Once again, Twitter has helped me to meet a wonderful author and a friendly pal! I'm excited to share my interview with him with you today. He had a lot of interesting things to share about his work as an author and artist. Check it out...
What inspires you?
Inspiration comes in so many forms and avenues that to pinpoint it down to a
certain singular thing is kind of impossible.
I find it in music, novels, movies, the world in general, other writers,
news, deep, intellectual conversations, and what I feel is the most important:
daydreaming. That age old question of
“What-if” is one of the most powerful tools for a writer. And inspiration can come from so many other
sources as well. If I had to answer in
the most simplified, bare-bones manner for me, it would have to be either music
or other people’s work. Both can trigger
the interior avalanche and that avalanche might have been held back because I
couldn’t work past one tiny little thing, one singular detail in something I’m
working on.
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Mostly,
as far as my writing is concerned, I write because it fulfills me and satisfies
my artistic and creative side more than any other avenue. It sounds cliché, I know, but I write because
I have to. I also think, for a part of
me, it’s something I own that is wholly mine which is an inspiration in of
itself. Growing up, I had friends who
could play the drums or rock a guitar or could sing, and I couldn’t do any of
it. But the one thing I had that a lot
of them didn’t was that longevity and complete creative control. If one of them in the band wanted to call it
quits, the band was - nine times out of ten - over. Me, twenty years later? I’m still writing while the others have moved
on from music.
In
short, the whole of creating and finding inspiration boils down to the mood I’m
in and what I’m feeling antsy to create (drawing, writing, outlining,
photography). The creative process for
me comes in waves, oscillating between writing and drawing. I can be on a drawing and art streak for a
month and then, suddenly, nothing. Same goes
for my writing too. Fun fact about me:
If I have a story cooking in the back of my head and I’m gearing up to write
it, I’ll usually seek out some new music.
It doesn’t even have to be associative music either - meaning if I’m
writing a story in the Midwest doesn’t mean I go looking for some acoustic Neil
Young, or when I’m writing about the city I don’t need a shot of hip-hop but
once I find that perfect song for the mood I’m writing in, I’ll know. Usually by then, I’ll slip on the headphones,
set the song on repeat, and listen to it 600 times. I know it sounds insane, but the music can
put me in the right headspace. Sometimes
a song may not be what I’m looking for at all and silence truly is golden.
You also are an artist
and photographer! How does having multiple creative endeavors help your work as
an author?
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| Original drawing by Troy Aaron Ratliff |
It gives me a break from writing, which I feel is needed to create
well-rounded, complete
fiction. I can’t
speak for all writers, but when I step away from my work and come back to it
with fresh eyes and new thoughts rambling around in my head, I can see where I
shined and where I stumbled in my prose.
I say “new thoughts” meaning that what I had on my mind when I first
wrote the words could have evolved in the time I toyed with my drawing or my
photography. I think this trinity of
creativity fuels each other and when I push the limits of one and then return
to another, I’m able to go at it full throttle.
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| Photo by Troy Aaron Ratliff |
Is there another genre
you'd like to try writing? If so, what?
I’d
like to try my hand at Literary Fiction if only to shake up that world a
bit. I know Lit. Fic. can be boring to a
lot of people, and to tell you the truth, I can understand why. The standard subjects in L.F. have become
these long-winded tomes about coming to America, the stereotypical
dysfunctional family, and anything else that if it isn’t on HBO as a miniseries
can be the literary equivalent of Ambian.
I like to consider my own work “Literary Horror”, which I believe is
very different from “Gothic Horror”. But
to write a straight Literary Fiction novel, no monsters or weirdness involved,
I think that would be a challenge for me.
And if I did write one, I could always enter it into some grandiose book
award! Move over McCarthy, Roth, and
Franzen! Here comes Ratliff (don’t hold
your breath on this one.).
What are you working on
now?
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| Original drawing by Troy Aaron Ratliff |
Actually,
my first novel. I can’t give too much
away because I’ll be bombarding everyone with it when it’s ready, so I’m
keeping it hush-hush right now. I
originally wanted to publish it around November but I hit a snag and it got
delayed. It’s not in development hell,
though and I hope to have it out this year.
