What did you first read? How did you begin to write? Who were the first to read what you wrote? When I was younger I first started to read say Dr. Seus and just fairytales. Kid stuff really, this was before we (my mother and I) knew I needed glasses. So I was very stubborn in reading, I hated it, I couldn't see what word was what. Astigmatism is a plain pain in the ass if you catch my drift. However, after I got glasses in first grade, I couldn't stop reading, I loved it. I read everything I could. The longest book I had read at the time was the unabridged Dracula by Bram Stoker. I finished it by Christmas my first grade year and had moved through several of the classic horror books by second grade. I began to write, like most writers do, I lied. I lied about everything when I was younger. Made up stories to get out of doing chores or homework. So I suppose the first person to ever read my "writings" was my mother. Of course the older I got the more elaborate the lies were until finally I started just to write them down. Of course this was the start of my fiction writing. Before I even tried prose I wrote poetry. My early stuff was pretty bad, poor spelling, incorrect use of lexicon. I loved poetry and still do, it's a freedom that most other writing forms don't allow. You can throw out everything about a language and still write good poetry. What is your favorite genre? Can you provide a link to a site where we can read some of your work or learn something about it? I don't exactly have a favorite genre. I like them all really. When I write I try to incorporate all genres into the writing. A story without a little mystery or too much drama, or too little of this or too much of that does not make a good story. You can read most of my work at http://www.redbubble.com/people/xtomjames (XtomJames is my penname). What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write? This is a tough question to answer. I'm a very fast paced person. so when it comes to writing I tend to have several things going on in my head at one time and I end up writing little bits here and there. Especially when it comes to prose I do this. Poetry I can sit down and type out a poem in a few minutes that's been floating around in my head, but prose I get major plot points and write them out, and then just try to figure out how to connect them. Most of my writing draws from my everyday life, so when I sit down to write its a matter of sorting what things work well where. If you want an example of this, read on my redbubble account the first chapter of my book "Should I Have Been Batman" (sorry working title). What type of reading inspires you to write? Much more of a simple answer: All writing does. What do you think are the basic ingredients of a story? There is no such thing as basic ingredients to a story. Each story, though seemingly similar to any number of basic plots, or even down to "man versus nature" resonounces, really this is just an attempt to divorce the common from the unique, when one can't do this. Each story is unique, so long as the writer isn't ripping off someone else's works, though even then the rip off in and unto its self is unique. What voice do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? This is really dependant on what I'm writing. I find that though Third Person is easier, it cannot portrait nor sustain a story like First Person pov for a narrative or character. The utilization of both in my works is common, though sometimes hard to follow if the reader is just starting to read my works. What well known writers do you admire most? Really, I think each writer I've read has had their good points and bad. Bram Stoker was ingenius in his use of first person narrative with in a journal for Dracula, but it droned on and on. Ralph Ellison wrote a masterpiece with Invisible Man which is one of the novels that inspired me to start to write "Should I have Been Batman". Maxine Hong Kingston was a great other with Woman Warrior, and who can't love Shakespeare (Go Hamlet go...I love David Tennant in that role). What is required for a character to be believable? How do you create yours? This is simple, really it is: the person needs to be real. Every character I have is based on a real life person. Every nuance, every shake, shutter, blink of an eye. Every detail is based on a person I know in real life. If a writer wants their character to be realistic they have to be real, as soon as they step away from the reality that they see to imagine a character, to conjure them, then the character loses that authenticity. This doesn't mean that a character that is supposed to be a superhero can't be a superhero, but the personality, the image of that person, that character, should be real. That's why I like Batman/Bruce Wayne. Bruce is a realistic character. He acts snide and snooty the rich boy stereotype. As Bruce Wayne he is the face of the rich and glamourous, the same face we can see on the news in real life out of Hollywood. The alternate ego, on the other hand, (or maybe the real person if we consider that Bruce Wayne is the alternate ego), Batman is also realistic, because where Bruce fails to show his anguish and anger and sorrowfilled desire for his parents, Batman can. Batman is capable of acting on the whims of that anger and anguish and the need for vengeance. Realistic characters don't need to be deeep, they don't need to be the overly dramatized ideas of what most people think a character should be. When you base a character off of real life people, the deepness will come out without ever needing to force it. Are you equally good at telling stories orally? Yes and no, I have been known to tell a few tales... Deep down inside, who do you write for? Myself... Is writing a form of personal therapy? Are internal conflicts a creative force? Very much so, if you read any of my stuff on my redbubble profile you'd see that personal conflict is one of the driving forces behind my want and need to write. Does reader feed-back help you? Yes and no. Most of the time reader feed back for me is positive, but unconstructive. Its constantly is "Oh Wow, that's awesome" and its left at that. On the other hand when I do get criticism it's rarely constructive. Usually its an opposing argument to something I wrote, and the person doing the opposition is resorting to school yard tactics of debate. So getting proper criticism, if and when I do get it, is helpful. Do you participate in competitions? Have you received any awards? I have not really tried any competitions. The few I have found I didn't find interesting, and I'm currently a creative writing major at UW-Eau Claire so most of the contests I do come across aren't for creative writers, or I'm too old to participate. Do you share rough drafts of your writings with someone whose opinion you trust? I share them with people I don't trust, I tend to get more honest answers out of them. Do you believe you have already found "your voice" or is that something one is always searching for? Voice...really, no I have not found my voice, a voice cannot be found. One constructs their voice, it is an ever growing unending puzzle that has unlimited pieces that fit together. As we grow and age our voices change, but we have never lost or needed to find them. What discipline do you impose on yourself regarding schedules, goals, etc.? I set a goal, I finish it. Simple really. Most of the time for me, my projects and goals are meetable, unless something interferes, usually the aspect of not having enough money. What do you surround yourself with in your work area in order to help your concentrate? I think that's the very issue, I don't have anything set around me that helps me concentrate. I'm a very cluttered person. The thing is is that I suppose the clutter helps me in my creative process. Things that are thrown on my desk or on the chair sit there nagging at me until it reminds me of why I put it there. Usually it has something to do with one of my writing projects. Do you write on a computer? Do you print frequently? Do you correct on paper? What is your process? I do write on my computer. When I write, especially prose, I treat each paragraph as its own story and when I finish it, I edit right away and move to the next part. Unfortunately I'm an independent student, so I don't have the money to constantly print things. So once I've finished writing something, I tend to ask people to read over it and help me edit. What sites do you frequent on-line to share experiences or information? This made me laugh, um really Facebook and Redbubble. What has been your experience with publishers? Few and far between. I have yet to be published by any major publications, save for People where one of my poems was featured, way back in high school; and a local publication called the Flip Side Press (flipsidepress.org). What are you working on now? (This interview...) I'm working on a semi-fictional autobiography which is currently entitled "Should I have Been Batman" which chronicals my life so far and the influences that have been a major part of it, including the character Batman. I plan to retitle it (as the current title is the working title) to "A DarKnight With In". I am also writing a Doctor Who RPG (Role Playing Game) which will be compatible with Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and 4.0, Rifts, and possibly GURPS. Otherwise I'm in school working on homework (lots and lots of homework) and poetry. What do you recommend I do with all those things I wrote years ago but have never been able to bring myself to show anyone? Show someone....most of the time we think our old stuff is horrible (I said so about my early stuff in this interview), but usually its not as bad as we think and most of the stuff can be revised and edited. We all grow as writers and it can be fun to compare what we write now to what we used to write. How our styles have changed over time.