Author interview: ROBB WALLACE
1. Hi Robb Wallace tell us a bit about yourself and what inspired you to write?
Hello Epic, first off thanks for having me and thanks for building such an epic platform for the community. I am author Robb Wallace and all my books can be found at https://robbwallace.co.uk I hail from Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland, ancestral home to some well-known Scots like Robert Burns and William Wallace.
My journey into writing has been rather long-winded, for me writing was always my weakest skill/subject at school. I was one of those maths and science kids who frequented star trek and chess clubs at lunchtime. English on the other hand did not easily enter my brain. I loved stories, but in all honesty, the written language for many years of my youth and into my twenties was lost to me.
My passion for writing started, or my desire to learn how to write came with my first attempt at writing a book, this was over twenty years ago and this is also the book I am getting ready to publish, my first epic fantasy novel. But it has taken me so long to get it to where it is, that I had time to publish five non-fiction books and one short story on the road to my first epic fantasy novel. All good practice, I find non-fiction titles easyish, therapeutic almost, maybe that has something to do with their linear, factual nature, however, the multiple challenges of a grand fantasy novel have kept me engaged and motivated for two decades. Note: I have not spent every moment on the book but it has been a constant marker or goal in my life, of what can be achieved by me, it is my 4-minute mile if you like. A kid who hated English, who failed it at school, who slowly but surely gained the skill and the confidence through perseverance to believe that he could be a fantasy author. If I can do it you can too.
2. What appeals to you most about the fantasy genre?
I love the scope that fantasy allows for, the imagination can truly be unleashed when writing fantasy and I love that it allows for this. My upcoming title The Silence In The Song (https://www.robbwallace.co.uk/books/the-silence-in-the-song/) has a classic epic fantasy feel with sci-fi elements. The story has a mix of barbarian tales, worldview building, magic, spiritual dimensions, philosophical curiosity, ancient myths, psychedelic visions, conspiracies, martial arts and questions about the nature of life, death and reality. It for me is the ability to just swim in the imagination and allow myself to seek my limits.
The other thing I love about the fantasy genre is the art, the artwork is freaking amazing. I just love the fact that good fantasy art or a good fantasy book can transport me into new worlds and keep me there. It is powerful stuff. I hope my story does this for others.
3. Tell us a little bit about your latest project and the challenges you’ve faced putting it all together?
My current WIP is my debut epic fantasy novel The Silence In The Song. I started writing this back when laptops were thicker than Big Macs, I kid you not, it was a macintosh laptop and it accepted floppy disks! On and off for over twenty years, I have been working on it. I have finished the story numerous times, only to realise that I had more to learn (story, narrative, dialogue, world-building, grammar, pacing etc) and more to change. But I can finally say I am in the last leg (it is with the editor for the final edit, read through and I am now writing blurbs, creating covers, webpages, social media, newsletters, marketing material etc). I think the skills and mindset that I have brought to writing from my other creative endeavours have been key. I am an award-winning adventure filmmaker, award-winning academic, who has been working freelance for years creating content for anyone that will pay, telling their stories through a visual medium. I also have a past as a London bus tour guide, where I entertained and educated tourists from all over the world about the two thousand year history of London. I have also made countless short films, webisodes, documentaries, podcasts, websites etc for my own creative projects. And this experience in completing projects for clients has given me the confidence that I can bring my own creative products to fruition with a high standard.
As a DIY enthusiast, I love getting in about a new skill and learning everything I can. I have published five non-fiction titles, as well as numerous journals and colouring-in books. This for me was the training and skill development I needed to get me to the point where I am (fairly) confident in releasing my first epic fantasy novel and doing everything myself. Indie author to the core. Well, that is everything but the editing. I paid top dollar for a good editor. However, cover art, formatting, ebook creation, distribution, marketing, website and social media is all in house. If it needs to be done, I will buy the software, learn the skills and add it to my arsenal of life lessons, who knows these skills and the trials I go through to learn them may feature in some way, indirectly in the stories and struggles my characters go through. I am not afraid to fail and am always willing to pick myself up and try again.
Every stage of my author career has been a challenge, every new skill acquired has taken time to learn, obstacles to overcome and involved lots of rejection, self-reflection and tenacity. But I am committed, for 20 plus years to bringing this book to fruition, 20 years and I am still here working away to make it a reality. I just hope at least one person reads it. I can tell you I will be so pleased when I finally get it released. Which will be sometime in 2022, then on to book two which I have 30K+ words penned. Then I think I will be able to get a new 150K novel out every two years or so, going forward.
