Short and Sweet Book Club (Closed)

Interview with johnnedwill

Surprise!  I finally got around to doing the club's first member interview!  Today I'll be talking to johnnedwill, author of the diverse flash fiction collection, 'Diseased Jottings of a Random Mind.'

* How did you get into writing and how long have you been practicing?

I got into writing through roleplaying games - the old tabletop kind, not the computer kind - in the 1980s. I started off writing my own adventures and settings for various games. Then, in the early 2000s, I got involved in a gaming magazine in the U.K., both writing and editing. One thing led to another, and I ended up writing articles and short fiction pieces for various people.

I've been creating worlds and characters for over 30 years, and writing fiction for about 15 years now.

* Oh, so you've done some writing professionally then. What was that like?

In some ways, professional writing is a good thing. In my case, it meant my editors trusted me to produce work on time, to a specific length and on a specific topic. If I said I would do a piece of work, it got done. Also, if I suggested a piece, I usually managed to avoid it going on the slush-pile.

However, the downside was that I would get asked to write filler material when the magazine was short of articles. This would often be at short notice. Usually the request would go, " Can you give us 6000 words on X in three days?" Then it would be panic time.

Writing for magazines paid well, but it never replaced the day job. Writing for certain small publishers was a nightmare. There were always rewrites, and there was one publisher a number of us writers had to gang up on at a convention to make them pay us what they owed us.

And, no. I'm not going to tell you who that was.

* OK, I won't pry. ;) What kind of stories do you enjoy reading and are they the same genre(s) as what you like to write?

I enjoy reading most genres. My personal library contains everything from serious literature to pulp. I read science-fiction, fantasy, memoirs, essays, cereal,packets ... . Seriously! About the only things I can't read are romance novels. For some reason, I have found them to be very formulaic. But that is probably because there are so many of them!

All of these things go into my head and come out in my writing, somehow. I don't really restrict myself to a single genre. I usually end up writing whatever goes through my head at the time. Simple prompts can often end up being twisted into almost unrecognisable stories.

* What do you like about writing short stories? Do you write longer stories as well?

I like the variety. I can write about whatever I want to, and I don't have to worry too much about following up on things or leaving plot threads hanging. Plus, I can write a short story very quickly and take advantage of the inspiration when it hits. Finally, there is the challenge of writing to a target length. It is a useful skill for jobbing writers.

I have written longer stories. I think the longest I have ever written was somewhere in the region of 10 to 11 thousand words. I keep trying to write longer, but I don't think there are many stories I write that need longer to tell them. I don't like the trend towards unnecessarily books. When I look at my library, the average length of a pulp novel or a novel from before the 1980s was something in the region of 20,000 words. When traditional publishers are demanding books of 120,000 words - as happened to a friend - there is something up.

As the joke at my writing group goes, " Writing your novel? I'm not either."

* When you joined the club, you had trouble choosing just one story to apply with and decided to have readers pick from a collection. In the end you chose 'Diseased Jottings of a Random Mind' over a small number of other collections. Is there a reason you wanted to share this book instead of one of your others? 

'Diseased Jottings' is a collection of experimental pieces, and I wanted to find out what people think of them. And, instead of guiding people towards a particular piece, I thought I would let people make their own choice. So, it was either for the thrill of discovery or because I am congenitally unable to make up my mind.

Also, the other collections are there for specific reasons. 'Just a Few Words' and 'In 500 Words Or Less' are for a specific prompt group. 'Old Man Crazy to Paint' is because I like Hokusai. 'Thirty in Thirty' is my answer to NaNoWriMo, as well as having a very specific place in my heart.

So, that leaves my Diseased Jottings. But if people want to read the others, they are more than welcome to.

* Do you have any advice for writing short stories?

Do not complicate your story. Get right to the point. Make every word do double duty. Do not be afraid to leave things out. Often a reader will come up with a better idea of what is going on. And it is always easier to expand a short story into something larger than it is to compress a story into something shorter.

* Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with the club.

You're welcome.