We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Smith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Michael, so glad you were able to set aside some time for us today. We’ve always admired not just your journey and success, but also the seemingly high levels of self-discipline that you seem to have mastered and so maybe we can start by chatting about how you developed it or where it comes from?
Self-discipline is my best tool for creating a body of work. It’s a kind of frequency I know how to tap into. There may be an element of habit to discipline, but I also need to be flexible and continually evaluate the functionality of how I’m working so that I’m not just following rules, either self-made or those of other voices, such as “Write every day” or “Turn out so many pages of fiction per session.” Discipline means taking responsibility for my art life and keeping my word as to what I set out to do so many years ago when I embarked on this writing and art life. Obviously there’s no waiting around for inspiration to strike; creating that body of writing and art is my job, one which I happen to love, but a job with special demands nonetheless. There can’t be any self-flagellation in the discipline or else the whole frequency collapses.
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 write and paint. Writing is my primary art form, but I balance it with visual art, devoting something like eighty percent of my creative output to writing, and twenty percent to visual art. In both areas I choose whichever activity sparks the most fun and compelling energy.
What inspires me, as a writer, are plots that make deep emotional and thematic sense, like a dream or déjà vu; or the eerie feeling I sometimes get that I’m in fact living in a novel right now. I’ve always been drawn to the concept of the psychological novel. I’m not sure how well I’ve lived up to that genre, but I keep pushing on it. Somehow “humor” and “psychological novel” flow together for me.
Visually, I work in both abstraction and realism according to how the energies can best be channeled.
I want to observe, participate in, and process everything around me for writing and art. Whenever I feel oppressed by exterior obstacles, I just have to remember that they’re also fuel. Another way I’ve put it: The world is an art supply.
My science fiction combines literary and space opera genres. The literary novels in turn are infused with science fiction and absurdist elements. My best work begins with a good “What if?” For instance, “What if all private property were abolished? How would people live?” A detailed dream can also lend itself to that “What if?” question. Or looking at a flawed older manuscript, finally grasping its “What if? and seeing exactly how to fix it.
Some examples of my writing:
The Soul Institute, inspired by dreams of a mythic return to the sanctuary of a vast foggy university. This long novel, with its multigenerational foundations and numerous parallel plots, is more or less my flagship novel.
The Jack Commer, Supreme Commander science fiction series, seven novels chronicling the evacuation of Earth, conflict with Martian terrorists, futile time travel war with Alpha Centaurians, and clashes with omnipotent biorobots.
Asylum and Mirage, my most recent novel, in which a naïve and disconnected artist finds himself drafted into a mindless war against the Reunion, an unstoppable army of hallucinatory consciousness.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. Humor. This has seemed integral to my personality from childhood. It keeps my writing loose and energetic.
2. Curiosity: I read a great deal of history and science to keep learning about how the world works, and I explore new techniques and materials for drawing and painting. I keep up with new technology but from a reasonable distance; I don’t want to waste time and energy chasing every new fad.
3. Perseverance: Going back to the discipline question, I don’t stop exploring despite setbacks or, much worse, any self-delusion or kidding myself. Here’s a chapter title from my novel The Soul Institute, which I know is over-the-top, but then again see Quality No. 1 above: “I Have Never Given Up, But I Have Halted, Dazed and Confused, at Various Hazardous Intersections Where I Could Have Been Taken Out By Snipers.”
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
I have two intertwined challenges, one exterior to myself and one interior. Facing outward, I want to keep learning effective means of marketing my work. But the interior challenge is to keep working towards the best self-expression possible. Although the interior challenge is always more important, I see these as intertwined because it seems that only the best self-expression, or at least the journey toward it, is worth sending into the world.
In a recent blog post I took a series of long-winded marketing statements that I’ve never been able to get into an effective elevator pitch and asked ChatGPT to make some for me. One of its results, still rather lengthy and vague, is a bit of a hoot. I have to wonder how I could lay this with a straight face on a famous editor trapped in an elevator with me:
I am an introspective writer who explores the psychological novel genre, crafting stories that evoke deep emotional resonance and a sense of living within a surreal narrative, while blending humor, curiosity, and transformative power to unravel the psychic landscape of contemporary existence and delve into the depths of human nature through diverse characters and accompanying illustrations.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sortmind.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Michael.D.Smith.Writer
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-d-smith/13/47a/4b/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sortmind
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/orangerhinosmith
- Other: https://blog.sortmind.com/chatgpt-edits-my-elevator-pitch/
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Michael-D.-Smith/e/B0056B6JPS
The Jack Commer Series (7 novels): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NTFRQ1V
Asylum and Mirage (novel): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BVD8ZM23
