I come to writing the same way I come to teaching, which is that my goal is always to create life-long readers.
I was a storyteller for The Band. It was never, 'Hey guys, here's a song about what happened to me.' I was always more comfortable writing fiction.
Being a songwriter does not rely on an audience or other band members or a camera. I can just sit in a room and write songs.
I've always loved Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and I watched the Petty documentary 'Running Down A Dream'. I was directly influenced, it made me want to go write.
Fortunately for me, or unfortunately, they made me an editor of the Parish Prison Pelican. I could read and write, and I had a way with words.
The thing most consistently on my desk as I write is a cat - a different one at different times of the day. I think I'm more a part of their ritual.
I did a lot of my writing as though I was an academic, doing some piece of research as perfectly as possible.
I came to write after several mini careers. I did live theatre, managed a cosmetics store and was a local television personality.
As an author, I breathe life into each and every character within the stories that I write. But it is the reader who gives them their souls.
I share an office with Jason Sudeikis, and I'm friends with him, so I end up writing for him a lot.
I like the process of pencil and paper as opposed to a machine. I think the writing is better when it's done in handwriting.
Even though I didn't write 'Shaun Of The Dead' and 'Hot Fuzz,' I never felt left out of the creative process.
I started writing juvenile novels around 1985. I never really thought of it as a career, but more as a way to make a living.
Dysfunctional co-dependent relationships always appeal to me. I don't know exactly how it started. I start writing sketches of characters and little scene-lets, and then it builds.
No matter how many books I write, I will eventually get to fiction. That is where I'm going.
It ended up being a very good thing, because they finally started writing for the character, and I realized that you have to go to work with a purpose. I learned from the experience and then moved on.
I am much more involved in the filmmaking experience on Mag Seven. I'm much more involved in story elements, casting decisions, the writing of the show, the blocking of the scenes.
I'm a method writer. In order to write about the emotion, I have to experience it. I get physically tired and exhausted, devoting hours and hours and hours to it.
My intent was to gain experience for fiction I eventually hoped to write. But there's no question I was drawn in by the hope that journalism would be a creative, thrilling environment.
I only tweet about food and silly things, but it's really fascinating because I get a lot of response on Twitter, and I'm always looking at the type of people who write me on there, and it is such a variety.
I believe that, in an ideal world, writers would feel free to write what matters to them without having to consider success, failure, the market, etc.
