SIX QUESTIONS WITH AUTHOR DAVID GERROLD
Talking 'Bout Writing With Writers
David Gerrold is the author of over 50 books, hundreds of articles and columns, and over a dozen television episodes. He is a classic sci-fi writer that will go down in history as having created some of the most popular and redefining scripts, books, and short stories in the genre.
TV credits include episodes from Star Trek(“The Trouble With Tribbles” and “The Cloud Minders”), Star Trek Animated (“More Tribbles, More Troubles” and “Bem”), Babylon 5 (“Believers”), Twilight Zone (“A Day In Beaumont” and “A Saucer Of Loneliness”), Land Of The Lost (“Cha-Ka,” “The Sleestak God,” “Hurricane,” “Possession,” and “Circle”), Tales From The Darkside (“Levitation” and “If The Shoes Fit”), Logan’s Run (“Man Out Of Time”), and others.
Novels include When HARLIE Was One, The Man Who Folded Himself, The War Against The Chtorr septology, The Star Wolf trilogy, The Dingilliad young adult trilogy, the Trackersduology, and many more sci-fi classics.
Additionally, the autobiographical tale of his son’s adoption, The Martian Child, won the Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novelette of the Year and was the basis for the 2007 movie, Martian Child, starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, and Joan Cusack.
(Full disclosure, David is also a wonderful teacher and my instructor in a writing class I belong to, so I think he’s the cat’s pajamas, naturally. But so should you!)
SIX QUESTIONS
1 - Which writer who came before, do you admire the most?
That's a tough one. The obvious answer is Robert A. Heinlein, but I'd also have to acknowledge Fred Pohl, Theodore Sturgeon, Charles Dickens, and Victor Hugo.
2 - Which teacher(s) had the most profound effect on you?
Irwin R. Blacker who taught screenwriting at USC and wrote "The Elements Of Screenwriting."
3 - Besides writing, what’s your favorite hobby or passion?
Aside from my grandson, music — especially classic rock and classical.
4 - What is something that those who don’t write fiction do not know or understand about it?
Everything.
Most people do not understand that writing is a skill. It requires a specific mindset, and that mindset has to be achieved the hard way — by studying the craft, practicing the craft, and eventually achieving a level of mastery over the craft.
Too many people assume that writing is just typing without understanding that writing requires some seriously deep soul-spelunking as well as a rigorous understanding of communication skills, so that insights and experiences can be accurately and passionately evoked.
Most writers (and the very best readers) have some sense of this. Most non-writers do not.
5 - Can you think of a key breakthrough moment in your work, for you, that you’d be willing to share?
Yes. But it would take a whole novel to discuss what's possible in the discovery of love, what anguish occurs with the death of a loved one, and how the long journey to recovery and redemption demands a personal transformation that breaks all definitions of past identity.
6 - What’s next for you?
Writing the novel discussed in the answer to question 5.
Visit David’s site for his books, his blog, and all things wonderful here: David Gerrold