Author Bio:
Adam Ingle is a basement-dwelling, graveyard-shift nerd by night and an aspiring peddler of exorcised creative demons by day. He and his chinchilla live in a tin can on the side of the interstate somewhere in South Carolina.
What inspires you to write?
Not going insane. I’m only partially joking. I have a constant stream of images, ideas, book titles, characters, settings, and a whole host of other things swirling around in my head. I’m never at a loss for something for something to write so much as I am for energy, focus, and motivation. I write to help clear out some of those ideas. To purge a bit and make room for more.
Tell us about your writing process.
For the most part I start writing with a basic idea, sometimes even just a title or opening paragraph, and let things unfold from there. The only time I do anything close to outlining is when I’m having a hard time figuring out what’s next, how to connect the dots, or move forward. Even then I mostly just summarize the story so far to see the basic details of what has lead to the point where I’m stuck so I can’t see whats next. Sometimes I ask myself questions; what does the character want, why would they do something I’m trying to make them do, how would they accomplish a task if I were to put them in a room and leave them to their own devices? More often than not this gets me through a roadblock. On occasion I continue to find myself stuck and I just brute-force my way through the scenario and change things later if it doesn’t seem to work.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Not in the schizophrenic sense, but I do write down questions and put myself in their place to come up with the answer. When I’m writing I try to allow the character as I imagine them to lead the way. I try to let their actions and thoughts be organic and not force them. If it starts feeling fake or forced I’ll trash it. I’ve trashed 50,000 words worth of story before because it felt false.
What advice would you give other writers?
The obvious trip is to write. Whether you feel inspired, whether you feel you have a story at the time, whether you have a load of laundry to do or dishes to clean. I don’t do well with the prescribed “Write every day from 9:30 to 10:30” regardless of whats going on, but I do think writing every day is important. Whenever you can fit some time in, though personally I need at least an hour to get into a grove and actually feel productive. Also, research does not count as writing. Research is critical thinking, not creative thinking. If your story needs research, you need to allocate time separate from your writing time. Same goes for editing. Write or edit, but not both.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I wanted desperately to be a traditionally published author. I had a dream of walking into a book store and find some cute girl checking out the back flap of my book and I lean against the shelf, smiling smugly, saying “I wrote that.” Fate had different plans and after tirelessly but fruitlessly shopping around for an agent (and refusing to going directly to a publisher and get raped with a boiler plate contract) I ended up going the self-publishing route. It wasn’t quite that straight forward – there were long periods of inaction, feet dragging, and resignation before taking the self-publish route seriously.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think the future of publishing is going to be very exciting but tumultuous. Power is suddenly and rather rapidly shifting into the hands of the authors directly and away from traditional publishers. Self-publishing, boutique publishing, small press publishing is where the power is shifting. The big traditional publishers are still the 800-pound gorillas, but they’re losing weight and clout. The readers already seem to care very little how an author gets their work out, as long as it’s quality and easily accessible. The big publishers will likely transform and survive in some form, maybe driving whatever the next phase of the evolution is. But I see them having less of a strangle hold on the retail channels and trade magazines that help promote new works.
What do you use?
Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?
Fantasy, Sci-fi, Fiction, Contemporary, Action/Adventure
What formats are your books in?
Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Adam Ingle Home Page Link
Link To Adam Ingle Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8328255.Adam_Ingle
https://www.facebook.com/adamingleauthor
https://twitter.com/meesterbob
