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The question I hear the most has a very simple answer.

How does one become a writer?

One becomes a writer by writing. I have been writing most of my life. I write because I can't help it. When I was in school, I wrote at night. I could not stand to keep the stories in my head. If there were no computers or typewriters, I would write with pen and paper. If a hole opened under the world's supply of pens and paper, I would stand around a camp fire telling stories. I'll tell stories forever.

I love to craft character-driven suspense, thrillers, and epic fantasy. In the fantasy category, I write contemporary, futuristic, and pre-industrial fiction.

My advice to writers is, "Write." Yes, everyone says this. Write! Don't listen to critics. Write for yourself. After you have finished, put your work away. I write hard when I am on a first draft. I go, go, go. Outlines don't work for everyone but writing with an outline works for me. When I am on the first draft, I like to have my research at my fingertips. In Body Snatcher, my protoganist becomes bait for an otherwordly creature called a morfran by standing in the middle of a cage, a very strong cage, while sharpshooters aim down on the beast. The creature has come around for dinner. You can't buy this kind of cage at Home Depot. You have to build it. How strong does the cage have to be? The answer, I realized, was a very interesting foray into the world of cage-building. The strength of the cage would be very important to the man inside. A good friend asked about door hinges and magnetic locks, hardwiring, and what happens when the power drops. Obviously, the weakest point in the construction would be places with pieces welded or hinged together. When the magnetic locks lose power, does the cage automatically unlock? This could create a dramatic moment. I like research.

When I can't write, I read.

As I said, when you complete the first draft, put away your work. I write book-length fiction, so I prefer to let first drafts sit at least a month. When I pick up the manuscript, I am looking for cohesion. Can I see on the page what I saw in my head when I wrote the first draft? Are my characters alive? Are my characters vivid? Do I understand why the characters do what they do? Does the story have a good pace? Are there loose ends?

I once found in a completed manuscript a section wherein two characters are saying farewell. One character is not expected to survive the next chapter. The characters have been friends since boyhood. They do the equivalent of "Bye, see ya." I don't know how many edits this error survived. Finally, I slapped myself on the head and corrected the passage. This passage proved quite memorable for readers.

Word processors were sent from heaven. Use them and edit, edit, edit. I adore the person who created find / replace. When you edit, get rid of everything you don't need. Watch your pace. Remember that you are writing to tell a story. Write the first draft for yourself. Then edit to tell a story.

Never stop writing. Have I mentioned this?

I started Final Things: A Novel of Suspense as a "what if" to an older manuscript. The older manuscript was a murder mystery. While the older story was in edit, I began to wonder how one of its characters would handle going to prison. Not just going to prison ... how would he handle going to Death Row? The character was facing the death penalty at trial. His concept of the penalty was quite off the mark and necessarily ill defined. There was so much going on at trial and behind the scenes. The idea of "incarceration until death" was not, in this character's mind, an option. I knew him so well by the end of the second edit that I was capable of writing ten pages on his final hours. The piece was "first person" and present tense. It was quite draining, scary, and inadequate. I recognized right away the difficulty writing from the inmate's perspective, even when the inmate was wrongly convicted. A few years later my interest in the ten-page "final hours" piece got a jolt. I wanted to do it. I knew I could write about an innocent character on death row, tell how he got there / who really did it / why. I already had tons of research. I found corrections officers eager to talk about their work and I went to the witness room outside the death chamber in Raleigh, North Carolina. (No one was in the death chamber!) The challenge was to tell Final Things with the protagonist's voice. Could I see prison as my main character saw it? Could I feel prison with my senses, my mind, watch seasons come and go from a maximum security cell and know I was not getting out of prison except through a sterile needle? I have to say I love most challenges. Final Things was a challenge.

I recently completed an epic fantasy about a condemned prince and a weapon of wizadry. If it had a back cover, the description would read: Here is a tale of heroic deeds, a power descended of an ancient race, and a love that defied destiny. It's working title is The Gilding. Look for it!

For the remainder of the summer I will be pouring energy into upgrading this site and editing a series of "short sensations" that I will post at 4bookworm.com some time in August.

Oh, yes ... and someone always asks, Is Virgil your real name? No, Virgil Thompson is my pen name. Weird? Maybe but I like it. I've written as Ryan C. Charles, too. What else? I am a woman. I was born in March under the sun sign Aries. My favorite author? I'll never have just one. My favorite fantasy authors are (not in this order) Guy Gavriel Kay (Sailing to Sarantium, Lord of Emperors), Tanith Lee (The Gods Are Thirsty, The Birthgrave Trilogy, The Novels of Vis, Tales From The Flat Earth, The Secret Books of Paradys), John Maddox Roberts (The Seven Hills, the SPQR series), and Carol Berg (Song of the Beast, Restoration). I will devour anything Cecelia Holland puts out. I am in debt to Rosemary Sutcliffe and Mary Renault for bringing to my doorstep and the stage of my mind the past in vivid color. My favorite contemporary fiction authors are Colin Harrison (Manhattan Nocturne, Afterburn, The Havana Room, Break and Enter) and Scott Turow (Reversible Errors, The Laws of Our Fathers, Personal Injuries, Presumed Innocent). I am in awe of Peter Straub and Stephen King.

I've been blown away by many films for many reasons. I am sweet on epics. I refer to period pieces like Lawrence of Arabia and Dances With Wolves. My favorite stage-to-film musicals are West Side Story and The Phantom of the Opera. I do not have a favorite film, although I favor several actors. I enjoy textured, layered performances, even when they are in bad films. This summer has proven quite interesting. I rekindled my love for producer and director Guillermo del Toro when I saw a film titled Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The Hellboy films are among the many comic book / graphic novel-to-screen adaptations getting under the skin of audiences through vision, fantasy, effects, and great performances. Pardon me while I give a nod to actor Luke Goss for sharing the numero uno spot with The Dark Knight's Heath Ledger as the most capable, evocative bad ass of the summer. Mr. Goss's character is quite effective with a spear, and in the film pleads his case for redistribution of world power with sequences so compelling I almost wanted him to win.

With films, I could go on and on. I love films.

Final words of wisdom? From me? Lol. How about this? Forget what everyone tells you and do what you love.

Regards,
Virgil