4. What type of characters do you like to write the most and how much of yourself do you put into them?
I think all the characters have a little of me in them, well maybe a lot. I love writing the kind of characters I love reading, heroic, curious, positive, ambitious, driven, tenacious. Yeah, I like characters that get shit done, they are beaten but rise every time. I have a lot of different characters and know each of them intimately, I love them all even the scoundrels. I have spent a lot of time reading, travelling and people watching, I actually read way more non-fiction than I do fiction and this has given me, I believe, a great base for creating interesting, memorable characters.
5. For any wannabe writers out there what’s the most useful thing you’ve learned?
I could write a book on this haha maybe I will one day. Number one has to be belief in yourself, to quote Steve Jobs of Apple fame.
Life can be so much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call 'life' was made up by people who were no smarter than you.
That's the one-piece, the books I love reading were written by normal folks just like me and just like them, I can if I put in the time and effort release my own epic fantasy. And so can you, let nothing hold you back, it is time to make your dreams come true, for no one else is going to build your dreams for you. You are your dreams only hope kid, make it happen.
6. What writing tricks do you utilise to hit your deadlines and keep your stories on Track?
Writing tips and tricks, I think for me the main one is being happy, confident and making sure that I am enjoying what it is I am writing, I know that I want to write, I know that I get great pleasure out of telling stories and I'm dead set that before I die I will leave a few of my tales for the world to enjoy (whether anyone reads them or not, well we will see) and that is the motivation, I enjoy doing a thing, I do that thing if it stops becoming enjoyable I either learn more about it until it becomes enjoyable again or take a break and come back to it with a fresh perspective. Everything is just a puzzle to unfold. I am not writing epic fantasy in the hope that I become a billionaire, I am writing fantasy to explore the ideas that flood my mind, to explore those ideas further, for the journey, not the destination.
Also, I like to spend time developing my own ideas and content, spending time building my dreams. I work part-time as a marketing professional, for my part-time job I give my skill and time to build other folks' dreams. When I write I am building mine, so I am keen to write, I am motivated and I enjoy it.
7. Are you a plotter or a pantser (make it up as you go)?
I have a loose understanding of what I am writing and always have a general theme, but the ins and outs of the chapters, the characters, the individual journeys and the challenges they face are all written by the characters as they and the story develop. I often wake up in the middle of the night, grab my phone and start taking notes, or on a long drive, I can often be found pulling over to dictate plots and characters etc. My subconscious mind is always working, and when it is ready it lets me know.
I think as my second and third books come to fruition I will have to plan more to keep everything tied together but until then it is the way of the panster for me.
8. What plans do you have for the future? A new series or perhaps a dip into other Genres?
At the moment I have the general outline for books two and three of my epic fantasy/sci-fi adventure loosely mapped out in my mind and in Trello (it is an awesome app for mapping ideas). After that, I would love to write a fun, fast heroic fantasy. Just action-packed, no-nonsense, fun. Possibly a cyber-thriller mystery set in the near future. Also, I have a good few non-fiction titles mapped out waiting to be penned. Time, I need more time, so I will take it one step at a time, epic fantasy first.
9. With the world the way it is at the moment what sort of tales do you prefer? Ones with heroes where good triumphs over evil or ones that take a darker approach?
I am always in favour of heroic tales. I have never really got into darker content. I love a good heroic romp. From classic action movies like Willow, Krull, Conan, Red Sonja, Big Trouble Little China, and Indiana Jones. To notable fantasy stories and authors like Conan The Barbarian, Claw The Unconquered, David Gemmell (all of ), Ursula K. Le Guins Earth Sea Quartet, G R. R. Martin (GOT), Brandon Sanderson (Storm Light Archives). But I do love epic science fiction which always covers a bit of everything, like Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons, The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin, Dune and anything by Peter F Hamilton.
I love stories that uplift and confirm that anything is possible, that dreams come true, not necessarily in a Mary Poppins kind of fashion, they can be violent, brutal etc but they have to have substance and be relevant.
10. What’s better, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or Star Wars?
For me, I have to be honest I never read any of them, so I will refer to the movies. Here, LOTR wins for me, I do love Star Wars but as a hardened Trekkie, SW has always been second fiddle. LOTR as a movie is something magical, from the animated movies to the newer Peter Jackson films to everything in between. Proper magical.
Thanks for having me and thanks for reading this far. To keep up with my books and author journey you can head on over to https://www.robbwallace.co.uk/newsletter/ to subscribe to my newsletter. All of my books, social media accounts and blogs etc can be found on my website https://www.robbwallace.co.uk and generally, I can be found @robbauthor on the main platforms.
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