Whether it is a novel or a commercial book, no one has placed a huge amount of “The End” to obtain the same question to type the words “The End”: What now?
entrepreneur SAT with the first -time novelist Colin Thompson to do his work on his work, when you feel that hard work is over. Thompson wrote and directed three feature films – Los crown, this is us and light year – Before writing your beginning, lootA very funny, dark and twisted story about a boy struggling to find success and happiness as a Hollywood screenwriter. At every turn, the main character belongs to the type of self-de-de-decision and evil decision making, which is on the search for anyone to experience something great, and finally… Okay, we will not spoil we will not spoil lootJust know that things end in such a way that the reader is a surprise because they are for the main character.
We asked Thompson to share his journey as a writer, and important lessons that he has learned about getting an idea from his head and on the page, and then, importantly, in front of your target audience.
Do you want to write this novel?
After living in Los Angeles and writing a script for a decade (mainly), I was in dire need to step out of the sterile box and final draft software of screenwriting. Story (which became loot) I wanted to write that snuggali was not fit in a 90-110-page script. The knock on many of my scripts was that “action” (lines and language between dialogues) were very “flowers”. So in the form of a middle finger for each of my scripts, which was never sold, or perhaps everyone who never bought them, I decided to write a novel, something that I always wanted to do, but was very scared to try after reading Frenzen and was scared Freedom Back in 2010. It took only thirteen years to finish it – fear. Which was, turning back, was the right time, because movies -especially script -scripts -were dying. So why not the stomach-flop in another impossible, dying medium-a snobier, more exclusive on it! And say more successfully: I am stupid.
Can you discuss your writing process?
A friend of mine has a very good place in Edirondax. For many years, it was ludite-forward. no wifi. Just a landline. I will go there once or once and write my butt. And back in Brooklyn, I will sit in a better place and live in a better place to write for an hour where I could find it. The morning is when I am probably in my best form. But I try to stay open to win on my computer screen in all hours. I do not underline, because Charlie Cofman once said that outline is for sucking and goes to hamstring where someone’s silly brain can carry them. With most of my scripts (and with this novel), when I first sit to write, I know how and where it ends. with loot, I knew the last lines, frames, Bhavna. So, when I do not underline, I always know where I am going. It can rain frogs on the way, but I always make sure to change the appropriate shoes and socks.
Do you seek a response as soon as you write?
Not necessarily My wife has read my first, and she knows what to say (or what not to say). Coming from Los Angeles, I came to know that no one knows anything and everyone’s opinion. I fuck several times in the city, which was not relying on my intestine. This literary world is clearly different, and I have met some other authors in this process, which I would ask to read the draft in the future. But I think I am a person who likes to punch it first in Endzone and see if anyone wants to watch the game tape with me (before I (God prepared) I look at Ik in the playoff. 100% is not sure that football analogy works there, but I am going to live with it.
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To be honest, I am very good to know when I suck; When something rings hollow or simply does not work. After editing three feature films, I have learned to be ruthless, editing room floor and all. I am generous with my scalpel.
How did you like to type “The End”?
I was alone in Edirondax when I typed the end. So I stood up and overwhelmed, looked around for the high five for someone and maybe “Hoop!” Then I am sure I tried to cry, started laughing, and made a drink. As I said: I knew where it was, how it finished, so there was a finishing of an ironman, but with bed wounds and atrophy.
What advice will you advise to novelists for the first time about going to the traditional publication route vs.
Get an agent. Get traditionally published. It is more effective. It is being said, I either did not. I published “Hybrid”, which originally meant that I paid a small publication house to give me my logo/stamp to make it official. Which was worth every money (really). They gave me direction in the whole process, but I got to design the cover (or it was the idea that my friend was brought to life), fonts, leading, et al. I take the slim profit home from each sales, I am not seeing a little advance that I will probably never cross. If the book is closed, then far and wide Emma Roberts or Natalie Portman puts it in its list, money is mine, not the publisher.
Marketing mainly falls on the author these days. What strategies have you used to take it out?
I sent an email to anyone that I ever emailed. Perhaps went to Spam. I am very bad on social media. I took an oath that I will never put my daughter on Instagram (@loserscrown)But she draws the scene, the metrics, and I think it is the place where all the money goes, so she can earn (and take) it. This is the part that is useless. I fall into the air after posting an Instagram story. I use myself Option Newspaper to push the book; I have posted some chapters there, as well as the soundtrack of the book (I am full of sports and music references, this is how I can make an understanding of the world and there is something that I cannot help).
We had some readings in Burlington, Vermont, which were amazing. I had two musicians on stage with me and amidst Ansh -reading, we played tunes from the book. Fish’s Mike Gordon, there were there. I probably never felt cooler. But we did not have a budget to go on a tour, so after those two nights, the dopamine accident was a boomer. My biggest advice is to get out of there and talk to people, talk to “network” or whatever is called. In fact, this is just advice/pap-talk that I am trying to give myself at this time, because I have not spoken to an adult outside my suburban bridge-D-SAC in a long, long time.
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In addition, as much as it feels as it seems, it seems that a small piece of you dies every time, when you “post” or hack your goods on social media: finish it. Get better on it. This is 2025. (Again, much of it is a pap-talk for itself.)
You recorded the audibook yourself. Do some writers ignore your opinion?
I think the audibook is the place where friends have consumed most of their literature, and I have no number to return. I recently began to listen to the audibook, and I listen to the main non-kalpna or really popular books that I would not like to read publicly. (Look: Lincoln highway.) Fortunately, I have been making a lot of voice for the last few years, so I have a gear (minus -airy booth). “I just knock it,” I thought. Which was not much case. It was a lot of (uncontrolled) work, and editing, well, was like editing a ten-hour film, but I had to listen to myself the whole time. However, the thing about AudioBook is whether the narrator makes or breaks it. The narrator can ruin a great book.
You sing a lot in yourself. And you have a great voice!
First: Thank you. It was a funny decision, because I had reduced singing in my first tech and listening back, I realized that I needed to go all-in, really need to sing. I needed to show the world my best Bobby (Dylan). So, thank you for saying this.
Books are a long, difficult process. Anything that has helped you push those days when you are not feeling 100% about writing/publicity?
I like to say that I have done something that most people only talk about doing. This is why I made the first film. I am wildly insecure and cock at the same time. Many people say that they want to write a book. Do very little. So I did this. This helped me bring me through dark days.
In those days when I don’t think about writing, I just try to get at least one page down, forward speed and everyone. When I do not think about campaigning, I stare at my phone in anger and wonder why I was not much successful.
For the first time, the authors are not advised to get down if the rejection is piled up. This whole nonsense effort is subjective and agents have all just a finger in the stupid air, trying to gauge the unexpected weather of the “market”. If you think your work is good, if you think your book is great, it probably not, but no one knows anything, so perhaps it is? Does that help?
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