INTERVIEW WITH RANDY INGERMANSON

About Randy Ingermanson

Randy Ingermanson was both class nerd and class clown. He's now an
award winning novelist, a physicist, and a fiction teacher. He wants to be Supreme Dictator For Life and First Tiger. He's getting closer every day!

I’m delighted to have author Randy Ingermanson over to my Web site for a visit. I guarantee you’re going to enjoy Randy’s company, so put on a pot of coffee and sit with us awhile…

Promotion is always good. Tell us about your most recent releases.

My last two books came out about a year ago:

RETRIBUTION is a historical suspense novel set in Jerusalem in the last few years before the Jewish revolt.  It’s a time-travel novel featuring a Messianic Jewish archaeologist, Rivka Meyers, who was raised in San Diego but is now stuck in the first century, knowing everything that’s going to happen.  RETRIBUTION was a finalist for a Christy award last summer and I consider it my best novel in print.

DOUBLE VISION is a contemporary technothriller set in San Diego in a high-tech company kind of like the one I used to work for.  It’s got a bit of science and a different sort of love triangle involving a guy, Dillon Richard, who has never had a girlfriend.  Now he’s got two lovely ladies who want to change that—but they all need to survive first.  DOUBLE VISION was recently named one of the ten best Christian novels of the past year by BookList, the influential review magazine of the American Library Association.

Randy, you’ve become rather famous for being the snowflake guy. For the few left on the planet who haven’t heard about this system, please tell us what the Snowflake method is and how people can get a copy?

The Snowflake method is my procedure for getting myself organized before I write a novel.  Honestly, I’m not the most organized guy on the planet and I need something to help me figure out what my story’s all about.  The Snowflake gives me a good mix of discipline plus freedom, and it works for me.  I wrote my last novel in 32 days, start to finish, and I have the Snowflake (with a whole lot of help from my literary assistant) to thank for it.

You can learn all about the Snowflake method at: http://www.rsingermanson.com/html/the_snowflake.html

This is by far the most popular page on my web site.  It’s been viewed about 120,000 times in the last two and a half years, and it’s made my site famous all around the world. There are people on six continents using the Snowflake right now to write their novels. I’d guess people from 20 to 30 different countries are using it.

Reading the Snowflake page on my site is free.  I also sell an audio CD on my site, containing a lecture on the Snowflake for those who are auditory learners.  It’s selling briskly.  (Oops, I need to order another shipment!)

Did you have a defining moment when you realized you would be a writer, or did the desire to write build up gradually over the years? Tell us about your journey.

Both.  I always liked writing all the way up through high school.  Then I decided I wanted to be a physicist, so I majored in math and physics in college and went on to graduate school at UC Berkeley.  But I couldn’t shake the ideas that kept popping into my head for novels.  So one day I told my wife that I thought it would be cool to write a novel about first-century Jerusalem and early Christianity.  She looked at me with her big shining eyes and said, “You’re great!”  And I thought right then that I really wanted to be a writer. But I still finished out the Ph.D. program in physics, because being a physicist is an awfully good day job if you’re a writer.

How many years did you write before you were published?

Actually, the first thing I wrote got published.  It was an article in one of the leading journals in theoretical physics.  But when I started writing fiction, it turned out to be not nearly so easy as quantum field theory.  I started writing fiction seriously in the spring of 1988, and I saw my first novel on the shelves of a bookstore in the spring of 2000. That was twelve years of struggling, and it wasn’t pretty. I wanted to quit a zillion times, but when writing is in your blood, it’s in your blood, and you’re sick, sick, sick and you can’t quit. It’s in my blood.

What did you do the moment you found out about your first book sale?

I took a walk.  I was at work when an editor called to tell me she wanted to buy my book.  I was so excited, I tried to call home, but nobody answered. So I took a walk to calm down.  Didn’t work.  I was floating on air for about three days.  Then I realized that now I had a deadline and I’d better get busy finishing the book. Deadlines are horrible for me, but they also get me motivated.  I do my best work under deadline.

What author influenced you the most in your writing?

I’d have to say Ken Follett.  There were plenty of others, but Ken has incredible technique in putting you inside a character’s skin.  That’s probably what I’m best at.  It’s what I like most about writing, and I owe a lot of what I know to Ken.

What are some of your favorite books? What makes them stand out?

Lord of the Rings, for starters.  Because it put me in a whole new universe and taught me that it’s OK to have supernatural stuff in a novel.

Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett.  It’s a brilliant historical novel that brought 12th century England to life for a full half-century.

River God, by Wilbur Smith.  Another fantastic historical novel set in 18th century B.C. Egypt.  Again, it creates a whole world and makes it live.

Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon.  This is a time-travel novel set partly in the 20th century and partly in 18th century Scotland.  Actually, it’s a romance, and so I probably lost my Guy Card by reading it, but I don’t care.  It’s a great story.

Do you enhance your creativity at the computer with special music, scents, snack foods, or favorite beverages?

None of the above except music.  When I’m writing my first-century Jerusalem books, I listen to Jewish music non-stop.  When I’m writing my contemporary thrillers, I’m more likely to have on rock music from the 60s to the present.  I listen to groups that make me think, even if they’re a little on the seedy side.  I’ve always like Kansas and Styx.  Lately, I’ve become a fanatic for Green Day, which I would not let my kids listen to!

You’ve got a real gift for teaching. I’ve really enjoyed reading your Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine. How can people sign up for it?

