Beginning runners need to motivate themselves to head out the door. After a while, running becomes an obsession, and eventually we can’t resist heading out. Writing is similar. It’s so fulfilling to me that I can barely resist doing it every day.
Would you please tell us a little about your writing process?
The morning after I abandoned my full-time job, I crawled out of bed, down the hallway, into my office, and up onto my chair, but without the grimace. Instead of creating TPS reports, I wrote fiction. I still do, every day. I don’t set a word count goal; I just set out to accomplish “something worthwhile” each day.
As an engineer by training, I gravitate toward an overblown design phase before any development begins. If it were practical, I’d outline an entire novel before writing a word. But that’s not realistic, is it? So I follow my instincts and carefully balance the planning with the writing, the cutting bait with the fishing.
My process: I start with writing! And the first draft is gloriously sh*tty, believe me! I usually can’t imagine it’s salvageable. At bedtime I read it aloud to my wife, and she invariably gives me good suggestions. Over the next week I craft the first decent draft, and then I polish it for my critique group. Two weeks after we meet, I gather their feedback, consider it all, and write my next draft, which finally starts to feel decent. I have a list of QA checks—too many adverbs, that sort of thing—that I polish against. Before my novel is finished, all chapters will have gone through seven drafts.
How do you believe a writer improves?
First and foremost: Just Write!
Second: Find readers, and get honest feedback. Friends and family are not too helpful; a critique group is the absolute best way to improve.
Third: Read craft books, both those that offer specific advice (do the exercises!), and those that offer general inspiration, like Bird by Bird or Steering the Craft.
Fourth: Read the kind of literature you are trying to write. Pay attention to what you don’t like about it. Emulate what you do like.
First and foremost: Just Write!
What motivated / motivates you to write?
Beginning runners need to motivate themselves to head out the door. After a while, running becomes an obsession, and eventually we can’t resist heading out. Writing is similar. It’s so fulfilling to me that I can barely resist doing it every day. I wake in the morning thinking about two things: when I’ll run and when I’ll write. The idea of motivation is irrelevant.
It’s curiosity that spurs my imagination, and the drive to create feeds my motivation. When I lay my head on my pillow at night, my mind automatically asks, “What if…”. What if I were the last human on Earth? My imagination kicks in: “What would happen then…?” How would I react and act differently from any other person in the same situation? Finally, I find I can’t sleep, because I want to sneak down to my office and write the opening paragraph.
Do you enjoy writing?
Occasionally I hate it. The hardest work for humans to do is not physical, it’s mental. For me, there’s that phase between drafts two and three when words come so torturously, and the work is toil, and I feel like a fraud, and I’d rather play solitaire. But I remind myself how satisfied I’ll feel when I slog through, and I reach the fun part, and the whole section comes together and feels a tiny bit inspired. Yes, I enjoy writing. I don’t take that satisfaction for granted.
Who would you say are your literary forebears? Who have you learned the most from?
I love having learned from Stanislaw Lem that my work can be unevenly paced and can go into the weeds at any time as long as my voice is authentic. From Andy Weir I gained the confidence to use my own voice, to let it run free. Anne Lamott and Ursula le Guin inspired me to think deeply about the craft of writing and not just follow formulas.
What do you believe is the function of your art?
Entertainment. I believe that novels, and movies, and documentaries, and news, and technical papers, and textbooks are all forms of entertainment. Each gives us some kind of pleasure; each satisfies some desire within us.
I have faith that my readers want something to think about, and so I explore philosophical questions in my work. I want curious readers to enjoy having their imaginations stimulated. I’d be honored if my work performed that function and could truly be called art.
If you were to begin writing today for the first time, would you do anything differently? Which would be your first steps?
I knew I could write well from an early age. In college, I made the mistake of using my talent to test out of the required writing classes. I skipped over the classes I would have loved. Looking back, I would have sought out every kind of guided practice available to me.
What have been your most meaningful or profound experiences as a writer?
There is an irrational faith you need to have that the sh*tty draft is eventually going to become the Statue of David. The first draft is a small pile of puzzle pieces you’ve created from a vague picture in your mind. Draft by draft you create additional pieces and rearrange them, but your nagging doubt insists your creation will end up just workmanlike. At the same time, that tiny but significant faith drives you forward. Only when you have critical mass of puzzle pieces in place can the rest of the solution come, and when it does, it floods in, and you create a picture that is more than you ever expected or imagined when you started the story. That experience is meaningful and profound. Every time.
Roy Schmidt is an Oregon-based writer with a background in IT and teaching. Recently his work has appeared in Teach. Write. and Huron River Review, with past bylines in publications like Heritage Newspapers, Grays Harbor Passport, Grays Harbor Beacon, and HarborQuest. His writing has also earned awards and recognition in the Willamette Writers’ Kay Snow Writing Contest, the Northeast Pennsylvania Writers’ Short Story Contest, and Current Magazine’s Annual Fiction and Poetry Contest.