I have so many creative and artistic friends. So blessed am I. Artists, musicians, writers, poets, dancers, actors et cetera et cetera et cetera.
Yes folks its back...
Interesting Interviews With Creative People From Arouuuunnddd The Woooorrrlllldd!!!!
AKA: Mid-Week Creative Speak
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Ok so this used to be a weekly segment where I interviewed artistic, creative people, so that you may know, how awesome they are...because you should. It's probably not going to be as often as weekly but I am certainly determined to start this up again.
This week is my buddy Brian's turn.
I have known Bri for many years now and always as a writer among many things.
A fellow food and drink critic...Oh lets face it we love to judge anything and anybody.
Dirty habit. tee hee :)
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
When I was in fourth grade our class had a year-long project to write stories and have them bound into an anthology. I remember writing my first stories during that time period and really enjoying it. Making stuff up and writing it down made sense to me. And when you're that age you can get away with the utter dreck. No one is expecting any different from an eleven year old.
What is your creative process?
If an idea or thought comes to me I usually write it down. Pretty standard stuff. I don't work in order as far as sequence. I flesh out individual ideas as they come to me and leave them if I run out of thread. I've found that my best material has come out of looping together two or more unrelated ideas. Stories rarely come to me 'completed'. It's patchwork. In a nutshell: banging on the keyboard to forge something out of smaller pieces.
Is it difficult for you to come up with things to write about?
Oh I always have ideas. That's not problem for me. It's convincing myself that they are worth putting down and general output that are my problems as a writer. That and being a novice at taking this craft seriously. I have much to learn.
Do you have a preferred medium?
Not really. I spend a lot of my time at a computer and I read a lot of web-related work because I'm already there. Digital media means that we have more content in one place. This is both good and bad. Good in the sense that if we really HAVE to read this great book by so and so and are too lazy to go down to a bookstore to pick it up we can always grab the e-book version. On the other hand, it means there can be too much content to consume at any given time. For our generation in particular, computers are our televisions. I know more people with laptops and internet access than I do folks with television and cable. Of course many folks have both, but given the choice? You can pry my laptop from my cold dead hands, thank you.
There is something to physical media. It's a worn argument, but I do like the fact that a book is just a book and can't also play my mp3s. Single purpose things have a place.
To me, it's all words. Either printed out or on a glossy screen, I don't consume them any differently.
What's the grossest, saddest, fattest, oldest, whateverist thats bad thing you've ever eaten?
Ketchup on wheat toast. Let's move on.
Would you eat it again?
Never say never.
Do you have any plans on trying to get published one day? in a zine or in the Times!?! Or do you want to keep your work secret until you die and then become famous?
I don't really have aspirations to get famous from my writing. I would be fine with earning a living producing work that I'm proud of. Sounds silly, but it's true. I've spent a lot of time doing work that at the end of the day I'd rather not be doing.
Have you ever gotten anything published before?
Not in the literary journal or novel sense. More along the lines of angst-ridden live-journals and school newspapers. We all have to start somewhere.
When I was in fourth grade our class had a year-long project to write stories and have them bound into an anthology. I remember writing my first stories during that time period and really enjoying it. Making stuff up and writing it down made sense to me. And when you're that age you can get away with the utter dreck. No one is expecting any different from an eleven year old.
What is your creative process?
If an idea or thought comes to me I usually write it down. Pretty standard stuff. I don't work in order as far as sequence. I flesh out individual ideas as they come to me and leave them if I run out of thread. I've found that my best material has come out of looping together two or more unrelated ideas. Stories rarely come to me 'completed'. It's patchwork. In a nutshell: banging on the keyboard to forge something out of smaller pieces.
Is it difficult for you to come up with things to write about?
Oh I always have ideas. That's not problem for me. It's convincing myself that they are worth putting down and general output that are my problems as a writer. That and being a novice at taking this craft seriously. I have much to learn.
Do you have a preferred medium?
Not really. I spend a lot of my time at a computer and I read a lot of web-related work because I'm already there. Digital media means that we have more content in one place. This is both good and bad. Good in the sense that if we really HAVE to read this great book by so and so and are too lazy to go down to a bookstore to pick it up we can always grab the e-book version. On the other hand, it means there can be too much content to consume at any given time. For our generation in particular, computers are our televisions. I know more people with laptops and internet access than I do folks with television and cable. Of course many folks have both, but given the choice? You can pry my laptop from my cold dead hands, thank you.
There is something to physical media. It's a worn argument, but I do like the fact that a book is just a book and can't also play my mp3s. Single purpose things have a place.
To me, it's all words. Either printed out or on a glossy screen, I don't consume them any differently.
What's the grossest, saddest, fattest, oldest, whateverist thats bad thing you've ever eaten?
Ketchup on wheat toast. Let's move on.
Would you eat it again?
Never say never.
Do you have any plans on trying to get published one day? in a zine or in the Times!?! Or do you want to keep your work secret until you die and then become famous?
I don't really have aspirations to get famous from my writing. I would be fine with earning a living producing work that I'm proud of. Sounds silly, but it's true. I've spent a lot of time doing work that at the end of the day I'd rather not be doing.
Have you ever gotten anything published before?
Not in the literary journal or novel sense. More along the lines of angst-ridden live-journals and school newspapers. We all have to start somewhere.
Do you admire any modern writers? Or have any muses/inspirations of the moment?
There are so many. At the moment I'm smitten with Denis Johnson. I just finished reading his first collection of stories, Jesus' Son. Absolutely devastating.
What would you do if you were able to do anything you wanted? I mean there was no need to work for survival purposes and you can just choose to do things in your life for the pure joy of it.
This answer will bore you: travel and write.
Who's your favorite Golden Girl?
There are so many. At the moment I'm smitten with Denis Johnson. I just finished reading his first collection of stories, Jesus' Son. Absolutely devastating.
What would you do if you were able to do anything you wanted? I mean there was no need to work for survival purposes and you can just choose to do things in your life for the pure joy of it.
This answer will bore you: travel and write.
Who's your favorite Golden Girl?
Dorothy! That lady could throw down.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for answering my questions Brian! If you have any more questions for my writer friend send them my way and I'll tack em on.
I miss my buddy over in Oaktown CaleeforNyay :( But I'm on the look out for interesting and creative friends over on this side of the pond. We'll see who we can meet. Yay new adventures and new people!
Love and Creative Speak,
~Valiant V
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