So we are here at New York Comic Con and right
now we are talking with author Chuck Wendig.
We’re going to jump right into asking him
about the process of writing.
First of all I want to talk to you about Star
Wars.
I have been living and breathing Star Wars
and the great thing too is now my son is getting
into Star Wars.
There’s this vibe with Star Wars and I was
talking about this on the panel where a small
group of characters can change the entire
galaxy.
You don’t need this colossal movement to
change everything.
Sometimes you just need you and a couple of
your scoundrels, friends and wookies.
I kind of asked almost as a joke on Twitter
I would like to one day write a Star Wars
novel.
I will make this wish.
And then that happened.
Suddenly I had a book I had to write and a
four year old in the house who was not very
excited about giving me time.
We had a shed built in the woods and it became
my writing shed and I would literally go into
the shed everyday.
Mostly about fitting the book into the schedule
more than changing my process for it.
Do you juggle multiple things at once where
you’re working on a variety of narratives?
If it’s a first draft I focus on that first
draft only.
In the afternoons I can sometimes edit a different
story or I can write in the comics realm.
You mentioned in an interview on StarWars.com
back in the summer that one of the things
you do is you let your characters breathe.
With Star Wars it’s a little different.
It was true of the characters that I made
up.
In terms of the more canonical, legacy characters
they had already been living and breathing
in my head umm, you know, since I was four
years old.
But for me it’s mostly a case of taking
them for a test drive on the page and giving
them different scenarios and seeing how that
plays out.
A lot of that stuff but there’s inevitably
stuff that doesn’t.
You mentioned twitter a little while ago and
I’m glad.
You—that’s a way to say I have a problem
isn’t it?
Is this my intervention?
A lot of publishers and a lot of advice about
social media, sort of like how you plan and
steer.
I don’t do any of that.
It’s like there’s a plane and I’m in
it and I jump out of it and then that’s
my twitter feed.
Me falling to the ground.
The goal for me is to just try to be the best
version of myself online as possible and sort
of use that as my governing principal and
sort of, is this the best face I can put forward
or the worst?
People can write and not like my book and
I don’t want to get into their business—right—that
is their right and it’s not my conversation.
But with Star Wars it became something different.
Because of the social component, the social
makeup and the inclusiveness of the Star Wars
universe, to me that felt less of a review
of me and more of a social commentary that
I can push back on.
And speaking of diversity you include a lot
of different people in your books.
Sometimes that’s where the detractors are
coming from.
People who aren’t ready for that.
Do you feel like it’s getting better or
do you sometimes feel like it’s getting
worse?
Well it’s getting better which makes it
worse.
Sounds weird.
I have put it where the when the dinosaurs
saw the meteor coming they got louder and
squawkier and barked at it and moved their
tiny t-rex arms.
They’re just dealing with a big shift.
A big political narrative and social shift
that they’re not really prepared to deal
with so they’re a little mad about it.
You also teach writing and you write a lot
about writing.
I do.
The reason I teach writing is because I need
to be taught writing.
My blog and all of my writing posts and everything
that I do, the books that I write, are really
me screaming at me about me.
And if other people can glean wisdom from
that or usefulness then that’s great.
You are smattered all over different genres
and styles.
Does one of those feel like home to you, like
the most natural writing?
To me it’s always about finding the horror
of the situation, not necessarily as a genre,
but as an emotion, as a mood, as a tenor to
the piece.
All of my books are mostly horror books, even
if they’re not called that.
Last question: You have 60 seconds to talk
to a new writer and your life depends on that
writer becoming successful.
What do you tell them in that minute?
I say nothing and I let them perish in the
void and then I take their contract.
No.
I just tell them to finish what they started.
Finish what you begin because you learn a
lot by finishing even if it’s terrible.
Where can people find you?
Uh, terribleminds.com is my blog and I’m
on twitter first name, last name Chuck Wendig.
Perfect.
That was Chuck Wendig.
This is the guy that knows writing.
So we hope you’ve learned a little bit and
you can learn more at his site.
Thanks guys.
Thanks!
