If you haven’t heard of our new project, the On Fire anthology, this interview series will showcase our authors lives beyond their ignited tales. In Will Waller‘s “Torch,” a young musician’s memories of a woman haunts him.
How long have you been writing?
16 years.
How do you deal with writer’s block?
I demand a minimum of one finished sentence a day from myself. I’m generally a very clean drafter (spelled: perfectionist), and since my first sentences aren’t any better than anyone else’s, that usually means writing one very crummy sentence, then writing another and another until I have a paragraph I can edit into something decent. Although, the point is definitely simply to keep my head in the world of whatever stories I’m working on, even when I’m busy or tired or not feeling particularly motivated.
Who are your favorite authors and why?
For novels… Angelica Gorodischer, Ursula K. Le Guin, John Crowley. For short stories, Kelly Link, Kij Johnson, Nalo Hopkinson. I’m also very fond of the mangaka Inio Asano.
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
I prefer the patronus model, and I’m pretty sure I’d be a Bulbasaur.
How do you research your stories?
I’ll say what is, for me, an offhand worldbuilding note under my breath while writing and my fiancé, who is also a writer, will disappear into his office, presumably to work, only to come back an hour later twenty-some pages worth of scientific, socioeconomic, and statistical notes on my idle thought. Then it’s just lying around, and when I get stuck sometimes I’ll leaf through it until I get unstuck or give up.
How do reviews of your stories influence you?
I don’t read them much.
Do you use beta readers, and if so, roughly how many?
I message my best friend sentences and paragraphs as I draft them, even if he doesn’t have thoughts, having to have something to send him and using him as a sounding board both keep me looking at the page, so I write more. When I have a full draft, I’ll use as many beta readers as will put up with me.
What advice do you have for beginning authors?
Try. No really. I’ve heard so often from young writers or students of mine. “I can’t do this.” “How did they do that?” “How’s that work?” and the answer is almost always just try. You’ll fail, a lot, until you don’t. Then, you’ll probably fail a lot again doing the same stupid thing until you don’t again. Eventually it gets easier, I’m told, but I also agree with the maxim that every new story I relearn how to write all over again.
Will Waller is an author of speculative fiction, scholarship, and experimental writing originally from the Finger Lakes Wine Region of New York. After two years in San Francisco spent working as an editor for Eleven Eleven Journal, he relocated to St. Louis to found The Fantasist Magazine. His writing focuses on memory, music, and the weather, and has been featured by Bay Area Generations, Heavy Feather Review, Rivet Magazine, and the On Fire anthology of Transmundane Press.
ON FIRE is available now: Amazon, Nook, Kobo, and the Transmundane Press store.
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