About Brian Thompson:
Brian Thompson was born and raised in Minnesota. His first professional writing foray was as a freelancer for Cracked.com. One of his articles was chosen to be published in Cracked.com’s first physical collection, You Might be a Zombie and Other Bad News, which made the NYT Non-Fiction bestseller list. Being surrounded by other talented writers, he saw many of them participate in National Novel Writing Month. One November, he decided to try, too. He failed miserably. Nevertheless, it did kick off the start of his first novel, The Observer. Many of the items researched while writing for Cracked.com were inspirations for parts of the novel.
When not writing, Brian enjoys spending time with his wife and two children. He sings with the Angelica Encore Choral Ensemble. He also watches Dungeons & Dragons and other TTRPG content. Additionally, he enjoys playing RPG video games.
What inspires you to write?
It started just as freelancing for comedy website Cracked.com. Just to prove that I could create something that people would want to read. My first article hit over 3 million views before they removed the count from the site. Ever since then, I wanted to push it further, prove I can create worlds that people want to get lost in.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
Jason Pargin (formerly pen name David Wong) is probably one of my biggest inspirations. He serialized his first book John Dies at the End while working an average 9-5 desk job. He's gone on to publish several other books, JDatE was turned into a movie, and I believe another of his projects is in process for a streaming series. His books mix the weird and horrifying with comedy. It's always refreshing to be on the edge of your seat one moment, laughing the next, just to be suddenly frightened again.
Tell us about your writing process.
I am definitely a by the seat of my pants writer. I have a loose structure in my head, a direction I want to get to, but the characters tell me what they're doing, how they react, and that sometimes leads to very different paths. I like discovering the characters as they flesh themselves out.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I wouldn't say I talk to my characters, but my characters definitely talk to me. I'll write some dialogue or narrate an action to immediately realize that's not what the character would say or do. Then I'll need to step back and listen to the conversation or try to visualize the scenario and have the character tell our show me what they would say/do.
What advice would you give other writers?
There is no timeline for writing your first novel (unless you were somehow lucky enough to be given an advance sight unseen from a publisher). It took me years to finish, years to decide it was finalized, and then years to push the self-publish button.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I debated whether to try to find an agent or self-publish. Since my goal was really to get the book out there and hopefully have some people read it, not necessarily a brand new career path, I decided to go with self-publishing. I'm still trying to figure out different things I can do to get my book in front of people's faces, but it's not a dire need for me to rake in the cash.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think that, in general, self-publishing will be a kind of proving ground for publishers. However, once someone has a large fan base, they're almost disincentivized to go through a publisher if their own brand is established. Self-publishing will be the way of things for digital publishing. It can move quick, and you can deliver to your fans faster with more control. Print-on-demand is getting better, but there's definitely something to be said about having greater control over the final product than a cookie-cutter process.
What genres do you write?: Psychological Thriller, Paranormal Fantasy, Science Fiction
What formats are your books in?: eBook, Print, Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Brian Thompson Home Page Link
Link To Brian Thompson Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
