Aridi Writes

Yes, this is an interview; the questions were jointly combobulated by myself and Merinda Brayfield. Kind of like we are interviewing each other but making both interviews fairly similar, for comparison’s sake. I hope that makes more sense to read than it did to write…

When did you make the decision to start writing as a career?

When I went to College, writing was still something I just did for fun; it was as I was at college that I started seriously considering it as a career. I loved writing, and I could seriously see my work being read by other people; so why not? That places my decision at christmas or so, 2000.

Do you have any formal training in writing?

None. I’m entirely self-taught, though I have read numerous books and articles on the subject. In particular I found Ray Bradbury’s Zen and the Art of Writing and Orson Scott Card’s Character and Viewpoint to be very helpful.

Who would you say has most influenced you as a writer?

This is a difficult question. I believe that writers are influenced by not only other authors but also by everything else they encounter on a day to day basis; but I’d say my primary influence in terms of style would be William Gibson – swiftly followed by Terry Pratchett, who taught me that comedy can happen in a book that isn’t necessarily meant to be comedic.

What kind of group or demographic do you write for?

I’ve never thought of the demographic that would like my work the most; I think it’s probably for teen-to-middle-age, and I hope that I appeal to both genders pretty equally, though that is obviously debatable. I don’t appeal to critics, or great fans of literary fiction. I just write stories and hope that other people that like stories would like them.

What sorts of things do you like to read? Who are you favorite authors?

At the moment I am reading a lot of non-fiction, especially books like Counterknowledge and Panicology. I primarily read science fiction and contemporary fantasy; my favourite authors are William Gibson, Terry Pratchett, Orson Scott Card and Richard Morgan.

What genres do you primarily work in?

My main body of work is science fiction of various types, though I do dabble in other genres. Minute Silence isn’t quite any of them, though I think it probably fits into the science fiction genre neatly as the entire plot is based around the result of interesting science.

When and where do you write?

When I write I am sat at my computer; I type very quickly and the ability to immediately look up facts or erase mistakes on the fly is invaluable. It also contains all my music, which is very important to me as a writer. I write whenever the urge strikes me to. I tried to structure my writing but it never worked too well.

Do you find any recurring character types or themes in your writing?

I’m a little sheepish to admit that I always seem to cram at least one atheist and at least one victim of bullying into everything I write; catharsis, maybe? As it is, I transpose a similar sense of humour on a lot of my characters; I also enjoy seeing certain interactions happen, so I will often include the two base personalities necessary for them in some form or other.

Can you describe your writing processes?

In short…not really. It’s a very hit-and-miss process. I’ll wake up with a scene in mind and write it; I’ll write between where I am currently at in the narrative and the scene I just wrote; I’ll visualise something happening farther on in the novel but be left trying to navigate the minutiae of how a character deals with an otherwise unimportant scene. It’s somewhat like a roller coaster. When I hit a downslope, it is one hell of a ride!

How do you go about editing and correcting your work?

Usually my first draft is a work-in-progress until it is finished. Then I sweep it once and only do minor edits, though I correct any errors I find. I’m not much of a fan of tinkering with something when it is clearly the finished article; it won’t get better if you keep picking at it, as my mother used to say.

Who is your favourite character of your own creation?

Another horribly difficult question. I love so many of my characters; I really do like Max, the chubby high schooler that gets on with everyone, in Minute Silence. Another of my favourite characters is Requiem Cole from Requiem – some of my readers may have read that, it was my first completed piece of NaNoWriMo 2005. To be fair, though, I suppose my favourite character right now is Minute Silence‘s main character, Mark Jugg. Something about him is compelling.

Why do you write?

I’m going to give this question a miss, as I answered it in a main blog post not so long ago.

What do you hope to accomplish by your writing?

I hope to bring stories and ideas to people. I hope to make the well-meaning people of the world think a little differently, or experience something new; and of course I hope to prove that the novel is far from dead, and that there are still readers out there.

Name one famous individual that you dearly hope would find your work interesting, dead or alive.

Orson Scott Card. If he would approve of my work, then I would consider myself a total success.

If you could give one piece of advice to other aspiring writers, what would it be?

Don’t stop. If you don’t like your writing, keep doing it until you do. If you don’t like the piece you are writing, write something else. If you don’t get published with your first letter, your fifth, your fifteenth, then keep sending them out. Don’t stop. Robert Heinlein’s Rules of Writing #1: You Must Write. Obey the man, he knows what he is talking about.

