Literary Birthday – 23 September – Wesley Chu

Happy Birthday, Wesley Chu, born 23 September 1976.

Quotes

1. I cut my teeth as a kid first reading the entire L Frank Baum Oz series and then something like eighteen books of Piers Anthony’s Xanth series.
2. …here’s my most important writing secret. Always go to bed early, and try to do it at the same time. I am almost without fail, after a hard day’s work crafting stories, in bed by midnight.
3. Don’t let dumb distractions get in the way of your dreams. If you can’t find the time to write, you’re probably not a writer. Writers write. That’s what we do. If you are intent on making a career of storytelling and putting down words for others to read, set aside time to write and guard those precious minutes like fucking Smaug sitting on top of his piles of gold.
4. …every time I step in front of a mirror, I see Tyler Durden. I’m a lot cleverer in my head than I actually am. There’s dozens of times when I have this scene or dialogue that I’m just dying to put in a book so I try to force it in. Sometimes it works, but more often than not, it looks and feels out of place. But because I want to use that scene so badly, I keep it in. It isn’t until later after I’ve taken a step back from the book that I look it over and make a stink face when I go over that scene. In the business, it’s called ‘killing your darlings.’
5. The hardest thing for me is staying focused. Sometimes, after putting down hundreds of thousands of words, writing can become a drag. When it’s your job though, you have to get the words down. You are contractually obligated to be creative. The world is one big distraction (looking at you Twitter) and it’s easy to get sidetracked. Get your ass in the seat and write.

Wesley Chu is an American, New York Times bestselling science fiction author. Raised by his grandparents in Taiwan while his parents studied in the United States, he arrived in Nebraska in 1982. His first novel was The Lives of Tao, which was selected as one of the 2014 Alex Awards winners. His novel, Time Salvager has been optioned to Paramount.

Source for image

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wesley_Chu.jpg

Debeucci, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Source for quotes 1-2/Source for quotes 3-5

 by Amanda Patterson

Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar