About Joseph Daniels:
I was born in Portsmouth, England, where I was also raised. My background is mainly in theatre and film, where I originally pursued careers in acting, directing, producing, editing and screen writing. Most of this work was writing screenplays for independent companies, some of which were made into low budget films and others, which remained on the page. In the latter years, I realised that of all these different jobs, writing was the one I enjoyed the most and often found myself wishing that I could just write stories for a living.
After meeting the love of my life on a touring theatre production, we both chose to leave the theatrical life behind and came to live together on the Isle of Wight to combine our talents of writing and art. It was here that I began to write my first novel: The Hermacles Divide: The Coming of the Dhufal, part of an intended seven book series, which my partner has done all the artwork for. Since then I haven’t stopped, and don’t intend to until every story in my head has been written down, published, and shown to the world.
What inspires you to write?
I am inspired by every book I read, every film I watch, every video game I play, everything I experience in my life, and hear about in other people's lives.
Quite often the thing that inspires me to write most, is a path I wanted to see, but was not taken by another writer in a story. This can inspire me to create something new in which my own characters come to a similar scenario, and I get to pick the path I would have wanted.
Tell us about your writing process.
My writing process differs depending on the project. In most cases when I come up with an idea I like, I write a short four lined synopsis on a word document and save it to an ideas file. The chances are that when I have these ideas, that I am currently working on something else, so I do not have the time to immediately start working on it in a physical sense. That doesn't mean however that I do not think about it from time to time and work on it in my head during moments of being idle, such as going to the toilet, walking to town, or lying in bed. It is during these moments that the idea will go through a pre-approval process. If I am still thinking about the idea a few days later it has reached the first stage. If I continue to think of the idea and then start thinking about characters it has reached stage two. And if I name those characters and possibly the project it has reached stage three, which means I return to the idea in my ideas folder and flesh my notes out into one or two pages. When this happens there is a good chance that I intend to work on this project once my next two are completed. Sometimes if I feel particularly passionate about it, it may even jump the queue and make it my next project. When I come to work on it properly, I take the ideas I have formed and start to mould them into a chapter by chapter synopsis. Then as soon as I can, I start writing that first chapter and see what happens. If it flows well and follows my plan, I continue. If it doesn't I occasionally revisit the plan and make more detailed notes before continuing. Every time a divergence of plot occurs that I'm not sure about I often do a save as and create a new draft, just in case I do not like the new direction. I never delete these alternate drafts because I have on occasion changed my mind down the road, or discovered a compromise that will work.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
When the characters are born through the writing, sometimes they can cause the plot to change, in which case I just go with it and see where they might lead me. If at any time I think they are leading me in the wrong direction, I take away their control and return to the chapter synopsis.
What advice would you give other writers?
Don't get too hung up on planning. Try writing that first chapter as soon as possible. Also do consider what you intend to do with the book once it is done. Writing the book is the easiest part. Marketing it right and selling it, is a different story.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
After countless rejections from Publishers and Agents I realised that the only way forward was to self-publish, and since I had already tried print on demand in the past and not made my money back on the books I had purchased, the most cost effective self-publishing method for me was releasing my books in a digital format.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think there are too many people wanting to write. Too many agents and publishers closing their doors on those people. Too many sites trying to con people into taking author packages that will do very little for their sales. And too many book hosting sites that are expecting too much of a cut of the profits, and stifling the progress of authors by removing reviews because they may have been written by friends or family. Add to this the fact that not as many people read any more, and that most of those who do tend to follow popular trends, all in all I think the future for publishing looks sadly bleak.
What do you use?: Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: Thriller, Mystery, Supernatural, Fantasy, Young Adult, Sci Fi
What formats are your books in?: eBook
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
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.
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