Paul and Paula's Place: Thomas Duder

I've been in several groups with Thomas and he is not only brash, and bold but is a very talented individual. He's chomping at the bit, so let's go on his ride ~

Hello, hello! Let's begin, yes? :D

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

A professional writer or a writer-writer? I honestly don't know - I've always been a writer, y'know?

But a professional writer? Roughly three years ago or so. I just decided to take the plunge and after the first year, just...found myself here, I reckon

How long does it take you to write a book?

If I had my druthers, all bills paid and my schedule set, I could easily kick out a 50k book every other month. This is also considering work on music, lyrics, and other, nonesuch.

Sadly enough, life is harsh and unfair. Naturally, there are far more factors and I'm not quite at that point yet.

But I will be, once I get this dag-fernagled machine up and running. THEEEEEEEN I can focus on taking over the world.

Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?

Apparently from the utter darkness of the void. grins Honestly, some of the ideas form as I write, or during the skeletal structure. I'm very much so a hybrid writer - an engineer at the start, but then a gardener as I write.

It's a combination of order and chaos that usually presents the story to me as I write, or during my planning process. Even more so, sometimes characters will do things that surprise even me, making them far more alive in that sense.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

My geek resume is loooooong, my friend. Video games, movies, music, reading, training and weightlifting. I'm into tabletop games, card battle games, just...all sorts of stuff, y'know?

Internet culture is a thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing, and I find myself getting louder about politics again.

I'm into a loooooot of stuff, yo.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

Having the innocence of my dreams smashed out of me thanks to the brutal reality of the industry. Of ALL industries, really.

But that pain?

That's weakness leaving one. Now I'm stronger, still here, still resilient about getting my dreams my way.

I may yet fail, though. I'm willing to accept that too.

Do you have any suggestions to help me become a better writer?

Stay out of my genre.

grins

Naw, seriously though? Write. Just write, and let everything fall where it may.

Do you like to create books for adults?

Hell yeah! I might try my hand at books for kids, under a nom de guerre of course.

Heeeeeey, keep an eye out for JJ Blackstone someday, friends. still grinning

What do you think makes a good story?

If it leaves an indelible memory within you, something you can never forget, perhaps a moment or a snippet of dialogue.

It could be the backstory, or the current story, or the characters.

There's no one thing that makes a good story, and for some, it IS only one thing.

As a writer, it's up to us to figure out how to write these things and present it as best as we can.

For me, there's my breathtaking scenes of violence and witty dialogue, but I've also been praised for my worldbuilding and "believable" over the top scenes of action.

Like I said earlier, write and just keep writing. Either you yourself will recognize that you suck (in which case you should STILL keep writing, just refine where your audience is, find them and revel in your suckiness) or you will get better and be awesome.

Or you'll find that you're awesome already.

That, too, is acceptable.

Thomas is in the midst of raising funds to launch his new book - only a month left to pledge the link

for The Marketing of The Generalist