{Interview) Richard Thomas Discusses Storyville Studio. An Exciting New Writing Platform To Help Give Writers A Unique Voice.

BF: Hi Richard! To start off, I just want to say a huge thank you for joining us on Kendall Reviews! I was looking through your CV, and your resume is extremely impressive. What would you consider to be the most rewarding aspect of your career so far?

RT: Thanks so much for having me. I think it’s really two things. The first is the fulfillment of writing a great story—something that stays with people, that they talk about, that has a strong emotional impact, and not only lives up their expectation of the genre they’re reading, but exceeds it—surprising them along the way. The other is to see my students flourish. Many of my friends, peers, and students have taken a series of my classes—from Short Story Mechanics to Contemporary Dark Fiction to my Advanced Creative Writing Workshop, and some, on to my Novel in a Year class. Watching their growth, seeing the “aha” moments where they have an epiphany, and then witnessing them break out, get nominations, land agents, break into the top markets, and win awards—that’s so satisfying.

BF: Our main reason of discussion today is to talk about one of your latest teaching endeavors, Storyville Studio. Would you like to give the readers a quick lowdown on what Storyville Studio is?

RT: Sure. It’s basically me taking the classes I had up on my blog and creating a dedicated, professional website to house them all. It allows me to create a platform, a place where everything is contained. All of the classes I just mentioned above, are there, as well as my editing services, and a reboot of the Day of Reckoning one-day class (with some amazing guest authors) and even a few “at your own pace” classes.

BF: What inspired you to create Storyville Studio?

RT: I love to teach—to share the knowledge I gained in my undergraduate studies, my MFA, other classes along the way, and everything I learned as a writer, editor, teacher, Editor-in-Chief, and publisher. This allows me to slowly expand, and to present these classes in a way that authors can get excited about taking, sharing, talking about, and coming back for more (hopefully).

BF: I see that before having the platform, Storyville Studio, you were (and still are) teaching courses on LitReactor. How long have you been teaching the craft altogether?

RT: I got my MFA in 2012 and started teaching not long after that. Short Story Mechanics, at LitReactor, was my first class, and I’ve been teaching that since 2014. I had been writing my Storyville column over at LitReactor since 2011 and that seemed like the next logical step. Just dipping my toes in the water, starting small, with the classes I felt I could teach, and then growing as an author and teacher.

BF: Do you believe that anyone can be taught how to write?

RT: To a certain degree, yes. And then again, no. I think that an average writer can work hard, study, apply themselves, and grow, and in the end create some really good stories. I also think that some people are born with gifts—vision, language, storytelling, emotion, psychology, etc. Those same people, doing the same work, will probably do better than the average joe who works hard but isn’t naturally talented. Though, of course, there are exceptions to the rule on both sides. Bottom line, in my opinion, yes—people can be taught to write, and to write better, but some people probably have limitations. I didn’t start writing until I was 40, so anything is possible, right?

BF: What are some words of advice that you can give to those who are just starting off in writing?

RT: Read a lot, study a lot, and write a lot. Just ingest every medium you can—film especially, but also television, music, art, food, travel, etc. The first column I ever wrote for Storyville was about finding your voice, and I think that’s a great place to start. Study the masters in your genre, as well as your contemporaries in that same genre, read the “best of the year” anthologies in that genre, study the award winners, finalists, and nominees, and pay attention—take notes, figure out what works and what doesn’t, and why. Stephen Graham Jones and I were talking about stories, and both thought that somewhere about our 75th story we felt like, “Oh, I think I know how to write a story know.” I use Freytag’s Triangle/Pyramid as a guide, but there are lots of ways to organize your stories. What’s that number about becoming an artist, or artisan? You have to put in 10,000 hours of work, or something like that? It’s true. You have to hone your craft. For me, I think the first three years of my career, including my MFA, were the most important. But once you start to have success, to get published, to get nominations, and recognition, that’s when the real work begins. To write a brilliant story, something that gets into the elite publications—that last 1-5% is just so hard. Everything has to work—the idea, the voice, the plot, the characters, the setting, the emotion. I’m swinging for the fences now, so fingers crossed that I strike out less than I make contact.

BF: I also wanted to take a minute to discuss you as a writer. Can you give us a little peek into your life? Do you have a daily writing schedule and/or ritual?

RT: I don’t have a regular writing schedule. I had eight stories out this year, some sold up to three years ago. I have six more out next year, and some of those had been submitted for 500+ days, and have also taken 1-3 years to come out. I write when I’m on deadline for an anthology or magazine, whether I was invited in or it’s an open call. And right NOW—I need to write that next novel. LOL. I mean, for me, I could take six months to write a novelette, like “Ring of Fire” (The Seven Deadliest) which is currently recommended for a Bram Stoker Award, or I could write a 6,600-word story in one day. My first novel, Transubstantiate, I wrote on my lunch hour, each day a different POV, 700-1,000 words at a time(which took a few months to draft, then I workshopped it for a year). With Disintegration, my second novel, I wrote the first half in my MFA over six months, then put it aside for two years to work on literary short stories, taking a week to finish it—40,000 words in five days. Breaker, which was nominated for a Thriller Award, took 25 days to write—65,000 words total. My last day was 12,000 words—I was really coming unglued. I’m a feast or famine kind of author—when it’s working, it’s usually working pretty well; but when it’s not, I get nothing.

BF: When writing, do you keep the area completely silent or is there a certain genre of music that gets your writing juices flowing?

RT: Typically quiet, though I have been known to put instrumental music, or albums I know really well, on in the background. Everything from The Cure’s Disintegration (guess which book that was) to Radiohead’s In Rainbows. But usually silence.

BF: What are some books, films or any other media that help kick start your creativity?

RT: There are five craft books that I recommend to people:

On Writing: A Memoir of Craft by Stephen King;

Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff VanderMeer;

Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling by super-agent Donald Maass;

Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction by Benjamin Percy, and Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life after Which Everything Was Different by Chuck Palahniuk.

All are great, each one is different. Outside of that, I really love the work that A24 Films is doing – Ex Machina, The Witch, Hereditary, Under the Skin, Midsommar, Enemy, etc. I have an essay up about it on my blog where I talk about my favorites.

BF: What is one piece of advice that you would give to a young Richard Thomas?

RT: If you want to be a writer, don’t listen to any of the naysayers–follow your dreams. I’d been in advertising for 20 years before I decided to try writing again. The MINUTE I started pushing in that direction I felt like it was the right choice – I felt so much less resistance, and pretty early on I started to have success (one of the first stories I sent out landing in Shivers VI over at Cemetery Dance, alongside Stephen King and Peter Straub). That was the nudge, the light, the hope I needed in order to start writing again. I wrote all my life—grade school, high school, college. When I got serious about it, and quit running around, when I quit trying to LOOK like a writer, and just put my ass in the chair and wrote – good things started to happen.

Thank you very much for this interview Richard. Kendall Reviews wishes you every success for Storyville Studios.

KR: You can find out why Richard Thomas writes horror HERE