If you were offered a million in order to give up writing, would you do it?

Not a hope in hell!

Music is vastly important to me as a person, but perhaps even more so as a writer. When listening to music, the listener can often see something in their mind’s eye that isn’t even spoken about in the lyrics – this is more prevalent in instrumental tracks, obviously, since the lyrics aren’t there to influence the imagination of the listener.

As a writer, music is an invaluable tool, both to motivate me, to inspire the correct emotion when writing a scene…but also to provide inspiration for the scenes themselves. It’s been mentioned that people would be interested in getting inside the head of a writer, seeing some of the creative process – and I’d like to share some of that with my lovely readers.

What follows is a list of a few songs that are on my mental soundtrack for Minute Silence. They happen to be some of my favourite songs right now; I hope that in my explanation, a little light can be shed on just how we writers make the decisions we do, and how some of us think.

The links lead to youtube videos. Some of the songs don’t have official videos; don’t blame me if the videos attached to them aren’t your taste, I just want you to hear the music.

Alter Bridge – Rise Today (Blackbird, 2007)

I adore Alter Bridge for bringing intelligent lyrics and a generally positive message together in the same rock song. This song should just about speak for itself. Just listen to the lyrics. A few of them, however, are poignant enough to justify closer examination. One line is a single moment in the book, in which Mark is lost in thought about just what he is becoming, and what it means: “So what are we becoming? And where did we go wrong?” Which is immediately followed by all that Mark knows that he wants for the future. “I want to rise today and change the world. Won’t you rise today and change the world?” The song reeks of the kind of personality that Mark Jugg has; the kind of heroism he displays given the chance, and the kind of doubt that haunts him whenever he thinks about it all too much. If this book had a trailer, this song would be that trailer’s score.

Carbon Leaf – What About Everything? (Indian Summer, 2004)

This song echoes my own life a lot; it also echoes Mark’s, which I suppose is why I like writing him so much. Maybe I invested too much of myself in him, who knows? Either way, the song itself is so fitting for Mark before his Minute Silence that it has to evoke him in my mind. The worries that are heaped on him, the things he finds so important, he pushes them aside when he has to think about how insignificant and trivial it is compared to the rest of the world. To a degree, it can also apply when he becomes Enhanced, and he has his powers; and he sees that there is so much he could do with them, and his own needs, no matter how important subjectively, are trivial in the grand scheme of things. And of course there’s the line that almost casually talks about unrequited love – again one of the trivialities – that Mark experiences for Isabel. “With no one left to blame, what about fortune and fame? What about your love to obtain? What about the ring? What about…”

OneRepublic – Someone To Save You (Dreaming Out Loud, 2007)

I see this song in two different lights, when put through the context of Minute Silence, and particularly, Mark as the main character. It applies to his relationship with Isabel primarily; he wants to save her from the life she is living, especially when he learns more about it. I can see him watching her totally unseen as she moves around with the group that she doesn’t really think are her friends, and lives a life she isn’t happy with; and he so desperately wants to take her away from it, and show her that she can be something so much better. “Honesty is what you need, it sets you free like someone to save you.” Mark sees a lot of potential in his power, at times; but he’s convinced he will never find a way to protect her.

Five For Fighting – Superman (It’s Not Easy) (America Town, 2000)

How could I not listen to this song and think of my characters? Mark, Scarlet, Jeff; all of them supermen (or in one case superwoman), all of them intrinsically flawed in one way or another. The song explains itself wonderfully. Even Superman is flawed, even the most incredible hero has problems. “It may sound absurd, but don’t be naive; even heroes have the right to bleed.” I see Mark sat at the kitchen table as he’s told his grandfather has died, knowing that he could move the very heavens, but he couldn’t save the man that mattered most to him in his entire life. “I’m only a man in a silly red sheet. I’m only a man looking for a dream.”

Trapt – Stand Up (Someone In Control, 2005)

“Walk away before I finish what you started! End this game, before I put you in your place!” Mark has to find his feet when facing down his enemies; be they bullies in school (either teachers or students), or the people that come after his Enhanced allies. In the end he just has enough, and turns on his attackers. The scene in which Mark does this would have to be set to the chorus of this song, if only because I can see him kicking someone’s ass to it. The spirit of the song is an awesome one; it feels like a fist pumped in the air against all the bullshit of life.

