Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!
Gx Webzine: Vol B Issue 9 September 2002
Volume B Issue 9 September 2002
Copyright 2002 Gx Webzine All Rights Rsvd.

  Home
  Archives
  About Gx
  Link to Us
  Feedback
  Subscribe for Free!
  Staff
  Message Board


Ms. Pacman for
your PC could be
yours free! Just sign
up for your FREE
Subscription to Gx
Now!

 

Tell A Friend!
Type In Your Name:

Type In Your E-mail:

Your Friend's E-mail:

Your Comments:

Receive copy: 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interview with Stephen Coonts
author of The Right Matter
interview by Madison Knight


matter.jpg
Becoming a writer takes talent and know-how. This involves market research to discover your niche. It is then a matter of plotting, writing and editing and submitting your manuscript to publishers or agents. But success doesn't happen overnight, it takes several attempts at rewriting and some rejections later to find ‘The Right Matter'.

 

 

 


 

'Live a full, rich life. Read everything you can get your hands on and write, write, write.' This advice to aspiring writers is not just advice, but a philosophy which Stephen Coonts seems to live by, and through this, he has written works which have the right matter such as 'Flight of the Intruder.'

MK: Coming from a small town (Buckhannon, West Virginia), and it being postwar time, did this environment fire up your imagination?

SC: Not really. Buckhannon was a great place to grow up and left me with a lifelong affection for small-town America, but the books in the library fired my imagination.

MK: How fast paced should an action-adventure stories be without cutting out too much description?

SC: Wow! That question goes right to the core of the craft of storytelling. I think pacing is one of those "feel right" things that a lifetime of reading gives you. You just gotta know. It has to read right.

MK: The ending is the clincher of any novel, and does leave a lasting impression on the reader. How do you achieve this effect in your novels?

SC: A story is a journey and the climax is the destination. I am not ready to write until I have a climax, a resolution of the main conflict, firmly in mind and a general idea how I am going to get there. The climax determines what the novel is about and who the characters are. The more thought you devote to your story before you start writing, the better the story will be. It will be sharper, crisper, leaner, faster, with a better focus. I recommend an hour of thought (or more) for every hour of writing..

MK: 'I realized during the Vietnam War that the naval aviation combat adventure would make a hell of a story if it were properly written.' Was this your first inspiration to turn to novel writing?

SC: I had always had a fuzzy ambition to write, but this was the first time I found a story I wanted to write. Unfortunately, in 1972 and 1973, I didn't have a plot, merely a setting. I wrote flying sequences for ten years before I thought up a plot, which sort of popped into my head one day when I was thinking about the story and the characters. If you don't see your characters in your head, and the action of your story, don't try to write.

MK: From this point to when 'Flight of the Intruder' was published, was the journey to publishing your first novel as important as being a successful novelist?

SC: 'Flight of the Intruder' was my first novel. Every novelist has a first novel, sometimes that is all they have, and they must make a major stab at acquiring the craft to get over that big hurdle. The people who are going to be professional novelists have more than one story in them. They see stories. Their imagination is alive with story possibilities. And they enjoy the creative process. Writing is damned hard work; the people who spend a career at it get some sense of satisfaction from it or they would be doing something else. I get a big kick from seeing the story that existed only in my head turn into a book in the bookstores, and from watching people read it in airports, and from getting comments from folks, "Hey, I liked it." The work side of it I could do without. I would rather be flying or hiking or mowing hay.

MK: How different is writing action combat adventure to living it?

SC: If you're going to write it, having some experience helps a whole lot. That's true for everything from combat to coitus. It's not essential, but it sure helps. I tell would-be writers that the best thing they can do to prepare for a writing career is to lead a full, active life. Meet people from all walks of life, and develop the ability to listen. Our best writers have a solid understanding of what it means to be human, and this is the very foundation of the craft, the clay from which their characters are crafted. Your experience in life is the raw material your imagination needs to function. Someone told James Michener that all great novelists were published before they were forty--this discouraged him, because he was forty when his first novel was published (and so was I). The younger you are the less life experience you have, and life experience is one of the essentials. On the other hand, acquiring the craft of storytelling takes time. Few people have it in their twenties.

MK: Adventure novels make up a large percentage of books sold. Why do you think this is so?

SC: The first novel, 'The Odyssey,' was action-adventure. As we slog through life from day to day, we find the tale of the hero fascinating. Adventure heroes have stirred the imagination of people of every time and place. Adventure stories are present in every culture. The genre is translated and sold worldwide.

MK: When editing a draft what should writers watch out for?

SC: Editing is where you tighten and sharpen and focus.

MK: Are literary agents the key to success?

SC: I don't think literary agents are the key to success. Having one certainly makes a writer's life simpler, helps the publication process, and probably maximizes the writer's income potential. Yet the best agent on earth can't sell a bad book, and they shouldn't try if they want to stay in the business. The writer must write a book so good, so compelling, that the publishing pros can see how they can sell it and make money.

MK: What advice would you give new writers?

SC: Live a full, rich life. Read everything you can get your hands on and write, write, write. Writing is a craft, like playing a musical instrument, and must be practiced painstakingly and diligently.

Other works by Stephen Coonts are Saucer, America and Minotaur. For more information, visit Stephen Coonts' official site.

   
Related Sites

BLAST@explode.com
Generation J
ihearld.com
MeZine
One Magazine
Peel
Serious
XyNot

Leave a Message

Name

URL or Email

Messages

Disclaimer:The expressed views and the opinions of any content/columns/articles within Gx Webzine is not neccessarly the expressed views and opinions of Gx Webzine. All information provided on this site is offered 'as is', without warrenty. All authors/columnist are responsible for their own articles/columns and Gx Webzine is unaware of any acts of unlawfulness and/or plagerism. If plagerism is found within the content of Gx Webzine, the author of the article/column will be responsible for any legal action that maybe taken by the original author of the content and Gx Webzine will be held blameless thereof.

All contents copyright © 2002 Gx Webzine. All Rights Reserved.

Site Meter