(Jesse Teller is the author of three books that showcase the stories from Perilisc, a unique fantasy setting. Check them out here on Goodreads!)
When did you first realize you wanted to
be a writer?
My sister was an artist for as long as I can remember. She would draw
wonderful things. She had a raw talent for it, and I was amazed by that. I had
no talent, and I always envied her. My biological father had talent. He talked
about it all the time. He was obsessed with his talent. His shtick was acting,
and man, he had a flair for the dramatic. In that family, I was treated like a
second-class citizen because I had no talent, until Mr. Olsen and fifth grade,
when I was given my first assignment to write a short story. It was the tale of
a sad boy, of divorced parents, of neglect, and a purple hippopotamus. He said,
“Pencils down,” and I kept writing, because I didn’t hear him. He called out my
name, and I didn’t hear that, either. He was one of the kindest men I’ve ever
met, and he knew what he was looking at. So, very quietly, and very gently, he
walked to my desk and touched my hand. When I looked up, I saw recognition in
his eyes. He knew then, and he told me, that he was looking at a writer.
Suddenly, I had talent.
How important is research to you when
writing a book?
Research is always important when you’re a writer, but
it’s not always about facts. For me at least, research tends to be more about
emotion. Every day before I write, I think about what I’m going to be writing
that day, and the prominent emotions I must suffuse into the work. So, I listen
to music. Music has always inspired emotion in me. I’ll listen to whatever
band, whatever song, summons up that emotion in me. In that way, research is
important. I have a base knowledge of the history of the time period I write
in. By that I mean, in college I studied medieval history. That’s the time
period in which my fantasy takes place. I know a lot about how that time
worked. I brush up on certain things every now and then to remind myself. But
for the most part, it’s cemented in my brain. I have this uncanny ability to
remember details about the things I love, but it comes at the cost of
forgetting everyday things. I take medicine every day for my bipolar, and I can
never remember to take it. My wife always makes me take my medicine. But I can
remember every detail I ever learned about the Battle of Hastings in 1066. I
did do research for my book Chaste,
however. It takes place in a quarry town. I realized, before I wrote it, that I
knew nothing about quarrying stone at all. So, I bought a book, and I studied
up. That, and my time in college, is the only factual research I’ve done.
Do you set a plot or prefer going
wherever an idea takes you?
Oh, I’m a wanderer. You just have to trust that there’s
something out there. I hit a panic moment a day or two before I start a book,
because I have only a vague idea of what will happen in that book. I get a little
freaked out. But it doesn’t last once I start the book. You can train yourself
to do anything. Shaolin Monks can lay on spears without puncturing their
bodies. I don’t know how they do that, but it has to do with training, a little
bit every day, doing the same thing over and over again until your mind and
your body has it worked out. My writing is the same way. I’ve trained my mind
to create fantasy. Whenever I shake the tree, fruit drops. So, no outlines for
me. I follow a wisp of smoke and the hint of a rumor.
Are the characters you create influenced
by people you know?
In some ways, yes. A lot of my work is influenced by
Dungeons & Dragons games I’ve played in the past. Characters in my books
are influenced by those games. And on the rare occasion that I do put a
character run by someone else in my book, I do so to honor them. My villains
are not bullies from my past. They’re not people I hate that I’m trying to
immortalize. My heroes sometimes are influenced by the heroic things that have
been said to me and done for me. But for the most part, nobody I know has ever
had to face down a dragon or deal with a priest with an infected mind. It’s
hard to find the people that I love in situations like that. So, I guess my
answer is, yes and no. I would imagine you get that answer a lot.
What kind of atmosphere do you need to write?