More of these will follow, I’m sure. Hell, I have at least three more Alter Bridge songs to go through.

What follows is some highly irrational thoughts drifting around in my brain, directed at Minute Silence. Or at least the logical part of me that is currently writing Minute Silence. I hope to answer each of those thoughts with the sensible bits of the mind, and in so doing, settle my rampant anxiety down.

Is the end of Chapter Six too “Telling” and not enough “Showing”?

Chapter Six is an important chapter. There’s revelations all over the place; a little character development, but mostly, “Oh shit!” moments. I didn’t want to break from viewpoint in order to show Cal and Black Swan escaping; and in order to show the whole thing, I’d have to jump and skip at least four or five times, back in the fifth chapter. Too early; especially since the scene I just wrote, which covers how they escaped, would need to happen anyway – to understand McMillan’s involvement in the plot. So…I think it works. And actually showing Cal in action this early? That’s like showing the moviegoer the monster in the first ten minutes, and only one movie I know has ever gotten away with that.

Aren’t I just ripping off Heroes?

I first wrote the concept for Minute Silence back in 2003. Whether or not Heroes was in development then, I believe that anyone that reads my work will find it is individualistic, and stands out from what is, in all honesty, a fantastic series. The obvious similarities will put up warning flags with real critics, but then…I don’t care if I piss critics off. Have you SEEN the winners of writing awards recently?

Is Mark an emo kid?

Kind of.

Is this just an excuse to exorcise the demons of the education system and write cool super-powered fight scenes, without any literary worth?

Cool super-powered fight scenes are literary worth.

I’m going to write one of these every so often to cover the state of development and progress in my work; I don’t know why, really, but I’m sure someone will find it interesting. I certainly will – it can act as a record of how I am doing, in a way. For the moment I only have one project, so that will form the sole focus of this first State Of Play report.

Minute Silence:

Right now I am fairly pleased with the progress with Minute Silence. It’s gone from the “series of cool scene ideas” stage to the “this links together into a story” stage. A plot point is swiftly approaching, in a scene that jumped into my brain with little to no prompting. I have no idea precisely where it came from, but the idea of a power-outage party happening in an affluent suburb just tickled me; and very easily, I can work Mark meeting Scarlet into the scenario. She is looking for someone in that area, after all.

It is of course this blackout that heralds the escape of both Calibre and Black Swan. Both of which you may learn more about later – I’m very tempted to run a little expose on here about some of the more interesting characters…suffice to say that Calibre is effectively a good guy, and Black Swan…isn’t.

I confess to enjoying irritating certain people. I will never refuse a knock-down drag-out debate with a Young Earth Creationist, for example; nor will I stand by idly while bigots and ignorami slander individuals of another race/sex/preference/religion without just cause. I don’t believe this makes me a good person – it probably makes me a bit of a bastard – but I do see the need to dig at the things that are wrong with society as a positive need. It is short-term destructive, long-term constructive, in my opinion.

The reason I bring this up (and yes, there is a reason; I’m not just having a random spleen-vent at the world at large) is because of one of my long-held personal ideals in terms of writing. I have a few of these, and rather than go into them all, I will simply explore the one that may give me the most hassle when it comes to the literal business of publishing.

If your writing doesn’t offend at least one group of people, you’re doing it wrong.

Don’t mistake this as an urge to be as irritating as I can possibly be – I’m not some grungy agit-punk revolutionary who rebels against anything he can get a firm enough grip on to rebel against. Instead, consider for a moment, just how many things we as a society can and cannot do in public; and specifically, those things we can’t talk about, because it may offend someone.

“But any democratic society is entirely dedicated to Free Speech,” I hear you cry. “I should be able to say whatever I like, wherever I like, and whenever I like!” Which is, as we all know, poppycock. Data protection laws, confidentiality, propriety, confidence – a million and one things prevent us from doing just that: saying what we want, when we want.

In a lot of cases, this is understandable. We don’t call that huge hairy biker that just groped our girlfriends a retarded primate because – despite most bikers being friendly, polite individuals – we are afraid that aforementioned primate will break our faces. This reasoning can also be applied to fanatics of all kinds, and I do mean fanatics: extremist feminists, rabid environmentalists, the ultra-zealous Religious Right (whatever religion you fancy). The difference is, however, that the idea of offending such people is a very different proposition.

