Warm Bodies Author Isaac Marion On the Perception of Success

Your debut novel, Warm Bodies, took off to become an amazing success. It's been made into a film and translated into 25 languages. Yet, you've shared on your blog how the follow up title The Burning World did so poorly that your lost your publishing house, and your actual house - the roof over your head. Authors are often viewed as successful, even when our truth is something quite different. Your thoughts on that?

There's this idea that once someone achieves any level of success, they get lifted up to live among the gods and never have to struggle again. If you've heard of their work, they must be Famous, enshrined and protected by some vast corporation, so they certainly don't need you—an insignificant mortal!—to support them. It's been really eye-opening to see it from the inside and realize what a fable all that is. A lot of writers and musicians who are household names barely make enough to pay rent. Those Soundcloud rappers are renting all that bling!

Most artists are a lot more vulnerable than we imagine. And as our culture continues to devalue art and turn the idea of paying for it into a dorky anachronism, it's only getting sadder. I really encourage people to recognize the connection between what they support and what gets created. All it takes to put a bestselling author out of a job is one year of "I'll check that out later."

You put ten years into writing this series, and have chosen to bring the culmination - The Living - into print on your own, having them bound as hardcovers and signing each of the 3,000 copies. You came to this decision after looking into all the avenues available. Can you talk more about why this was the right choice for you as the author, and for this work as a whole?

It was a necessity that evolved into a choice. When Simon & Schuster dropped me I assumed that it'd be easy to find a smaller, weirder publisher who would recognize the opportunity. When a book sells 350,000 copies and its critically acclaimed sequel sells 5,000, it should be obvious that there's a glitch somewhere and whoever fixes that glitch could make a lot of money.

But what I discovered is that no one wanted to take on that challenge. No one was interested in the strange context around The Burning World's failure and no one had a vision for reigniting the series, it was all just numbers to them. I could have kept looking, tried even smaller houses, but I'd wasted a year already and I was fed up. I still had a lot of readers waiting for the end of the story and I just wanted to give it to them, career be damned. I'm still hoping for a wider release eventually, but for now I just want to get the conclusion out there so my readers and I can share these final moments.

Life as a creative is difficult. I know that from personal experience as well as having spent years talking to authors about their careers and hardships along the way. At the same time, I'm a farmer's daughter. One of my first jobs as a kid was a duty called "picking up rocks," which is pretty self-explanatory. What we do as writers is not physical labor, yet I would never argue that our lives are easy. What are your thoughts on the differences between physical and mental toughness and how they apply to our lives as writers?

Oh I know about Pick up Rocks. Farmer's son, here! Creative labor is exhausting in a very different way. If I have to dig twenty fence post holes in the rain, it's not fun, I'll get cold and wet and tired, but the job is clear: dig the holes. There's no question of "Will I be able to dig the holes? What if I get to the twentieth hole and my digger disappears?" And I don't have to invent a new kind of digger for every job! But ultimately, I think the toughness is the same. It's just a basic foundation of resilience, the idea of "This is the job and I'm going to do it."

A lot of people tell me they can never seem to finish any writing, they get halfway and then wander off, and I don't really know what to suggest for that problem because I think the real problem is further behind it. What really matters to you? Do you know why you're writing? Are you just following a whim that can be easily overwhelmed by the pull of Netflix? Or is there a fire inside you that has to come out? Writing is a conflict. The whole world is trying to talk you out of doing it. You have to become a bit of a hard-ass to slam the door in its face and get to work.

What's up next for you now that your series is finished?

I have several big ideas lined up waiting to be written but honestly, this thing is far from finished. It's going to be a long time before I can retreat from society and start writing again. My job for the next several months is going to be running around the world shouting about The Living. Even when I had a publisher this was an overwhelming task, but now that it's just me out here it's going to be all-consuming. I don't even want to let myself think about the next book yet, because it's calling to me, but The Living is the culmination of a decade of my life and I have to give it the parade it deserves.

Gordon Jack On The Election As Inspiration

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.

Today's guest for the WHAT (What The Hell Are You Thinking?) is Gordon Jack, author of Your Own Worst Enemy. He always wanted to be a writer. In third grade, he put that on his “What I want to be when I grow up” list, just behind astronaut and professional dog walker. While working towards this goal, he had jobs as an advertising copywriter, English teacher, librarian, and semi-professional dog walker. The Boomerang Effect was his first novel. He lives in San Francisco with his family.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

I was inspired to write Your Own Worst Enemy by my editor from Harpers. We were talking about my next book and she said, “Why don’t you write about a high school election?” and I said, “You mean, like the movie Election?” and she said, “Yes, exactly like that.”

I love the movie Election and wasn’t up for writing another bit of fan fiction (My last book The Boomerang Effect is a rip off, I mean homage, to a P.G. Wodehouse Jeeves and Wooster novel.) I decided instead to write a novel about an overweight teen cast on a humiliating sitcom, which my editor hated. Maybe I should write about a high school election? I thought. When I asked my editor about it, she loved the idea and that’s when I started writing Your Own Worst Enemy.