I do have other goals in mind for the rest of the year too. One of my long-term goals that I’d love to
accomplish, maybe not this year, but sometime very soon, is to have a coffee
book of my art and my photography and my general thoughts on the world. Of course, I’m planning to release another
short story or a novella again in 2013, along with new photography and
art. I have plenty of things I’m always
working on, with the novel being the primary focus. I think the resolution every year is to grow
and hone the skills I already have, which I think is a fantastic goal for
everyone every year, no matter what you do.
Food for thought for those that don’t have any resolutions. Just grow.
Do you have a ritual or
a certain head-space you need to be in to write? Tell us about your process:
I
think every writer has some kind of method and I’ve experimented with several
different avenues of the writing process.
I may have an idea pop into my head and I set the keyboard on fire. Other times, I let it linger in my mind
because I may have the idea, but I’m shaky on how to execute it. I’m shaky because if I do it, I want to do it
right. As a matter of fact, I’m working
on a story I first thought of over a decade ago. The idea and the bones of the story have
rattled around in my mind for those ten years, but now it has matured in my
memory banks, stewing in its juices, and I feel it’s ready to be born.
Recently,
I’ve begun to see the formation of a solid process to my writing. Life tends to get in the way more times than
I would like it to, but that’s just how it works sometimes. We would all like to be able to write and
edit all day and watch our output quadruple.
But when it comes to the drafting, the writing, and the editing all coming
together, my process has certainly expanded and developed into something I’m
proud of.
Here’s
how I do it. Generally, I’ll write and
let loose my creative monster, just to see where the story takes me and how
far. Before long, I start to see the
story as a whole coming together and I’ll have to plot out the narrative if I’m
enjoying the ride and the characters.
After that, I’ll keep to a flexible outline (meaning if a better idea
comes along, then I’ll use it, which could mean a change in the whole story) but
I’ll still write until my fingers bleed.
After I’m finished, I’ll review it and read it out loud before sending
it to some friends. Then, I’ll leave it
alone for a bit. Again, the whole
stewing-in-the-juices method. When I
come back to it with fresh eyes, I’ll go through two rounds of editing with my
friend’s suggestions noted next to me.
After that, I’ll send it to one of my editors and wait. I’ll take their suggestions to heart (yes,
editors, I really do listen to you - and writers, you should listen to your
editors!) and I’ll make the changes I deem necessary. I go over it two more times and finally, by
that point, I should feel happy enough to publish it.
Has there ever been a
time you felt like giving up? What kept you going?
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| Photo by Troy Aaron Ratliff |
Absolutely. I recently asked a Facebook group if there
was ever a book that made them want to give up, to stop writing completely
because there was no chance of them ever being anywhere near as good. As writers, we are in a blender of emotions
when it comes to our output. We could
all find that writer who blows us out of the water. To counter that, we might stumble upon a
writer that we think is utter crap, while the writer in question has a legion
of rabid fans who are foaming at the mouth and would scream the opposite. I actually bring this up in my novella Just Past the Trees of this question of
hanging up the pen and paper for good.
Coming upon an insurmountable case of writer’s block because of a lack
of inspiration or we discover someone’s creativity that is the mountain to our
molehill can be very, very tough on the ego and the artistic mind. What keeps you going is up to you and what
you make of it in the end. For me, I’ve
been writing for almost twenty years.
It’d be like cutting off a limb or losing a family member. I’d feel so empty if words left my life and
that’s really what keeps me going. I
can’t see myself without my writing. I
may drift away from it from time to time, and I feel that’s okay, but to leave
it completely? That’s a hard pill to
swallow.
What is your current
obsession (absolutely anything!)?
I
went to Jamaica this past summer with my wife and I guess I had an awakening,
kinda like Snoop Dogg (now Snoop Lion).
But, not so much a spiritual awaken like he had, but more of a musical
one. I haven’t been able to stop
listening to Bob Marley and Wailers album Legend. I think those three days on that island were
my happiest of the year. At one point,
when I was on the sandy beach - and I felt like I was actually in a screensaver
- I told my wife that I wanted to be buried there. Obviously, there was a soundtrack playing the
entire time that was none other than Bob Marley. I had heard his music before, sure, but it
didn’t strike me as deeply as it did when I was there. Now, when I’m stuck in traffic or fighting
the chill of the winter weather, I listen to him and I’m instantly happy with
the world. Maybe I’ll be drawing some
inspiration for his island melodies and write a tropical story sometime soon…
Thank you so much for talking to me! Readers can find Troy Aaron on just about every social media outlet there is! Check him out at one or all of the following locations :
Great interview! Always nice to learn about fellow writers!
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