An interview with
Doug Jacquier
Tell us one of your first experiences where you realised that language had power.
It’s hard to choose between Orwell’s ‘1984’, Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes Of Wrath’ and Heller’s ‘Catch-22’ as books that opened my eyes to a whole new world as a teenager and the influence of Bob Dylan was also seminal. As I have gotten older I have realised that writing in itself changes nothing, because the evils they described are still with us, but it can influence the way individuals think and that has to be enough.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would you say?
“There are some gems in the reams of crap you are pumping out. Never throw anything out. Just get better at sifting crap.”
Have you ever written under a pseudonym?
Only for a competition that I recently entered that weirdly required pseudonyms to preserve anonymity. I chose Robert Zimmerman. Hope he doesn’t sue if I win.
What kind of research do you do for whatever it is you’re writing?
For non-fiction, a lot; one vital fact wrong and you are toast to readers. For fiction, it varies from none to some. I am always keen to make sure that what characters are doing is believable and fits their context (except when I’m writing humour, where anything goes). But beware; as the Abraham Lincoln meme goes, don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters of a different gender to you?
Thank you for inviting me into a mine-field, especially amid the current debate about the multiple forms of gender, but here goes. There would be no worthwhile writing if all it comprised was personal introspection. I am not a woman, a person of colour, a person with a disability etc but the worlds my characters live in are populated by such people. All I can do is hope my observations of the ‘real’ world help me to write characters that have a grounding in what real people I have known have done and said. The trap to avoid is thinking that you know what those characters are thinking or feeling and simply let their words and actions speak for themselves.
Do you believe in the dreaded Writer’s Block?
When I was a brash teenager, my local church Minister asked me why I no longer attended church and I told him I no longer believed in God. He smiled and said ‘That is irrelevant to God’. Similarly, writers are not machines (yet) and whether such a thing as writer’s block exists or you are simply tired, all written out or are experiencing a failure of imagination is irrelevant. You are either writing or you are not. Perhaps it's best to imagine there is such a thing, put your head on it, imagine a guillotine above it and see if that focuses your energies.
It’s hard to choose between Orwell’s ‘1984’, Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes Of Wrath’ and Heller’s ‘Catch-22’ as books that opened my eyes to a whole new world as a teenager and the influence of Bob Dylan was also seminal. As I have gotten older I have realised that writing in itself changes nothing, because the evils they described are still with us, but it can influence the way individuals think and that has to be enough.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would you say?
“There are some gems in the reams of crap you are pumping out. Never throw anything out. Just get better at sifting crap.”
Have you ever written under a pseudonym?
Only for a competition that I recently entered that weirdly required pseudonyms to preserve anonymity. I chose Robert Zimmerman. Hope he doesn’t sue if I win.
What kind of research do you do for whatever it is you’re writing?
For non-fiction, a lot; one vital fact wrong and you are toast to readers. For fiction, it varies from none to some. I am always keen to make sure that what characters are doing is believable and fits their context (except when I’m writing humour, where anything goes). But beware; as the Abraham Lincoln meme goes, don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters of a different gender to you?
Thank you for inviting me into a mine-field, especially amid the current debate about the multiple forms of gender, but here goes. There would be no worthwhile writing if all it comprised was personal introspection. I am not a woman, a person of colour, a person with a disability etc but the worlds my characters live in are populated by such people. All I can do is hope my observations of the ‘real’ world help me to write characters that have a grounding in what real people I have known have done and said. The trap to avoid is thinking that you know what those characters are thinking or feeling and simply let their words and actions speak for themselves.
Do you believe in the dreaded Writer’s Block?
When I was a brash teenager, my local church Minister asked me why I no longer attended church and I told him I no longer believed in God. He smiled and said ‘That is irrelevant to God’. Similarly, writers are not machines (yet) and whether such a thing as writer’s block exists or you are simply tired, all written out or are experiencing a failure of imagination is irrelevant. You are either writing or you are not. Perhaps it's best to imagine there is such a thing, put your head on it, imagine a guillotine above it and see if that focuses your energies.