Name of Author: Bruce Elgin
Title of Book: Schism
Favorite Authors: Wow...that is such a hard question. I like a lot of different kinds of books, when I have time to read. Maybe a couple of my go-to favorites are Michael Chabon and Jim Butcher. How's that for contrast?
Bio:
I grew up in a zoo...an actual zoo. My dad was the director of the Des Moines Zoo and I grew up with baby lions and wolves in our house. I've been writing my whole life and got my MFA in 2007. Going to graduate school for writing was a great experience. It really helped me start learning what makes a story enjoyable for a reader.
Schism
http://www.wattpad.com/story/14921017-schism
Can you explain what your book is all about?
William Adams has always heard the voices. They tell him things he would have no way of knowing and make him help others, but all they've ever done for him is get him committed to a mental institution. When they tell him he has to protect his ex-fiancée, he escapes and finds himself caught between a racist mastermind and a man whose abilities are even more dangerous than his own. With a police detective as his reluctant ally, William's only chance of saving the woman he loves is to push beyond the boundaries of what the voices tell him, or to die trying.
That description was from Schism's Amazon page. It gives an idea of the plot of the book...what happens. But what is Schism really about? One of the things it's about for me is the struggle we all go through to realize that we aren't actually alone...that we really do have allies in life.
Who is your target audience - and why?
I'd say anything that I write is for people who like some action in their stories. If you are into six page long descriptions of the color of grass, then my books are not for you. But if you like characters that have to struggle to try to get what they want, fight against really big odds, then you're gonna love Schism.
What is 'paranormal' about your story?
This is a different take on the paranormal, to say the least. What Schism dives into is what's going on behind the scenes...the things that we (or at least most of us) can't see. I don't want to give too much away, but the voices that the hero can hear and see, the ones that got him thrown into a mental institution, they are very real, ans so is the help that they give him.
Does it contain other genre elements, if so which ones - and why?
Oh, this is a big blend of genres. It's definitely a thriller, with some buddy-cop comedy elements that pop up from time to time. And of course there is some romance. I don't think I could write a story without a romance element to it.
Tell us about your writing process - how do you get from story idea to a Wattpad published story?
This scares some people, but I'm a plotter. I work out every element of what is going to happen and why. I start with the basic idea, in whatever form it comes, then begin to take random notes and form a simple, plot point outline. I expand that, building in more details in an old Hollywood style sequence outline. Then I'll start a backwards pass from ending to beginning so I have all the causal connections lined up.
I'll do this outlining until I have a scene by scene outline that will have a lot of detail but none of the dialogue or actual description. This outline can be up to fifty pages. I find it's a pretty good indicator of how long the actual book will be, as it generally ends up at a ten pages of finished text to one page of outline.
This may sound crazy, but I think it really enhances the creative aspect for me. I get to pour in the creativity at every stage and I never feel bound up by the outline. To me, the outline is the first draft of the story and I never have to worry about having to throw away big sections of finished work because I've realized that the story needs to change. It saves me tons of time and the written drafts are much more polished from the beginning. I love working this way.
Did you encounter any challenges when writing, if so - how did you overcome them?
I think every story has its unique challenges. If we write stories that don't challenge us, we probably aren't pushing hard enough as writers. How to overcome those challenges? Lose some sleep. Stay up, take notes, fight your way out of the problem over and over until you have a story that you would love to read.
For Schism, one of the things I really had to work on was finding a good location to write. If I was at home, then there were always family duties (My son was a toddler when I was writing this book) and my stomach would always insist that I go get a snack from the fridge. I eventually found a great coffee shop that wasn't too quiet or too loud, and had really good coffee but no treats that tempted me very much.
You often hear that 'writing well' is the baseline for success. What does that mean for you?
There are so many obstacles and hurdles we have to clear in being writers. There are agents, publishers, reaching readers, getting reviews, writing ad copy, getting a good cover...so many things.
But the one element that you have absolute control over is the quality of your writing. Is there even one element of your story that is nagging you, that doesn't feel quite right? Fix it. Don't rest and don't put it out there for everyone until you feel it's just what you would want to read. If you can do that, then you might have something that others will want to read too.
On a personal level, writing well means not only making sure that all the structural elements are solid, but making sure that I'm pushing the word smithing to make sure that I really am painting a scene that pulls the reader in.
