Please introduce yourself and your book(s)!
Well my name is Ty Noel and I’m writer/author from Illinois. I grew up with a love of reading, something my parents helped to introduce at an early age. My love of books led me down the path of becoming a writer and it’s how I wrote my first short story collection, A Monstrous Tomorrow. My book is a small collection of short stories that all take place in a fictional town called Galena Park. The book falls under the genre of science fiction and horror since the plot takes place in a distantfuture where the world was destroyed in a nuclear war.
What is/are the story(ies) behind your book(s)?
So my collection, A Monstrous Tomorrow is actually my graduate thesis that I wrote at Eastern Illinois University. It began with me wanting to write a short story about sleep paralysis and how horrifying it is when it happens to you. My only intention with that story was to convey the feeling of sleep paralysis to an audience that may not have experienced it before. However, as I continued writing that story, I found that I was creating a little universe for it to exist in and that I wanted to explore more of that universe. From there, I ended up creating the collection of short stories as a way to begin create this post-apocalyptic world.
What inspires/inspired your creativity?
For me, I often look at something that is either happening in my life or in popular culture and ask myself “will this make a good story?” If the answer is yes, I follow that question up with “how?” I absolutely love science fiction, horror, and a bit of fantasy, so often I will try and find a way to take whatever life event I’m questioning and place it within the genre I’m working with.
How do you deal with creative block?
I’ll take some time away from what I’m working on and just consume other media and analyze what they’re doing and how it works. Often times, if I can sit back and take a critical look at something that isn’t mine, I can come back to my work later on and work through the block. My other solution is just watching mindless TV. Not thinking creatively almost feels like I pushed a reset button and after I’m good to go.
What are the biggest mistakes you can make in a book?
Well besides the obvious in spelling and grammar errors, I would say forgetting certain plot points or characters. In my current project, I stress about making sure I haven’t made a mistake in a character’s name or accidentally changed a detail from a previous chapter. Even if it doesn’t seem like a big deal, many readers notice even the littlest of continuity errors from one chapter to the next.
I’ll take some time away from what I’m working on and just consume other media and analyze what they’re doing and how it works. Often times, if I can sit back and take a critical look at something that isn’t mine, I can come back to my work later on and work through the block. My other solution is just watching mindless TV. Not thinking creatively almost feels like I pushed a reset button and after I’m good to go.
What are the biggest mistakes you can make in a book?
Well besides the obvious in spelling and grammar errors, I would say forgetting certain plot points or characters. In my current project, I stress about making sure I haven’t made a mistake in a character’s name or accidentally changed a detail from a previous chapter. Even if it doesn’t seem like a big deal, many readers notice even the littlest of continuity errors from one chapter to the next.
Do you have tips on choosing titles and covers?
Try not to overthink the title would be my best tip. I often spend far too much time trying to pick the perfect title for something when keeping it simple generally works fine. As for cover, I’d recommend something that is not only visually appealing but fits your work. Don’t use a cover and title that makes sense to you and no one else. Best case is always to beta test what you want to go with.
How do bad reviews and negative feedback affect you and how do you deal with them?
I make sure not to let any of it go to heart. Although it may be upsetting at the time, I constantly remind myself that not everyone has the same taste and that I should at least be happy that someone was willing to give me honest feedback of my work.
How has your creation process improved over time?
I’ve slowly (very slowly) began to take the time and outline some basic plot points my work needs to focus on. A big thing that helped though was just taking some classes in literature to learn more about the genres I love to work in. Before I received my education, I would just try to model my writing after authors that I loved. Now when I write, I know the different types of tropes that work and don’t work in the genres I write in and it can help make certain word choices or scenes easier to write.
What were the best, worst and most surprising things you encountered during the entire process of completing your book(s)?
The best, by far, was just the amount of positive feedback and reviews I was given by people. I think even as someone that’s well-versed in writing, I had the feeling of impostor syndrome, that I honestly wasn’t as good as what my school and peers said. However, after receiving the same feedback from a larger community, it really helped me take confidence in my work and share more of my writing to the world. The worst thing I found on going through the process is how long edits take. Believe me, when writers groan about the amount of edits and revisions they go through, it’s for a good reason. The process can feel like it takes just as long as writing the first draft.
Do you tend towards personal satisfaction or aim to serve your readers? Do you balance the two and how?
Well personal satisfaction for me is simply finishing any open writing project I have, so I feel there is a decent balance between the two. There are times where my readers will want to see more from a certain story or character that I don’t want to do, but generally I’m willing to work in some service to my readers as well. I think it’s a nice symbiotic relationship, they read my work and in return I can add in a bit of fan fair as well.
What role do emotions play in creativity?
I think it really depends on what you’re feeling or don’t realize your feeling. When I first moved to the city I live in now, I really didn’t know the area or people that well and it had me a bit freaked out. Although I didn’t realize it, most of the short stories I wrote tended to have a horror or paranoid tone running through them. So I think emotion can have a certain effect on creativity, although I would argue it has more of an influence on what you write over whether or not creativity is there.
What are your plans for future books?
For sure A Monstrous Tomorrow will get turned into an entire book series, with AMT serving almost as a prequel to the Forsaken World Chronicles. I’m currently about 50 pages into the sequel and I can say with certainty that the series will all be full length novels over a collection of short stories. I’m also casually outlining some ideas for a supernatural YA series and have plans to get back into publishing short stories on Amazon and my website as another way to get around writer’s block.
Tell us some quirky facts about yourself
I wouldn’t say any of these facts are necessarily quirky, but they are fun. The biggest thing to know about me is that there are not a lot of things I can’t hold a discussion about. I absolutely love being outside, whether it’s to golf, hike, or fish, that’s where I can be found when the weather is nice. I can talk about most of the popular sports in America and I love watching the Chicago Bears and St. Louis Cardinals. On the flip side of things, I also enjoy reading and am currently working through Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes and I plan on beta reading a book for a fellow writer I met through my blog when I’m done. I also enjoy playing and running sessions of Dungeons and Dragons. I currently DM two campaigns while playing in two others. I also have a wide variety of shows I watch. Lately the ones I’ve been keeping up on are Gotham, Brooklyn 99, Letterkenny, and River Monsters. I have an Xbox One that I enjoy playing Sea of Thieves, For Honor, and other games on. Finally, and most importantly, in May I’m heading down to New Orleans to get married to my wonderful fiancee. We’ve been together for 8 years and are getting married on our 9 year anniversary and I couldn’t be more excited. Oh, and we also have a husky mix named Zephyr who loves to scream (look up ‘husky’s talking’ and you’ll know what I mean) and pretend he’s an old boy when he isn’t.
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