The previous example of the large biker is clearly intended to offend. However, were our plucky protagonist to say something to a biker who wasn’t groping his girlfriend – something like “Alright, mate” – this would not result in a face-breaking. It shouldn’t be expected to result in a face-breaking. No offense is meant in this simple greeting, and no sane person would take any. The biker, unless genuinely looking for a scrap and desperate enough to use any provocation, will either ignore the smaller, less hairy mammal or even say hello back.

I’m not implying that a die-hard ultra-Catholic or an equally pious (and equally ferocious) Sikh would take offence at someone saying hello. At least, not to my knowledge. What they do seem to take offence to, is at once eclectic and wide-ranging; and it seems to change based upon the needs of the moment, which is my primary objection to the entire idea.

It’s not enough that the extremists of religion are getting their way in countries alleged to divide Church and State; so much so that there is a genuine risk of Intelligent Design being taught as a science in some countries, alongside – or supplanting – the Theory of Evolution. The extremists in question go that one step further: they claim that questioning their version of beliefs (however unlikely, however far-fetched, however much empirical evidence completely rubbishes it, however little evidence there is for that particular version ever happening) causes offence, and thus is some kind of Persecution.

This is why it is important for a book to offend; not to make it an obvious offence to any stable individual who accepts the world to be as science decrees it, but to question, to pick, to pry at those groups and forces and influences that would try any trick in the book to go without question – i.e. those that rely on the defence of being offended, amongst others.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not declaring war solely on Creationists and evangelicals. Not solely. Other groups come into my firing line too; those that espouse conspiracy theories as if they were fact (often without any actual evidence to back them), the political and financial elite, the bullies, the corrupt, the ignorant, the prejudiced. I happily march to war against every single last one of them, and in each book I write, there will be something that causes someone, somewhere, to question these blights on our enlightened society.

With Minute Silence, I hope to piss off the arms industry, a couple of religions, a whole bevy of “alternative historians”, and last but by no means least, everyone that picked on me in school.

I never said I wasn’t petty.

“Why do you write?”

Not a lot of people ask me this question. Not anymore, at least. A lot of folk did when I was back in College, but the answer then was different to now. The real answer at least. I’m not sure I told anyone the real answer, and that was simply that I didn’t want to deal with the life I was living; it was easier to make up entirely new lives for entirely different people.

These days, writing is a different proposition. I’m in a healthier mental state than ever; I have friends, I have a social life, I have a job. I’m becoming more “normal”, as some would say, proudly. My own thoughts on that particular definition and way of life shall remain guarded, for now. I don’t want to scare anyone away with a froth-mouthed rant just yet.

Nowadays I write for a smattering of reasons that fit together, like the Constructicons, to form the Devastator that is reason:

1) I can see myself writing for the rest of my life. I can’t imagine at all having nothing to write, or not wanting to write.

2) I feel that I have stories to tell. Some people might not like them but I think other people will, and I believe that one of the most precious things you can give to someone else is a story.

3) There is too much formulaic fiction on the shelves for me to give up writing original work.

4) Writing is perhaps the only career I can see lasting me until retirement (and most probably beyond).

To be honest, though, those reasons are just the limbs that attach to the two-Decepticon trunk of the mighty gestalt; what is at the core of the answer is a lot more complex, but is perhaps best conveyed in a simple response to the question asked above. It certainly went through my mind the last time I was asked, which was sometime last year. I’ve never found out the answer.

“How would I not write?”

Alright. I should really start working on this website, so I think I’ll put down something of a mission statement.

The site replaces an old site I had on Geocities. I think now I’m in a position to make a far more professional-looking, accessible website than previously; not that I will be garnering a lot of hits now – at last count the number of hits on my other website since Feb last year were arooound about zero – but at least when people find my site, it will be…somewhat cool. Less high school, easier to update than my old Geocities site, more relevant to what I am actually writing.

I’ll do my best to keep emo-fits and irritation at the state of the world away from here. I can’t promise I won’t spaz out over certain things – that I feel very strongly about – but I will try and present the facts, and my reaction to them, in as fair and dignified a fashion as possible.

So, to all my current readers, I would like to declare this website:

Well, I’ve just gone through the white-knuckle ride of signing up for this site; I got tired of staring at my old Geocities site and branched out into the scary world of paying for things. I just hope that the powers that be don’t decide to show their displeasure at this particular move.