Interview with:Alex Ness [alexness]
WRITING
 | What did you first read? How did you begin to write? Who were the first to read what you wrote? My first full book was 30 Seconds Over Tokyo
I have written since earliest memories, stories and journals.
My first work I have a record of was a poem about my Mother, illustrated in red crayon, when I was 5 or 6. My parents would be my first readers. |
| What is your favorite genre? Can you provide a link to a site where we can read some of your work or learn something about it? |
| What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write? I am never not creative, there is always a creative stew going on. If I have a poem inside me I cannot sleep, I cannot concentrate until I write it. |
| What type of reading inspires you to write? A poet reflects the world in they live, and witness, all manner of event is inspirational. |
| What do you think are the basic ingredients of a story? characters you care about with an event that is important. |
| What voice do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? A poet speaks in many voices, I tend to like to write in first person, but I dislike that so many people assume it is my voice, instead of a personage I reflect. |
| What well known writers do you admire most? too long a list
Edgar Allan Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Lord Dunsany, Robert E. Howard, William Carlos Williams, HP Lovecraft |
| What is required for a character to be believable? How do you create yours? Characters need to have real motivations, so the best manner of writing and creating them, is by placing my self in their shoes. |
| Are you equally good at telling stories orally? No. |
| Deep down inside, who do you write for? Me. |
| Is writing a form of personal therapy? Are internal conflicts a creative force? Writing is a response, not a therapy. It does not heal me to write about someone who wounded me.
However, any good poet reflects his or her world, so conflicts are creative energy. |
| Does reader feed-back help you? I am interested in knowing what readers think, but being honest, it doesn't help my writing, but it helps me aim it towards the proper audience. |
| Do you participate in competitions? Have you received any awards? Competitions drain the humanity from art. Taste is not a constant but you cannot judge your own work via popularity.
Only harsh reflection leads you to creating better work. |
| Do you share rough drafts of your writings with someone whose opinion you trust? almost never. |
| Do you believe you have already found "your voice" or is that something one is always searching for? I understand my voice, and it took bloody forever to find it. |
| What discipline do you impose on yourself regarding schedules, goals, etc.? I work 12 hours a day writing, whatever comes of that is good. |
| What do you surround yourself with in your work area in order to help your concentrate? written Resources, Diet Mountain Dew, and cats. |
| Do you write on a computer? Do you print frequently? Do you correct on paper? What is your process? I write 90% of my work upon computer. The 10% comes in paper form and it happens when I am waiting someplace. I am always writing.
I never print. I save to hard drive or disk. |
| What sites do you frequent on-line to share experiences or information? I don't do that. |
| What has been your experience with publishers? Mostly, while I respect some publishers, poetry is a brutal field, and I have to say the publishers reflect that. |
| What are you working on now? 4 different projects. 3 of which have publishers. |
| What do you recommend I do with all those things I wrote years ago but have never been able to bring myself to show anyone? Only by writing do you learn to write. If you keep writing you will almost certainly become better. Showing people old work is fine, but any publisher will want to know what you've done lately. |
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1657 visits Whohub
Alex Ness
Rockford, MN
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