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Kevin Major St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada  |
Frequently Asked Questions
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Kevin Major St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada |
Frequently Asked Questions
 Ned Pratt Photo |
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| #1 | Where do you get your ideas? |
| #2 | Are the characters like people you know in real life? |
| #3 | Did you always want to be a writer? |
| #4 | What is your favourite book of the ones you have written? |
| #5 | What's your next book about? |
| #6 | Don't you ever get bored with writing? |
The ideas for novels come from many different sources. I see people in certain situations (often unjust situations), and think that this deserves to be written about in some way. Of course the characters change, and I rework the initial situation to maintain the dramatic flow of a story, or combine it with another idea.
Everyday things (such as a comment someone has made, a newspaper article, or a radio interview) can sometimes lead me in a direction that eventually produces a book.
You would find bits and pieces of my own life in all the books. (Which ones, I will never tell.) But you will find my imagination there to a much greater extent.
An author makes use of what he knows of other people to create believable characters in his books. But a character in a book of mine would not be recognizable as any one person in real life. Although a real person(s) might have inspired the character, that character has changed a lot in the course of writing the book, and has taken on a life of his/her own.
That doesn't make them any less real. They are certainly real to me, and, hopefully, to the reader. I once received a letter from a girl who had fallen in love with Chris, the main character in 'Far From Shore.' Now that's a vote of confidence for an author!
I wasn't the type of child who wrote endless stories, filling up page after page in exercise books. I loved reading, but I never thought much about writing as a career. (Maybe it was partly because I had never met a 'real' writer.) I did some creative writing as a teenager, although it was mostly in response to English assignments at school. It was only after starting a career as a teacher that I began to write seriously, with the idea of trying to get published. The first thing I had published was a short story in the now-defunct magazine 'Atlantic Advocate', in December of 1973.
I can't say that I have a favourite. Each is special in its own way. I will always hold a particular fondness for 'Hold Fast' because of Michael and what he stands for, and because it was the first novel I was able to get published. I like the characters in 'Far From Shore' a lot. I like 'Diana' because I wasn't sure I could tell a story from the viewpoint of a young girl. 'No Man's Land', I believe, contains some of the best writing that I have done. I could say something special about all the books, in fact.
I generally steer away from talking about a book until I am finished with the writing of it. There is something unsettling about letting other people into the world you are writing. Before you know it they will be giving their opinions about the worth of it, or poking at the characters to see if they are real, or telling you it might be interesting to add this-or-that. As the writer, its your world and you want to remain in control, and keep it all to yourself until you get it just the way you want it.
I get bored, and rather irritable, when I can't write. As work goes, it's the thing I enjoy doing the most. And its probably what I do best (although I do make a mean Orange-almond cake). There is something immensely satisfying about creating a world that has never been created before, seeing it reach thousands of people, and knowing that some of them have found reading it a worthwhile way to spend part of their day.