What It Looks Like by Matthew J. Metzger

I have a five-part series that’s been on the shelf for two years, and a steampunk story that was originally written in around 2015. Hell, a lot longer than a year! A pair of books I’m working on right now, Tea and Coffee, are five years old. Have you ever left any of your books stew for months on end or even a year? Pretty sure they didn’t envisage queer romance being the core of it, though! Had any of your literary teachers ever tell you growing up that you were going to become a published writer one day? My record word count was 14,000 in a single Saturday. But if I sit down in my local Costa, I can do a book in three weeks. I just end up playing with my cat, or doing endless rounds of Candy Crush Saga. The middle of the cafe is my specific place! I can’t write at home at all. The back of my hand has seen some ink abuse in meetings, too.ĭo you need to be in a specific place or room to write, or you can just sit in the middle of a café full of people and write? Yep! My desk is littered with notes on receipts, and my email account has a lot of three-line emails sent from my phone. Some people can, some people can’t, and that’s all there is to it.ĭo you pen down revelations and ideas as you get them, right then and there? Just ask my mate who’s been trying to teach me how to change my light fittings for the past year! I’m useless! Writing is no different.

And some people cannot learn certain skills no matter how much you try to teach them. Writing is a skill like any other, and some people don’t have it. I know it’s not fashionable to say it, but no. Sometimes a single line of dialogue in a film has spawned a whole book! The stories can spring up out of literally anywhere. I just need to get the stories out of my head, and as I like to think I’m pretty good at writing, it’s the best way for me to do it.

What It Looks Like by Matthew J. Metzger