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

The reason I didn’t want to write about a high school class election is because they’re kind of boring (at least at my school). Only a few people run and there’s never really much drama. The trick, I found, was to make the teens as competitive and immoral as some of our politicians. So, I modeled the three candidates in my book after Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump. Once I did that, the writing got way more interesting (and therapeutic after the 2016 presidential contest).

In the early drafts, the plot revolved around a love triangle, which I know sounds weird for a political satire. Brian’s dilemma of working for Stacey but being in love with her opponent mirrored my own conflicted feelings of supporting Hillary but secretly loving Bernie. I felt like Hillary had the most experience to be president, but Bernie had all the energy and radical new ideas.

I didn’t introduce my Trump stand in until much later when I realized the book wasn’t as funny as I wanted it to be. Tony became my Trump character and Kyle his Steve Bannon. Tony wants attention but doesn’t really want the responsibility. Kyle helps him tap into the part of the electorate that’s being ignored and weaponizes people’s anger. Hilarious, right?

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

That’s what I call writing. Does this not happen to other people?! What’s their secret?

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

Well, that depends. Coming up with ideas isn’t too hard, but coming up with good ideas is a challenge. For example, I’m working on a story now tentatively titled, “My Future’s In The Toilet” about a teenage girl who walks into a bathroom stall at prom and comes out at her 20-year-high school reunion. I love the concept, but I’m having a hard time making the story more than a series of brief encounters where the main character learns about her friends’ embarrassing secrets.

First drafts suck. I know they’re supposed to suck, but that doesn’t make them any easier to write. Whenever I’m writing a first draft, I’m reminded about how bad a writer I am and I don’t like being reminded of that. It’s not until the 3rd or 4th draft that I begin to see my genius again, until I show it to someone and they tell me I suck and to keep revising. The story evolves and changes significantly the more I work on it. Who knows, by the time you read this “My Future’s In The Toilet,” could be about a dog that saves a small town from a tornado.

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

I usually go with whatever character I want to spend the most time with. I imagine I’m hosting a dinner party with all the people in my head (I never invite Fred though because he drinks too much and chews with his mouth open). The person I want to sit next to is usually the story I want to write because I’m interested in this character and what’s going on in their life right now. If that person turns out to be an insufferable bore, I’ll find an excuse to leave the table and start loading the dishwasher, which is what I usually do when I’m procrastinating with writing.

I have 5 cats and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting?

If by writing buddy you mean strong coffee and Pop Tarts, then yes, I have a few writing buddies. I find it hard to compose anything without them.

Learn more about Gordon Jack and Your Own Worst Enemy by following all of his stops on the blog tour, and enter to win a copy!

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You Are the Villain

One of the things I always tell aspiring writers is to remember not to make their villains unsympathetic. As tough as it is to swallow, everyone has a reason for being the way they are. Even the most reprehensible character (and people in real life) have traveled a path to become who they are. Note that I say reason - not excuse.

Recently while teaching a writing workshop I stumbled onto a truth you won't hear very often.

Everyone knows we are the heroes of our own stories. This is true. Whether you're having a good cry in your car - yes, you were at fault in that fender bender but you just have so much going on right now - or calling to check in on that friend who is down on their luck, we are usually doing the right thing... or at least if we do the wrong thing, we have justification.

Perspective is key in these situations. The person you just rear-ended most definitely isn't feeling that narrative about how stressed you are right now. They've got bills to pay, and by the way that wasn't even their car - that was their mother-in-law's car - and you just made their life a shit show.

Much like in books and movies, the audience's sympathy is going to be with the person they were following right before the crash. Are they in the car with you? Or the person you hit? Their sympathy will lie with whoever's POV they are in, because they've already identified with them and understand the circumstances that led up to the crash - or the impact of the fallout.

In real life, we are always the heroes of our own stories. It's our narrative. We know the ins and outs of every moment that has made us into who we are today. It shapes our perspective and determines where our chief sympathies lie.

How is this a writing tool?

While standing in front of my class and talking about the hero perspective we use in our daily lives, I suddenly realized the flip of that - every single one of us is also someone's villain.

That's right. You're the villain in someone else's narrative.

Think about that.

If you want to use it as soul-cleanser, go ahead. That's up to you. I'm looking at it from a writing perspective. I know more than a few narratives where I figure in as the villain, and I'm sure there are plenty I'm blissfully unaware of.

If you know yours, cool. If not, give it a second.

I'm confident that in your version of the narrative you are not the villain. Much like our fictional counterparts, you have a reason for whatever action (or inaction) that cast you in that role. I doubt you have to stretch yourself to come up with a sympathetic angle.

Apply this same thinking to your fictional villains, and you will have believable, three-dimensional, sympathetic, dynamic, interesting characters populating your pages.

Just like a real person.