We were lucky to catch up with Joseph Hawke recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Joseph, thank you so much for making time for us today. Let’s jump right into a question so many in our community are looking for answers to – how to overcome creativity blocks, writer’s block, etc. We’d love to hear your thoughts or any advice you might have.
Walk away from the work. Clear your head. Take the dog for a walk. Or just take a walk. If you find it relaxing (I do), cook something. I recommend something you already know how to make without thinking about it. Often manual labor or physical activity allows the mind to daydream, wander in ways it feels too constrained when you’re staring at a blinking cursor on an otherwise blank screen. Of it it’s not blank, it’s because notifications are popping up, and that’s a separate distraction. Leave it all behind for the moment. Enjoy the beauty that surrounds you. Smell the roses. Then come back to the writing. If the block is not gone altogether, start writing about the last thing you were thinking about before you opened the laptop (or alternatively, the first thing you thought after you closed it and walked away – can you remember what that was? Is there a connection between the two? Between either and your writing? Is it all connected? Or … not?).
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I have always enjoyed creative writing, but, as a published author I am a relative neophyte, though I have written many thousands of pages over the course of a business career.
Irrespective of the type of writing that I am doing, I seek to employ a combination of grammar (I pay the syntax) and turn of phrase to render color in the language that I employ. I strive to eliminate ambiguity, and where it persists, I would like to think I left it so deliberately, ideally to share a modicum of humor with the (witting) reader.
With fiction, I strive for purity of voice with each character or point of view. I find shifting points of view is helpful to drive the plot when you are writing. I also find character, as you develop it, tends to drive (or reveal) plot, and, done this way, the story tends to be more organic and less contrived. Creating characters to fulfill a plot that has a fixed course runs the risk of becoming a contrivance, by contrast, at least for me.
No new events. Still basking in the newness of the publication of On Earth As It Is In Heaven (Pegasus), which dropped on Sept. 25. It is available both via Pegasus directly and at Amazon. (Links below)
https://pegasuspublishers.com/books/joseph-hawke/on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven
Amazon.com – https://www.amazon.com/Earth-As-Heaven-Joseph-Hawke/dp/183794928X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=J3E3MH5PYLKV&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.tbuslf8KELFG0NbrjbAWWCGrmRPpc9yWlT-1VgdAL_o.AWYC3VRVnABo8j8GzftoeSWTyMDY8QN4p31LTbGiV58&dib_tag=se&keywords=On+Earth+As+It+Is+In+Heaven+By+Joseph+Hawke&qid=1758030224&sprefix=on+earth+as+it+is+in+heaven+by+joseph+hawke%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I like this question. It applies not only to writing, but to life. The first of these is a quality. It is not innate. It can be, indeed it has to be, learned. It is resilience. You have to learn to be resilient because with writing, just as with life, not every day, not every effort, not every word, paragraph or page will necessarily be what you want it to be, and you have to not get discouraged, and try to take apart what is not working to figure out how to put it back together in a way that does work. Or to move on. To start with a clean sheet. Whatever the case may be, in writing or in life. Learn to be resilient. Acquire the quality of resilience. Bounce, don’t break. And this will help with the rejection that you will undoubtedly receive when you seek to publish your work. But do not be dissuaded. If you believe in what you have created, persist in the pursuit of its publication.
The second is a skill: Good grammar. It is fine (and I have done it myself) to use colloquial English, or even foreign languages, if the context warrants, to misspell by design, etc. I have done all of these in published writings. But, as I would hope to be true with any instance of ambiguity, I was intentional with my choices in each instance that I violated what would otherwise be grammatically correct English. If you do not already know it, take the time to teach yourself English grammar. It will strengthen your command of the medium that you seek to use to create your art: (presumably the English) language.
Third, I’ll pick an area of knowledge. Generically. Just that. Having an area of knowledge, domain or subject matter expertise, command of details that would be foreign to the layperson. It need not be technical. It might not be legal. Write about THAT. By starting with something about which you know better than a baby goat knows its mama, your voice (narrator, character, however portrayed, the voice of your writing) will be more authoritative. In order to have the audience suspend judgment and enter your world, you cannot be doubting anything about the world you are creating. You have to see it in your own mind’s eye. Branch out, if you wish; and, by all means, use your imagination, but start with what you know. Not only will you be starting with something you know well and about which you can speak authoritatively, but I would be willing to bet that, more often that not, this type of insight into “worlds not otherwise seen” is what offers uniqueness about your work (novel, story in whatever form).
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
So many books, so little time and space. Let me just say, as far as writing that has inspired me to be a writer, it’s a lot of what is now considered part of the literary canon: On The Road, Jack Kerouac; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey; Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe; 1984, George Orwell; Brave New World, Aldous Huxley. Anything by Hemingway. The Holy Bible has by far been the most quotable book I have ever read. And by that I mean, quotable in my own writing. Which reminds me of Dostoyevsky, and The Brothers Karamazov. Now that’s a book worthy of emulation with respect to both character and plot. As far as impactful nuggets of wisdom go, I’ll leave you with this. It’s a lyric from the Grateful Dead song Scarlet Begonias: “Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.”
Try “looking at it right.” Do the “subjective perception thing,” (you do automatically, and as Hemingway recommended, use that to observe your surroundings and how they make you feel and why), but then also do the “out-of-body, empathize with the other person” thing, and imagine. What do they see? Does that give you something to write about? If it doesn’t, then go live life. Living life will give you something to write about. But… look at it right!
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