How I Write: Authors on Their Writing Process - Joseph Ferguson

Today's interview is with short story author and poet, Joseph Ferguson

1.           When did you first start writing?

At some point early on in college I decided I was a writer. I was always able to skate through school subjects I knew little or nothing about if the grade was based on essay questions or papers. I also spent my childhood writing comic books which usually involved Godzilla-like beasts terrorizing cities. Lacking any other talents, it would seem I was condemned to write.

2.            What are your books about? Are you self / traditionally published or hybrid?

My current book Southbound is about the human condition as experienced by a rather larger-than-life character called Basement Man; a guy full of stories, full of bluster, and full of bravado, who is insecure deep down and cannot win for losing.

3.           What led to your love for literature? Any favorite books / teachers / writing mentors?

I learned to read at a very young age and so had at least one skill to show off with in grammar school. Couple that with being an only child; and books became my most reliable friends.

4.           What's your writing process like? Do you outline? Do you write by hand / type / dictate?

I tinker. I keep a number of in-progress works on my laptop, open a few of them while I’m watching TV, and fiddle around with them until one takes off; then run with it.

5.           What's your editing process?

I’m working on my second short story collection, tentatively titled, Shillelagh Law, and following the same process I did with Southbound. That is read, read, and read, until I make it through several readings without making a change. Then read some more. By the time it’s ready, I never want to see any of the stories again.

6.           Any favorite apps / software / technology for writing?

Just Word. Though I do love the fact that technology has enabled me to self publish; basically for free. I will never go back to the submission/rejection treadmill.

7.           Any favorite apps / software / websites for marketing and promotion?

I’m promoting like crazy on Facebook. Pretty useless. I spent 30 + years writing propaganda in public relations, yet I am basically lost promoting my book.

8.           What did you find most / least useful in learning to write?

Took a creative writing course in college where basically our work was copied, handed out to the rest of the class, where everyone would dive in with criticism. Needed a thick skin, however, it was so much easier to see mistakes and understand why they were mistakes when other people made them than in your own work. So it forced you to see them in your own.

9.           Who or what inspires you? Where / how do you get your book ideas?

It helps to have lived a “life crowded with incident.” But life is such an absurd proposition; it’s all there for the taking. The problem, of course, is to put it into words. “Therein lies the rub.”

10.       When in the day do you usually write? For how long?

I have no schedule. No regimen. Kind of happens when it happens. Sometimes an idea or half a story will sit for years unfinished and one day, out of nowhere, the solution will hit me. Other times, I just have to write through it.

11.       Do you have a writing routine / schedule? Any specific rituals?

Not really. As I said, when not distracted by trying to promote, I try to open a few unfinished files, and fiddle around with them while watching TV.

12.       Where do you feel most inspired to write?

 Usually, when I am somewhere without paper, pencil, iPad, laptop, recorder, or any other means of getting it down.

13.       Describe your desk / writing corner / favorite writing spot.

 Unused. I actually have two rooms in my house that I designated “my office.” They have both become de facto closets.

14.       Do you listen to music while you write? What kind of music?

Used to do that a lot when I was young. Sometimes do it now. But it’s the laptop in front of the television that does it for me. I guess it has something to do with how bad television is these days. So dreadful, it forces me to write…or play solitaire.

15.       Do you ever get writers' block? What are some ways you get around it?

I’m in a continual state of writers’ block; which is why I have to fiddle with things until something takes.

16.       How do you make the time to write?

Have no idea how I did it when I was working. Back then I was continually assaulted by ideas, and usually, if they didn’t fit into the small space of a poem, they remained notions or partially written stories. Now that I’m retired, I no longer have ideas, but, as if by magic, I can now finish all the half-done stories, and ideas scribbled on bar napkins over the years.

17.       What project are you working on now?

As I said, my current project is putting together a short story collection entitled, Shillelagh Law. Unlike Southbound, which all focused on one character and added up to a novel of sorts, these tales are all unrelated. Some are coming-of-age, some horror or scifi, others, humorous vignettes. After that, I will likely do a poetry collection, and if I can figure out how to get the illustrations formatted, a spoof of “how-to-get-a-job books.”

18.       What books do you like to read? What are you reading now?

Anything and everything; though I prefer more literary work.  Right now, I am reading a manuscript written by the man I based the Basement Man character in Southbound on.