Just visit my web site and you can’t help but see a signup page for it.  The main page for it is at:

http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/html/afwezine.html

As of today, I have 3405 subscribers, but that changes almost hourly.  It’s now the second-most popular fiction writing ezine on the web, and I think it’ll be #1 within another three months. It’s just incredibly popular and has rocketed up from ground zero back in March, 2005.

What is your average writing workday like?

Well, it’s changed recently because I got laid off from my day job about a month ago! When I had a day job, I’d write a little in the morning, then go to work, then come home and write in the evening. Now that I’m jobless, I’m incredibly happier with my schedule. I write during the day and have time in the evening for catching up on email and trying to remember the names of my kids. Hey! I just realized I’ve got three daughters now! Wow, wonder how that happened?

Do you still experience rejections? What do you do about it?

Yes. I take it in the usual mature way of an experienced writer—I yell really loud, jump up and down, hold my breath till my face turns blue, and kick the cat. The cat has become very suspicious of me lately.

OK, a little exaggeration. But really, I hate rejections. Recently, a publisher decided that they don’t like the manuscript I turned in.  This is for a book they’ve already paid part of the advance for, and they don’t like it! The really scary part is that this is the second time they’ve said no on the same book. I rewrote it just for them and they still don’t like it. They think it’s not a safe story. And they’re right. It isn’t safe.

So I’ll just sell it to someone who’s a little less scared of edgy stuff and give Fraidy Cat Publisher another manuscript that’s a little safer. If I can think of a safe story. I don’t do safe.

Is there a bit of you hiding in all your characters or are they compilations of people you meet?

I put a little of me into all my characters, even my villains, even my most witless characters. I also steal traits from people I’ve met. But I never base a character on a real person. That seems like cheating to me. My characters are mostly made up. I think they’re more interesting that way.

I know you’re big on Dwight Swain’s book, Techniques of the Selling Writer. I had the opportunity to be in one of his workshops many years ago, and couldn’t have been more impressed. But in my writing, I still struggle with his MRUs (Motivation-Reaction Unit.) Is there an easy way to explain MRUs? And why are they so important?

MRUs are a bit hard to explain, so I’ll just tell you why they’re so important first, and then refer you to my web site article that explains them. Ever had an editor tell you, “Show, don’t tell”?

I have. It used to make me furious to hear that, because . . . the editor was telling  me to “Show, don’t tell” but he wasn’t showing me how to “Show, don’t tell.” Which is so ironic I want to shriek.

I’ve found that about 80% of the time, when an editor says, “Show, don’t tell,” what they really mean (if they had the wit to understand it) is “Write in immediate-scene, using MRUs.” That’s right. MRUs are the most frequent cure for telling. An MRU is designed to force you to only write the showing  parts and to rigorously eliminate the telling parts.

With that prelude, I’ll refer you to a LONG article on my web site that explains it all, and more: http://www.rsingermanson.com/html/perfect_scene.html

What is your best piece of advice to new writers?

Give yourself time to develop your craft.  I see too many beginning writers who want to be John Grisham by tomorrow noon at the very latest. Doesn’t work that way. It takes years to become a jet fighter pilot. Takes years to become a chess grandmaster. Years to become a quantum physicist. And it takes years to become a novelist. Naturally, because writing fiction is harder than all those other things.

That’s just the way it is. Practically every skill worth having takes time to develop. You can’t become a novelist overnight, so give yourself time. Four years is about right. If you work at it, in four years you can get that magic call from an editor. If you don’t work at it, in four years you’ll be telling your buddies down at the bar that you coulda been a great writer, but you were too darn lazy to take the time. Your choice.

I heard you’re working fulltime now as a writer, speaker, and teacher. The dream of most writers is to quit their day job and write fulltime. How does it feel to live the dream?

Yes, it’s true. As of a month ago, I was canned from my day job, with enough severance pay to last awhile. So I decided to see what I could do with my writing.

I love it so far. I finally have the time to do what I want to do. It’s scary though. If things don’t work out, I’ll have to go back to working for Bossbert. And I don’t want to work for Bossbert. I’m developing some new products for my website—notably a series of lectures called Fiction 101—but also some other products. I’ll be releasing them over the next weeks and months, and I hope they make a difference in a lot of people’s lives. I also hope I earn enough money to keep me in Cheerios.

What is one of your long-term goals as a writer?

To not starve. Like Woody Allen said, “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality by not dying.”

That said, I try to get better in my craft with every book. That’s hard to measure, but I think my trend is upward. I just finished writing a novel about Jesus that I think is definitely the best thing I’ve written so far. It should be hitting the shelves in about a year. Time-Warner is publishing it, and I have a well-known coauthor on the project—Luis Palau, the world famous evangelist. This book is exciting to me because it really brought Jesus alive to me in a new way. My test readers so far say it’s done the same for them.

Is there anything you wanted to add that I forgot to ask?

I don’t think so. You covered it pretty well. If your readers really want to know more about me, then they’re probably incurably nosy. It will serve them right to go read my web site at http://www.rsingermanson.com, where they’ll get way too much information about me. I do NOT recommend that anyone Google the phrase “Shaving Babbitt”.  Don’t do it, people! You’ll be sorry! Very sorry! Keep your sanity!

Thanks for sharing your wit and wisdom with our cyber guests. Best wishes with your next book, Randy!

Thanks for having me, Anita!