Today, we have an opportunity to talk to Price Doom.
Price has written the book, Weatherman
First, let me thank you for joining me. I appreciate you giving me your links and I want to share those with our readers.
That is great. Can you tell us a little about yourself and what led you to start writing?
Growing up I didn’t have many friends and was bullied quite often, so I wrote to escape the isolation and the anxiety that comes with bullying.
Bullying is such a huge issue in schools. As a teacher I see it everyday. In fact, it was the topic I chose for my first book. When did you start writing books as a way to cope with anxiety?
I started writing stories in 4th grade and didn’t really stop. I tried many times later in life to stop writing as I would spend countless hours writing characters and scenes and saw how much time that was taking away from living my life. I have since learned to balance my time where I can enjoy writing and my life.
That work-Life-Write balance is so important. What advice would you give someone who wants to be a writer?
Write every day, no matter what, even if it is only a sentence or two. The more you do it, the easier and routine it becomes. Writing is like exercising. Once you stop, your form goes away.
That is good advice. I know all writers, but especially young writers need that type of encouragement. What is the best advice you have ever been given as a writer?
The best advice I got was from an editor. She told me never worry about page length, and that not all stories require three hundred pages. I was always trying to hit that page count, trying to force subplots and dialogue, and because of that, my stories were not well told, and quite boring; the more I had, the less interesting the story and characters were. Once I took her advice, the pressure disappeared, and I was able to just write what I wanted, and not worry about the structure of a traditional novel.
Do you write full-time or around another job? How do you schedule your time to write?
I used to write full time, but that made my writing stale, and I lost interest, and I felt my writing would improve if I did something else for a profession. When I started working full time as teacher, I was able to connect with people and have new experiences (good and bad). More importantly, I was living in the moment. All of those helped my writing, especially creating scenes that require human connections. I write three and half hours a day every morning. In the evening, I spend an hour rewriting/editing what I wrote. At night, usually before I sleep, I think about what I will write the following morning.
What is your favorite part about writing?
My favorite part of writing is when the characters take over the story and I no longer need to lead them. The characters know the way to the end and have already accepted their fate. All I have to do is follow along.
What exciting story are you working on next?
I was planning on writing an epic love story about an affair, but every time I attempt to write it, I get bored, so either I am not ready to write it yet or it is just something I am not interested in. I have started outlining my next story, which is a continuation of Weatherman. It is not about the character, rather an exploration of the world that I created for him. Weatherman’s solar flares had shot into space and affected an astronaut repairing a satellite. The astronaut becomes a superhero with different abilities than what Weatherman had. The astronaut spends his life only using his abilities to protect his family, who never find out about it. I have never written in the superhero genre before, but am I looking forward to the challenge.
I have a lady in my writing group that writes love stories. Are you involved in any writer groups?
No, I would like too though. I have just spent some much of my childhood and teen years not being included or accepted. A part of me still has that insecurity if I joined a group or community I’d be rejected. I am always open to recommendations.
For what it is worth, I have found most writing groups I have been a part of to be very accepting. I have been part of several that came through memberships such as the Atlanta Writer's Group or Southern Children Writers and Illustrators. Those groups will actively help you locate a group and have very active boards to scan and use to network. I'm also in a local group. We have writers with agents and writers who never publish outside our collections. It is a great way to find that encouragement to write everyday.
I appreciate you taking some time to answer my questions and I hope you the very best on promoting your new work, Weatherman.
To my readers, go check out the book: Amazon
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