Interview with conorschild

April’s Question and Answer session kicks off with conorschild, (no joke!) a going on 3-year deviant, forum whore, and for the all intended educational purposes of this article, a writer.

How long have you been a writer, and what first got you started?

I don't think there's been any one thing that got me started as a writer. I've always loved books from an early and at primary school I enjoyed taking part in writing activities, but I don't think I started writing for my own enjoyment until I was around 13. That was around when i joined dA, I wrote mainly poetry then but I never felt it was very good. I branched out into prose eventually, but even so stopped writing completely for almost a year and a half. It wasn't until Beccalicious's 'Addiction' competition that I decided to give it a try again, and begun to fall back in love with writing.

Where and/or how do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration from a lot of other pieces of art: books, films, music, and all kinds of visual art. Some stuff comes from my life, of course, but if I just wrote about that I think people would find it very boring

What genre do you tend to choose when writing? What’s your ‘style’?

I don't read a lot of sci-fi or fantasy but I've noticed my recent stories and ideas have had those elements in them, which is kinda odd. I guess I just write stuff that's about normal human emotions but with extra-ordinary things happening to them. I try not to make the fantastical parts the main focus of the story. For instant in 'Reason in Madness' the main character hides the body of his victim inside a fake greek statue but I tried to make the story about the reasoning behind his actions, not what his actions were.

What is the best thing about being a writer?

You get to talk to hot girls like Squarix, duh.

Does writing take much effort and dedication?

For me it doesn't take much dedication as I'm only doing it as an amateur, but I can imagine for a person trying to make their work published (as I will sometime, hopefully =P) it definitely would. In terms of effort, though, definitely. Sometimes the best idea you have just doesn't translate easily onto paper, and it can take a lot of effort to continue working on a story that isn't going as well as you thought it would, and having faith in your abilities and putting the effort in is very important.

Do you write an entire piece before editing or do you go back and edit each paragraph as you write it? Which is better, in your opinion?

Often I'll write the whole piece before going back to edit, but if I've got a bit of writer's block than going back to edit an earlier paragraph can be really helpful. In my opinion, they're both as good as each other - but it can cause a problem if you edit something at the start and have to change the whole piece.

Do you write an entire piece before editing or do you go back and edit each paragraph as you write it? Which is better, in your opinion?

Often I'll write the whole piece before going back to edit, but if I've got a bit of writer's block then going back to edit an earlier paragraph can be really helpful. In my opinion, they're both as good as each other - but it can cause a problem if you edit something at the start and have to change the whole piece.

What do you find is the hardest thing about editing your own work?

I'm a big fan of lines that stand out from the rest of the piece, and puns. But sometimes these can ruin the flow of a paragraph or a piece as a whole, and it can be hard for me to tell myself that I need to get rid of it! Especially in pieces where there's a word count.

Do you tend to encounter "writer's block," And if so, how do you deal with it?

I do get it quite a lot, I generally solve it by taking a different approach to my writing - either changing the style, the type of story, the way I write piece, or reading some books to gain some inspiration.

Who are some of your favourite authors or poets, and what do you admire about their work?

In authors I like Anthony Burgess and Vladmir Nabokov, especially with their most famous works (A Clockwork Orange and Lolita) both because they have such a wit and clear love of the language and the fact they manage to make the read empthasise so resounding with the most morally despicable characters. I also like Irvine Welsh for similar reasons, and how unrepentant his characters are. I love his short stories in Glue and Ecstasy. I'm also a fan of Jeffery Eugenides' novel The Virgin Suicides. I love how he builds up the details of the surbanan town and the whole novel just swims over you. I think the way his tale of human tragedy contains elements of fantasy and humour but without ever becoming unrealistic. The scene where the street cleans off all the fish flies is probably my favourite scene in any book. A similar author I admire would be Jonathon Safran Foer. In poets I like E.E Cummings for the way he creates a sense of beauty from ridiculous phrases and Percy Shelley and TS Eliott because of their wealth of beautiful description.

What about some of your favourite writers here on Deviant Art?

Squarix, cuntsss, sonic-butterfly, Unch, amberlouie and cool4dude.

Does what you read inspire your own writing?

Yes. Often after I've read a book I'll find my writing has been influenced a lot by the author's style.

Would you like to see your works published in the future?

I certainly am going to try and pursue writing as a career choice but I'm aware that it's not the most certain of career paths. If not I think I'd like to go into teaching

Do you consider self-publishing, or sending out manuscripts to publishing companies to be the better option?

I think I'd prefer to send manuscripts to publishing companies, lulu et al can be good for self-publishing but I think to get your work out there you would need a bigger company with a better financial backing.

Do you have any advice or tips for other writers, especially beginners?

I think the best advice is just to read a lot of other people's work, and don't be afraid to take criticism of your work in order to better yourself.

Do you think that critiquing other people's works benefits your own writing?

I definitely think it does, looking out for mistakes in other people's works will often make you rethink your own writing.

And last, if you could sum up what being a writer is like for you, how would you describe it?

Awesome.