Tom Piccirilli Shares The Secrets About His Work Habits
Submitted by Damon on Mon, 03/24/2008 - 16:24
Name: Tom Piccirilli
Where do you write? Can you write when traveling?
In my home office, at my desk. I burn out on the process very quickly. Writing is a painful, frustrating process for me, so I write in short spurts throughout the day, keeping the mindset by reading plenty, watching genre films (whatever genre I might be working in), reaching out to like-minded writers and fans on message boards, etc. I just don't know how some authors manage to plant their asses in the chair and write for hours on end.
Can you work with music or the tv on?
Nope, I need silence.
What are the five things you must have when you’re working?
Except for silence, I don’t think I absolutely need anything else. I can write on my computer, with a pen and pad, in my home or elsewhere.
What’s the strangest place you’ve ever been when struck by a flash of inspiration and started scribbling notes down for a story idea?
Well, I didn’t actually start writing, but while I was attending my mother on her deathbed, I kept wanting to remember the moment, my feelings, the entirety of the situation, and so I was “writing” in my head during her last night. It was one of the most awful experiences in my life. And as happens, the only way I can get through such a terrible time is by purging myself of the burden of that experience by writing about it.
Tom Piccirilli is the author of THE COLD SPOT, THE FEVER KILL and has written poetry, non-fiction, westerns horror and mysteries.