What can I say about Sean Williams?
The man’s bibliography reads like a works list of a man three times his age—which would put him over a hundred! Sorry, Sean, it’s true!
Sean has been writing since the early 1990’s and represents what every aspiring writer should be: tenacious, hard-working, creative, wanting to explore new stories and new means to tell them, and unyielding to the pressures of an industry filled with them. He has written hundreds of short stories, two dozen published novels and every year writes two or three of these. Tireless is a word I’d use to describe him, one of those writers who simply must tell a good yarn if he is to function in the rest of his life!
Sean has won numerous awards and has written stories in almost all of the genres, a talent many writers simply don’t have or wish to have, and it speaks to the breadth of his ability. His newest work was his fourth foray into Star Wars as he released a novelization to the Lucas Films video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
Below is Five Questions with Sean Williams. Enjoy!
Suvudu: When did you start writing? Why do you write?
Sean Williams: I write because I have to. It’s been that way since I was 10 years old or so, when I discovered that telling my own stories was as much fun as reading someone else’s. Once I’d got a taste for it, there was no turning back. Now, 30 years and almost as many books later, I’m still just as hooked.
S: Describe your writing day? How many words/pages do you write a day on average? Breaks? How much time do you spend editing and how do you go about it?
SW: When I'm in the thick of a book, I write around 1500 words a day, usually in
the morning, as soon as I get up. Once I've reached that number, I let myself do other things. I tend to get a bit obsessive about a book, so having that cut-off is a way of telling myself to stop, more than anything. I learned the hard way that all writing and no downtime makes for a pretty unhealthy life.
Editing varies with each book. Here's what I always do, though. Once I have a draft, I change the font and read it through on-screen to make sure the structure is sound. Then I change the font again and print it on paper, landscape, so it looks like a book. I sit down and read it through once more, either lying on my back on a couch or (best of all) on a long flight to the US. Lastly, when I'm pretty sure it's nailed down tight, I read the whole thing aloud to check for repetitions and clunky dialogue. If it feels okay at the point, I submit it. If not, I keep hammering away until it's done.
S: How many books did you write before you signed your first book contract?
How did you get that contract? Via agent? Industry friend? Writer's retreat? Slushpile? Other?"
SW: I wrote three novels for the hell of it during high school, then a semi-serious fourth while dropping out of university. To my mind, though, they don't count. I didn't start writing seriously (ie with the intention of becoming a professional writer) until 1990, and I started my first "serious" novel in 1993. That wasn't my first novel sale, though, or my
first in print. I was very fortunate to be approached by an Australian small press (Aphelion) and asked to co-write a novel with my friend, Shane Dix. This we did (it later became the first book of our Evergence trilogy) and during that process I sold my other novel, Metal Fatigue, to HarperCollins, after one rejection elsewhere.
Both those early sales resulted from building a profile writing short stories and engaging with the SF community down here.
S: What advice would you give beginning writers? What is the best way to break into the industry?
SW: Advice for new writers? I compiled a list of 10.5 "commandments" (http://ladnews.livejournal.com/tag/commandments) covering everything I think writers of all stripes should keep in mind throughout their career. I tried to find things that didn't have to be qualified. Writing groups are good for some people, bad for others; that particular suggestion, therefore, didn't make it to the list. So there's nothing on the list that will do anyone any harm, and 10.5 things that will only help.
Breaking into the industry? Writing shorts and talking to people worked for me.
S: What are you currently working on? When can we expect it?
I've had a busy year, with five books in print, so I've been spending a lot of time on publicity and the like. Coming up is another kids' series, then a thriller, then maybe a crime novel. I've just signed up for a PhD in creative writing, so that's keeping me busy!
Feel free to visit Sean's website at www.SeanWilliams.com. It has literally pages and pages of information on his life, his work, and some of the fun things he does when he is away from writing.
And check back here tomorrow with another author as they answer Five Questions!
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