Fighting Prose Interview with Corey McCullough!
Welcome to my in-depth writers series Fighting Prose. Where I talk to authors in the industry on what their process is like and what it takes for them to keep on creating, through all the odds.
How long have you been writing?
All my life, I think, but I could be wrong—I can't remember any further back than that.
If you've written several books, which is your favorite?
The Fallen Odyssey: A Parallel Universe Fantasy Novel
What's your favorite genre to read? Write?
Fantasy and fantasy
How do you get in the mood to write?
I'm almost never in the mood to write. I have to force myself to do it, and it is an ongoing struggle.
How do your characters come together?
I think most of my characters are, for better or worse, just twisted versions of myself. I try to think about what I would be like if I had been through their life experiences. How would that affect me? What sort of person would that make me? Each time they speak or act, it's a form of role-playing on my part.
How do you get your ideas?
I've always felt an odd sort of stewardship over anything I was passionate about, whether that was a book, a TV show, a video game, a movie, or what have you. Even when I was a kid, anytime something really seized hold of my imagination, I felt like the next logical step was to make my own version of it. I think that's where my ideas come from: combining things to make my own versions of the stuff I like, resulting in something new.
Who do you admire in the writing world?
J.R.R. Tolkien. He wasn't a novelist. He wrote more like he was the historian of an imaginary world. In a way, it's the lack of what most people would consider exciting storytelling methods that makes Lord of the Rings feel so real to me. As if he's just telling you something that really happened, and you get to imagine the details for yourself.
If you're not busy writing, what are you busy doing?
Editing and proofreading the writing of others. And spending time with my favorite people: my wife and kids.
Have you always been creative?
Yes, but writing is my default setting. I'm not a great writer, but I'm an even worse cook, and at least I can't poison anybody with a book.
Have you ever had writers block? If so, how did you get out of it?
Yeah. For almost five years, in fact. During that time, I felt that I needed to focus on my ghostwriting, copyediting, and proofreading work, and couldn't justify the time it took to write a novel. But I broke out of it by realizing that being a writer is a key element of how I self-identify, and by not matching my own blueprint for myself, I was causing myself grief.
When you sit down to write, is it easy or hard? If it's hard, what makes you keep showing up?
It's hard. I never want to write. I actively dread it. But there's something in me that says I ought to or need to. I keep showing up because I like the feeling of having written. (I know I'm paraphrasing a quote by a legendary writer here, but I don't know who it is off the top of my head.)
For a writer starting out what advice would you give them?
If you feel that you must write in order to make sense of the world, even if no one ever sees what you have written, then you are a writer. Utilize a note-taking app on your phone, and instead of posting something to social media, post it first to yourself, for yourself. Anybody can write for pages and pages about their feelings—to me, that doesn't necessarily make you a writer. But if you get a strange sort of high from condensing a complex thought into its purest, most succinct form, then you are a writer.
What is your dream writing location?
A small room with no windows, no clock, nothing to do but work.
In reference to your books, what question do you get asked the most?
My Great-Grandma Ebo was 100 years old when she read my first book, The Fallen Odyssey, which is filled with swords and shields and magic and monsters. Off the wall stuff. Grandma Ebo, bless her heart, read the whole thing. Afterward, she said, "Corey, where'd you come up with all that stuff?" When I told her, "Oh, just things floating around in my head," she replied, "Well I'm glad you got it all out of there."
If you could bring one of your characters to life who would it be? Why?
In my second book, A Knife in the Dark: A Science Fiction Noir Thriller, there's a robot butler named Hennessy. I feel like he'd be a far more useful assistant than Alexa or Siri, and if anybody tried to bother me while I was writing, he could say, "Master Corey isn't in right now." I like the sound of that.
What do you think makes a good story?
A good story is one that sticks in your head. Even when you put down the book, turn off the show, etc., you can't stop thinking about it for some reason. I don't know why some stories do that and others don't, but I'm trying to figure it out. When I do, I'll be a good writer.
As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
Be George Lucas.
If you happen to know an author that would be great for my Fighting Prose series be sure to send them my way!
Thanks for reading!