Who: Chuck Wendig

Claim To Fame: Chuck Wendig is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Star Wars Aftermath trilogy, starting with Journey to The Force Awakens, as well as the Miriam Black thrillers, the Atlanta Burns books, Zeroes, Invasive, and latest modern epic, Wanderers. He’s also worked in a variety of other formats, including comics, games, film, and television. A finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the cowriter of the Emmy-nominated digital narrative Collapsus, he is also known for his books about writing, and his blog Terribleminds.

Where To Find Chuck: His Website, Amazon, Twitter

Praise For Chuck: [On Aftermath: Life Debt] “[Chuck] Wendig once again strikes gold, offering a sweeping narrative with plenty of insight into both the state of the galaxy at large and beloved characters both new and old.” — Alternative Nation

When and where do you like to write? Are you the same-thing-every-day kind of writer or can you write anytime, anywhere?

Once upon a time (where “a time” is defined as roughly “two months ago”) I wrote in a writing shed. Not like, where you keep lawnmowers – it was a nice shed with electricity and HVAC and what not. But I have since moved and have no shed, so currently I’m writing in a (*shudder*) room in my house like some kind of criminal.

But! I will have a shed again. Already the sinister plans have begun. Thinking of installing some kind of LASER this time.

As for time – mornings are good for me, usually.

Do you have any pre-writing rituals or habits before you sit down to write?

Coffee. Breakfast for the family. Feed the dogs. But mostly coffee.

What do you do when the writing isn’t coming easy? Do you struggle at all with that dreaded enemy of writing: writer’s block?

Writer’s block is a many-headed beast, and sometimes, it is an illusory beast, too – you think it’s writer’s block but really it’s depression or anxiety. You can solve writer’s block, proper writer’s block, in all kinds of writerly ways (write through it! fix some first act problems! skip it and come back!) but you cannot address anxiety or depression that way, and in fact, doing so will only make them worse. So it’s vital to know when what you’re dealing with is writing-related, or headspace-related.

When did your aspirations to become a writer begin? At what age did you start writing in hopes of making a living out of it?

Fairly young age. Eighth grade or so. As for making a living, I wrote my first novel when I was 18, and wrote five more that would never see the light of day. None of them made me anything, but all were written with the goal of becoming a novelist. Which has since happened, thanks to the goat I sacrificed. Ha ha, I mean, “since I got good at it.”

Writers have to be master prioritizers — juggling all sorts of projects and deadlines at the same time. That’s certainly the case for you. Do you have any methods for managing tasks and time to stay productive and not let overwhelm sneak in?

Only real trick is to do the writing first. Whatever needs to be written, do that part up front, and do all the other crap after.

You have a really unique style as a writer. There’s nothing you write that doesn’t feel like Chuck Wendig wrote it. Was it always that way or do you feel like you’ve become more yourself as you’ve gone on? 

I…don’t really know? For those first several books I was mostly struggling to make myself sound like other writers or to fit preconceived styles/genres. Once I was shut of that notion, I feel like I found my voice – which is to say, it was there all along, and I stopped trying to escape it.

How do you judge a productive writing day or an unproductive day? What’s the sign of a good day for you?

That’s very hard to say, because productivity in writing can be in any direction. Sometimes a day of thinking very hard about the book and solving its mysteries in your head are better than a day beating yourself against the word count. But at the end of the day, too, the only thing that actually matters is when you carve those words out of the nothingness, when you make it so.

What books or writers have most influenced the way you think and the way you write?

That’s a tall order answer. Everything from Robert McCammon to Robin Hobb to Shirley Jackson to Douglas Adams to Christopher Moore to Stephen King to Lloyd Alexaner to, etc.etc.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Stop aspiring. Start doing. Then you’re a writer.

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