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Jim Butcher is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Dresden Files, a modern-day fantasy about a wizard for hire in Chicago. The Dresden Files was made into a TV series in 2007 on the Syfy channel (then the Sci Fi channel). Jim is also the author of the Codex Alera, a more traditional fantasy series with swords and elemental creatures.
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This episode originally aired on 04/08/2010 with the following authors:
- More of Your Favorite Authors
- Jim Butcher (#1 NYT bestselling author of the Dresden Files and the Codex Alera series)
- Richelle Mead (#1 New York Times bestselling author of the Vampire Academy, Georgina Kincaid, Dark Swan, and Bloodlines)
- Grant Alter (Script writer for Dean Koontz (Fear Nothing), Richelle Mead (Storm Born), Jim Butcher, etc.)
Note: The following interview has been transcribed from The Author Hour radio show. Please excuse any typos, spelling and gramatical errors.
Interview with Jim Butcher | | |
Bonus Question(s) that Didn't Air on the Live Radio Show
Note that you can also listen to this while you read it.
Matthew Peterson:
Now let me ask you a bonus question. I thought this would be interesting. So your writing teacher . . . what was the best advice that your writing teacher gave you?
Jim Butcher:
Oh, the best advice my writing teacher gave me . . . Debbie if you’re listening to this interview, I hope that you didn’t give me something that was much better and I’ve forgotten it because that seems likely. I think the best thing she ever told me and the one that I should have listened to her on is that you need to write the things that you love writing about. For the longest time I was struggling to write these epic fantasies that were coming out more like, you know, bad parodies of Conan the Barbarian.
And yet she says to me, “Jim, you know, when you talk about the books that you love, the books that you love are . . .” At this point I think we had about three Anita Blake books out that I just loved; on TV there was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I raved about because I was a big Buffy fan. She says, “You know, really maybe you should about writing something more along those lines rather than what you’re doing here.”
And I’m like, “No, I’m a fantasy writer.” But if I’d been smarter I would have listened to her and I would have been writing the things that really stirred my imagination and, you know, got me excited in the rest of my life rather than kind of deciding, “This is what I’m going to be writing.”
Matthew Peterson:
So write what you love.
Jim Butcher:
Write what you love. I mean, you always hear, “Write what you know.” Debbie kind of waved a hand at that and said, “You can always research things. Write what you love. That can’t be replaced.”
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah. Now that you have written quite a few books now. Is there anything that you’d like to pass along to beginning writers or writers that are starting to break in?
Jim Butcher:
Well, if they like, aspiring writers can visit my live journal at jimbutcher.livejournal.com, where I’ve got a number of articles just kind of on the craft of writing that are meant for beginners. They’re there to say, “Okay. You’re wanting to get started. Here’s where I began, and seemed to work for me, so here you go.”
Matthew Peterson:
That’s great. When I go to schools and when I do visits and stuff like that, presentations, that’s the question I always get. “Is there anywhere I can go to find out more about how to write and what I should be doing?” And it seems like there’s a never ending amount of people that are wanting that information, so that’s a great source. So jimbutcher . . . what’s the website again?
Jim Butcher:
jimbutcher.livejournal.com
Matthew Peterson:
jimbutcher.livejournal.com Great!
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