Well, I’ve trained myself to
write anywhere, on family vacations, at writing workshops in my hotel room. Like
I said, you can train yourself to do anything. But I do my best work in my
office. If there is, out in the world, a primordial ooze that creates fantasy,
I have dipped this room in that ooze. Every picture on the wall, every trinket
on a shelf, every tapestry draped from the ceiling, has something to do with
fantasy. My desk is regimented and orderly. Everything belongs in a place. The
walls are chaotic, the shelves chaotic. It’s an overwhelming whirlwind of ideas
and images, and in the center, where my desk sits, is absolute calm. That’s
where I do my best work. But like I said, I can work anywhere. I think that’s
an important ability for a writer to have. I spoke to Anne Perry’s agent once,
and he told me that he would go to her hotel room to pick her up for a
function, and she would be writing. Writers have to be able to write on the
road, if they’re going to have a real career.
Writers are often associated with loner
tendencies; is there any truth to that?
I’m an extrovert. I have an innate ability to pull
people together. I love being in a group of people. I love conversation with
people, and celebration. And so, looking from the outside, it would seem that I
have no loner vein in my body. But there is within me, a withdrawn soul,
comforted by the company I keep, but not of it. It craves the company of very
few people, and that soul is a bit of a loner, but it is not the prominent
facet of my life. For the most part, I love people. I want to hear everybody’s
ideas. I want to hear everybody’s thoughts.
What book has had a strong influence on you or your
writing?
The books in the series have all
blended together. I can’t remember if it was Storm of Swords or Clash of
Kings. I read those books in one large gulp. But in George RR Martin’s
developing masterpiece, there is an infamous scene called the red wedding. When
I read that scene, my mind exploded. I didn’t know that was possible. I didn’t
know you could slaughter characters wholesale and maintain a readership. The
thing I learned from that scene, in that series, is that a spectacular writer
does not flinch. He does not look away when he shoots. She does not gag when
she cuts. A spectacular writer does not flinch at breaking what he’s created.
So in my work, no one is safe, no matter how they are loved, by me or the
reader. I got that from Martin.
What do your friends and family think of your
writing?
I have a lot of friends who are
on board. These are people who have known me since I was young, and some that
have met me recently, who believe in what I’m doing and want to be a part of
it. They are always there to provide support and inspiration. They talk me down
from the ledge; they lift me up when needed. But a lot of them can’t stomach my
work, especially the darker stuff. I had a very abusive childhood. A lot of my
work deals with those themes. I didn’t have any heroes in my childhood, so I
create them in my work. A lot of people who love me can’t look at some of the
things I write. But I feel their love and their support. There are a number of
people in my life who will not read this book, and I can’t hold it against
them. It’s not for the faint-of-heart. But there are people like my
mother-in-law, who come from happiness and light, who will still go to that
dark well. I think it’s because she doesn’t want me to be alone there.
Have you ever read your
own writing and tried to see it from the reader’s point of view?
Yes, I
do this every day that I write. I write my 3,000-word quota for the day, and
then my wife comes in and reads what I’ve written out loud to me. Hearing it on
the air has a different effect to me than reading it in my mind. Hearing it on
the air makes it real, and I can see it in its faults and its grandeur. There
are times when, for days, for one reason or the other, we don’t have time for
my wife to read it. After a few days of that, I kind of lose my way. If that
time stretches for more than four writing sessions, then I don’t even know what
I’m writing, because I can’t see the book as an outsider anymore.
What would you like to tell aspiring writers?
Oh, I’ve got one drum to beat. I’ve
got one thing I tell everybody who wants to write, paint, sing, dance—any kind
of creative work at all. Work. Work every day. Work all the time. It’s not a
game you can play at every now and then. It’s a job. Punch in, put in your
time, punch out. Do not rely on passion or inspiration to propel you through
your work. Rely on a time card. I have time cards in my office. When a book
starts getting troublesome to me, I start punching in and punching out. There’s
something magical in that. If you do this job when you feel like it, then
you’re a writing enthusiast. You’re a hobbyist. If you do this job every day
because it’s what you do, and it’s what you want, then you’re a writer. My best
advice to any young, aspiring writer, or artist of any medium, is get to work.
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