111I – Lessons From a Long Career: An Interview with Thomas Locke

Today's guest is author Thomas Locke, also known as Davis Bunn. Thomas has a brand new book out this week, the dystopian novel Enclave. In today's interview, we walk through Thomas/Davis' career as he tells us what he's learned over twenty-plus years of highs and lows.

The first thing he talks about is discipline. The discipline to keep on writing as you wait for your books to sell. The discipline to keep going when you have lots of reasons to quit. And the discipline to take advantage of the time you have in order to write as much as you can – perhaps more than you would have thought possible.

One example of how that discipline paid off is his story of writing three full-length novels with no contract and no one asking for them…and how that eventually turned into nine contracted books in three series.

If you're interested in writing science fiction or fantasy, Thomas explains that one of the biggest failings is when a writer creates a story that is heavy on the idea, but poor in characters. Readers need to genuinely bond with a character in order to follow them for a whole book.

Thomas gives us great advice, including specific writing tips, throughout the interview. This is an episode you'll want to come back to in order to take notes!

Follow him on Facebook as Thomas Locke and as Davis Bunn.