Greg Barron

Author Interview – Creative Pen

1. How did your writing aspirations and dreams begin?

As a teenager I spent more time reading than anything else except for school and sleeping. It was a natural step to want to make my own books. I wrote some short pieces back then, but quickly found that writing good stories is not as easy as it looks.

In my mid thirties I decided that it was now or never, and I embarked on a path to publication that would take more than a decade.

2. Was your talent evident from a young(ish) age?

I’m wary of the concept of talent. But … I have always been good at putting words together, and teachers, even at primary school level, often told me that I should one day do something with that skill. I don’t think it was evident that I would have the dogged persistence necessary to write a good book as I had a mind that jumped around all over the place and I wasn’t good at sustained concentration.

3. Was / is there any writer in particular you strive to emulate?

No, but I would love to write as vividly as Wilbur Smith, with the beautiful prose of F Scott Fitzgerald, and the detail of Leon Uris. In reality, I’ll fall short on all three counts.

4. Was / is there any one you consider to have been or currently be a mentor to you?

My agent, Brian Cook. He has been mentor and inspiration, and I probably would not have become a published author without him. He is my first reader and editor, friend, and adviser.

5 Did you learn the craft – or are you a natural?

Not only am I not a natural, but I’m a slow learner. I do recall a moment when I realised that great writing requires both clarity and imaginative embellishment in equal measure. That was about seven years after I started writing. My first drafts are clunky and terrible. Reading them over for the first time is depressing.

7. Were you an overnight success?

Now that makes me laugh. Success, at least in the way I imagine it, is still a long way off.

8. What was your vision for being a writer – and how does that compare to where you are now?

I became a professional writer, in terms of habits and attitude, long before I became published. To me the dream is not about festivals and awards, it’s about writing as a job. My vision therefore, is of me at my desk, attempting to do my best every day, falling short most of the time, but persisting.

9. What do you do for inspiration?

Read good books. Love my wife and children. Walk. Fish. Travel. Live.

10. How much does playing the marketing game factor into your success?

Marketing yourself as a writer is difficult. Particularly now that there are so many Indie writers also clamouring for attention on Social Media. They have just as much right to market themselves as I do, but we are all trying to reach a shrinking number of dedicated readers. Many internet users have switched themselves off from hype, and your only hope is to engage with them as a human being and hope they like you enough to buy.

To be honest, I hate self promotion, and wish it wasn’t necessary.