a lot of fun doing so and was curious what the result would be if both fighters were without injury and had adequate prep time. Pls say Sloane haha
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u/Lavapulse Apr 07 '20 edited Apr 07 '20
Hey! Been reading your blog for ages, and it's been a great resource for me as a writer and person. I also super enjoy the 9 or so of your novels I've read, especially Miriam Black and Atlanta Burns. Thank you for putting yourself and your work out there. Few questions:
-- For a male author, you seem to have a lot of female protagonists. Any particular reason?
-- What other blogs can you recommend for writers?
-- What are the most interesting things you've done in the name of research and how helpful have they actually been?
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u/natus92 Apr 07 '20
Hi, can you please tell me if a translation of Wanderers into german is planned any time soon?
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u/DirtyHarry3David Apr 07 '20
Chuck! I’m so glad you’re doing an AMA! I love your work, and the Miriam Black series kept me entertained for years! Where did you get the inspiration for her character, and what made you decide to arc the storyline the way you did in The Raptor and The Wren?
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u/Northwest-Smith Apr 07 '20 edited Apr 07 '20
Hello Chuck Wendig! Thank you for taking the time to do this! Q: Is an expository scene o.k. as long as it feels motivated by the characters? Or serves more than just the need to fulfill that lacking info? Basically, how are infodumps avoided?
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u/Pandy_45 Apr 07 '20 edited Apr 07 '20
What was your experience with first getting published? Were you rejected often? Did it take a while to find the right agent? I'm in the querying process now and still terrified to put myself out there. Any tips? Thanks Chuck, you're great!