AN INTERVIEW WITH:
JAMES BLEARS
Tell us one of your first experiences where you realised that language had power.
When I heard the Martin Luther King speech about the mountain and the promised land stretching out below: “I may not get there with you… but we as a people will get to the promised land.”
A shock wave of realization swept through me and millions of others. The undeniable fact that the written and spoken word guiding, evolving and inspiring a non-violent movement plus struggle, is always so much more powerful than the sword or the bullet. The truth remains the truth, courageously and steadfastly standing the test of time, no matter what the level or suppression of persecution.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would you say?
Read some classic books, read widely and use life as a font and pastiche of experience.
Have you ever written under a pseudonym?
No.
What kind of research do you do for whatever it is you’re writing?
I try to base my writing on the life experiences which have enlightened, and in some cases, scarred me. You / one/ I best write about what I know, within my sphere. It takes all sorts of people to make all sorts of worlds.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters of a different gender to you?
To be real, give a proper voice, tempered by checking if what I’ve written is believable and not either patronizing or stereotypical.
Do you believe in the dreaded Writer’s Block?
Constipation can be shifted with prunes. Don’t mope or sulk. Get up from your desk, empty your wastepaper basket and go and do something else, while retaining the ideas and the bread-and-butter plot in your head. Eat a slice of toast and use your loaf.
When I heard the Martin Luther King speech about the mountain and the promised land stretching out below: “I may not get there with you… but we as a people will get to the promised land.”
A shock wave of realization swept through me and millions of others. The undeniable fact that the written and spoken word guiding, evolving and inspiring a non-violent movement plus struggle, is always so much more powerful than the sword or the bullet. The truth remains the truth, courageously and steadfastly standing the test of time, no matter what the level or suppression of persecution.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would you say?
Read some classic books, read widely and use life as a font and pastiche of experience.
Have you ever written under a pseudonym?
No.
What kind of research do you do for whatever it is you’re writing?
I try to base my writing on the life experiences which have enlightened, and in some cases, scarred me. You / one/ I best write about what I know, within my sphere. It takes all sorts of people to make all sorts of worlds.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters of a different gender to you?
To be real, give a proper voice, tempered by checking if what I’ve written is believable and not either patronizing or stereotypical.
Do you believe in the dreaded Writer’s Block?
Constipation can be shifted with prunes. Don’t mope or sulk. Get up from your desk, empty your wastepaper basket and go and do something else, while retaining the ideas and the bread-and-butter plot in your head. Eat a slice of toast and use your loaf.