Who are you?
I'm Adam Aresty and I live in Brooklyn, New York.
What do you write?
I cut my teeth in Hollywood writing horror, sci-fi, thriller screenplays. My 2015 creature feature, Stung, represents some of my younger sensibilities—but I've always wanted to try my hand at a novel. I like big-budget, blockbuster type stories and my novel Skyboy totally fits the criteria. I wrote this story because it's one I would read as a young adult and I hope that it shows how much fun it was to inhabit the world and characters. One of the things I love about writing every day is that it's a different challenge, a different puzzle to solve. Writing keeps me on my toes and I love that about my job.
Where do you write?
I write in my home office overlooking the streets of Bed-Stuy, my neighborhood Brooklyn. I work on a MacBook Pro using Microsoft Word...
When do you write?
I credit Jane Espenson, a wonderful TV writer, for turning me on to the idea of concentrated writing "sprints" where I silence my phone, put on very loud music (much to my neighbor's chagrin), and set a timer for 1 hour. I focus for that hour on nothing but writing and then, when the time's up, I take a break for a snack, to walk my dog, Bruce, or just do something to recharge. I can usually pull off about 3 or 4 sprints a day in order to hit my writing goal of 1,200-1,500 words a day.
Why do you write?
I've been reading The Language of the Night, Ursula K. LeGuin's book of essays about the sci-fi and fantasy genres. Speaking about the Emily and Charlotte Bronte, and why it was they wrote fiction, she says: "They knew their own minds and hearts: and it was not a knowledge lightly or easily gained... they wrote, and thought, and learned the language of their own being and how to describe it. They wrote with the imagination, which is the tool of the farmer, the plow you plow your own soul with..." I was floored when I read this passage as it sums up exactly what I seek to do every day.
How do you overcome writer's block?
I describe writer's block not as having a blank page in your brain, or sitting in front of a blinking cursor... for me all writing is coming to a fork in the road. Do you go left or do you go right? Every choice you make in your story has a consequence for your characters and that can be paralyzing for some writers. If this every happens to me, this paralysis, I usually step away from the keyboard and try to set my mind to something else. It's often when I'm hanging a picture or watering the plants that lightning strikes and you'll find me dashing back into my office to get the idea down.
Bonus: What do you enjoy doing when not writing?
Bread! I love baking sourdough bread.
My thanks to Adam Aresty for today's interview.
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