Bio:

Joseph Ferguson is an author, poet, and journalist appearing in a variety of small press, regional, and national publications. He wrote propaganda for a living for a variety of entities for some 25 years.

His  recent collection of short fiction, Southbound, follows the exploits of one character, Basement Man.

He is a former editor and critic for Hudson Valley, ran the Fiction Workshop for the Poughkeepsie Library District, and regularly reviews books and videos for Climbing, The American Book Review, Kirkus Indie, and a number of other publications. He also sells rock climbing t-shirts through his website: http://www.bumluckhome.com/

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Southbound

A short story collection about Basement Man; moody drunk, sometime rock climber, absurdist philosopher, raconteur of the ridiculous, rogue, and not-so-merry prankster from the North End of Yonkers (aka Junkies Paradise). An everyman for nobodies, he is ever adrift between the carrot of sobriety and the reality of carpe diem. Bowing only to the laws of Murphy, he can never decide whether the lucky ones are the survivors or those who died years ago.

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What Advice Would You Give To A 13 Year Old?

The other day I met the daughter of a recent acquaintance, and she shared with me her deep desire to be a writer. A fiction writer to be precise. A little further digging - she wanted to write fantasy books. The problem? She was not doing well in her English assignments in school - she was getting bad grades and she felt miserable, because she took it as a sign that she might not be able to become a writer after all.

I remember well this feeling, of thinking that doing badly in school means the death of one’s ambition in a certain subject or field. I even wrote an entire book about it. But hearing it from a young person was strange - the argument sounded so obviously flawed to me. How can your grade when you are 13 determine whether you can successfully accomplish something at 30? Or 20? But this is how the human mind works. We aren’t rational or logical, or perhaps we are rational and logical, just using a different set of facts.

I have been listening to Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert on audiobook, and its fascinating. I love it, and I hope to discuss it in detail later on. But for now, something that struck me deeply was her section on Permission. With a capital P. She describes her views of going to school to get an MFA or to get further education in the arts. Not necessary she says. Definitely not necessary if it gets you into debt. You don’t need it to become an artist, whatever that means for you. And I agree.

But first, hearing that was so deeply freeing. Even though when a 13-year old tells me that she is devastated by a grade in English class, I know in my bones that that is not a real obstacle to being a writer, I tell myself that perhaps I would be further along in my quest to become a writer / author / novelist if I had taken some creative writing courses in college.

Why the dichotomy? Well, for one, there is a difference in our ages. No grade is truly devastating at 13, not unless you use it as an excuse to completely give up. Its a different issue at 30. But then again, why should it be? What stops me from taking courses now if I so choose, or taking up writing fiction? Is there an age limit for writing? I would have thought not.

And this comes back to the issue of permission. Somehow it is easier to give permission to someone else than to ourselves. It is easier for me to see that the possibilities are endless for a 13-year old. It is easier to think that she has the time ahead of her to take multiple paths and find the right one. That she has time to learn all that she needs to write the books she dreams of.

It is not so easy to give myself the same permission however. To see that I have the same paths open to me as she does - just different entry points, different hurdles to step around, different flowers to admire. They might not even be of the same distance. But they lead us to the same destination - the realization that perhaps for those wanting to live a creative life, there isn’t really a set end point, a set goal. We aren’t all walking towards winning the same goal. Some authors will write 20 books, finding a small but loyal audience. Others may write only one or two, but hit critical acclaim right away. Some will write many books or short stories or plays, only publishing a small percentage of their work. Some works will win prizes, others loyal fans, others will go unnoticed. It isn’t a certain life, and definitely not one for the faint-hearted.

So then I come back to the question - what advice would I give that 13 year old? On the spur of the moment I did say some encouraging things, some platitudes and assurances. But now with hindsight what would I have liked to have said? That there is no set path for a writer. That while no one teacher’s opinion can stop her from being a writer, there are in fact a hundred things that can stop her. Other people’s opinions. Rejections. Other people’s successes. Her own failures. Her own successes. Family. Life. And maybe this is what I should have said. If you really want to be a writer, nothing and no one can stop you. You don’t need permission. You don’t need perfect circumstances. You don’t even need inspiration. All you need is a notebook, some reliable pens, a head full of stories and a heart full of love. Love for books and stories, for the process of story-telling, that will transcend the fears and objections of the world. And these requirements are the same whether you are thirteen or thirty.