Writer Russell Jones enters Interview Week June 2022

Russ Jones is an author from Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.  He is an interesting voice, but also a decidedly kind one.  His Dogs of Twitter pics warm my heart and we've occasionally discussed the world of writing.  I asked him to answer some questions about writing and creativity and I am happy to share his answers.

Why do people create? Does creativity exist as a equal opposite of
 destruction, and as such is creativity always a positive and life
 affirming thing? I've read that utopias are less often considered
 or compared to dystopias, but that what many do not realize, is that a
 dystopia is also a utopia, but a failed one.  So, are creativity and
 destruction similar?


As to the first question: why do people create? I can only answer for myself truly, but I can guess as to why others might create. My suspicion is: “to live on” – to have something in the world that exists outside of ourselves, potentially as an icon of our lives after we’re long in the ground / in the atmosphere. Aside from that, perhaps a less permanent reason, is that people create things in order to communicate something they feel is important. Language and communication skills are what separate humans from most other animals, they helped propel us forward with innovation and survival tactics, and creativity was required for that. So, an evolutionary imperative might be hiding behind the curtains of human existence… at a guess.

And part two of the question: does creativity exist as an equal opposite of destruction, and is creativity always life affirming? The second part of that is easier than the first, I think. Is creativity always life affirming? No, I don’t think so. It could do the opposite and cause problems such as deeper depression to acknowledge a situation fully or to unwind it. I am sometimes a believer in the adage “Ignorance is bliss”, so creative exploration might actually be detrimental to some people in some cases. But I may be conflating “destructive” with “negative force” – If we take “destructive” to mean “the removal or demolition of something” and “creativity” as the “making or creation of something” then they might be judged as opposing forces. But no, I don’t think creativity is always life affirming because what’s life affirming to one person might be negative or destructive to another.

Any utopia is someone’s dystopia (to paraphrase something I cannot quote), or as Margaret Atwood put it in The Handmaid’s Tale, “Better never means better for everyone.”

For what it’s worth, though, I am a hopeful person. I feel that people are generally good and want good things for most others. Creativity might help that positive urge, more than it might hold us back.


How or why did you become a writer? What were the gifts or traits 
that led you to realize you were a writer, not just wanting to be one?
What skill sets are ideal for writer? How does one cultivate and/or 
curate his collection of skills, to get the most out of them?


I wrote as a kid, though I’ve very few memories of my childhood until I was about 15 for some reason. So, I’d have to guess at why I wrote and I imagine it’s a similar reason to why I write now… to have fun and create worlds or realities which don’t exist, so that I can explore them. And if I believe the answer to your previous question, I must have become a writer because on some level I want to communicate and to exist outside of myself.

I am not a believer in the idea that we are born with natural gifts. I do not believe someone is a “natural born writer” insofar as I believe any skill takes a lot of work and practice to be good at. There is nothing magical about writing, nothing “god given” about it to me – anybody with the right training and enthusiasm could do it. Some people might have a propensity towards some skills more than others (being a mathematician would likely come harder to me than being a painter, for example) but I dislike the elitist attitude that “some” people can write and “some” cannot.

What led me to realise I am a writer and not “trying” to be one? I don’t know what the difference is. If you write, you are a writer. Unless we’re talking about being “a professional writer”, in which case I make my living from writing. When I was able to do that, at least in part, I was a professional writer and began to think of myself as “a writer” when people would asked “What do you do?”

To be a writer, I think it is helpful to be observant. If you can notice things that others may not, if you are open to listening to other ways of being, then I think it will help you as a writer and creative. Writers (of fiction at least) may need to think through the body and mind of someone else to create characters, and this would be very difficult if you can only comprehend your own opinions, or you are very closed to other ideas and ways of living. I think this inevitably leads to writers “having more questions than answers” – being interested in others and enjoying exploring what makes us different, as well as what might connect us.

And with regards to being a “professional writer”, who must be able to make at least some of their living from writing… Endurance. You must endure rejection (from agents and publishers, potentially rejections from yourself, family and friends and strangers who don’t always believe you’ll sell the next book or even write it). You must endure many long hours of solitude sat at a computer or notepad, because writing a story or book or poem can take a very long time. You may endure poverty, because not many writers make very much money from writing. You may endure many defeats, such as having spent years crafting a book which just doesn’t get published or read. There are so many uncertainties, things outside of your control, and they may need to be endured if you are to “make it” (whatever that means, it’s another discussion topic) as a writer.

And finally, that endurance is (at least part of) what helps you to cultivate the skills of a writer. Reading, writing, editing, getting to know how publishing works, making mistakes, repeating, repeating, repeating. I am a believer in the need for evolution, which is a product of errors and transformations: make mistakes and learn from them, get better and better with each step.


What genres do you focus upon?  Does genre limit a writer, or does
 acknowledging a genre lead to a greater and more defined focus, and
 thereby achieve a better work? Is genre important for any reason,
 other than where to shelf the book in the library or bookstore?

I am probably best known for writing poetry and speculative fiction, which means works you might place under “science fiction” or “fantasy”. However, I write many more things than just within those genres (some of them cross-pollinating, such as my sci-fi poetry), and I find it limiting to try to pigeonhole a book into one genre (though this is usually preferred by publishers because it’s easier to market to specific groups of people who say “Oh I love sci-fi” rather than something more opaque or difficult to pin down).

Beyond targeting a certain reader more easily/quickly for book sellers, I don’t think pinning a book down to a genre is a particularly useful. Almost every book published would be able to fit into more than one genre category, so it can feel a bit arbitrary. Still, needing to fit a book into a certain genre can impact on my writing process (because I want the book to sell): I once wrote a sci-fi novel and, on hearing about it, editors told me they’d like it to be more of a romance. So, I added more romance and then when those editors read the novel they said it was too hard to market, because it fell in between sci-fi and romance, so they weren’t sure how to sell it to the public.

So, genre (or a lack of understanding of genre, or how books are marketed using genre) could be prohibitive in that sense. To counterbalance that, I might suggest that genre could help a writer to focus – as an editor, I see pieces of writing which have promise but sometimes have too many ideas, and that makes it hard to follow. Sometimes the world presented becomes murky or hard to grasp, because it borrows from many genres and ideas at once. In that regard, perhaps genre can be considered a stabilising force, a railroad track which stops the carriages from tumbling off.

But generally speaking, I think writers ought to write whatever they like. To try and write to someone else’s prescription might end in tragedy. To paraphrase Neil Gaiman (you’ll find the full speech on youtube, called “Neil Gaiman - Inspirational Commencement Speech at the University of the Arts 2012”: “If you write a book just to make money, and you don’t make money, then you’ve got nothing. But if you write a book that you love, and you fail to make money, you still have a book that you love.”



You've written poetry, prose and no doubt other things. We've
 discussed how you became a writer, and what skills and experiences
 contributed to that. Aside from those considerations, why is it that
 you write? What is your ultimate goal in the creative process? Is it 
to create a masterpiece, is it to achieve financial success, is it to 
achieve recognition throughout the community of writers?


This has changed through my life. When I began, it was probably only for fun and exploration, which is a fine reason. Later, I wrote to get good grades at university, with little consideration of publication. However I then gained publication (poems), and there’s something slightly addictive about that – at that stage it was never about the money, because it was poetry (and there’s almost no money in poetry). Since then, I wanted to see if I could make a living as a writer, because it’s a job that allows me a lot of freedom, and I enjoy writing (for the most part). So it became an occupational decision. I certainly do not recommend becoming a writer for financial gain, there are many more secure jobs which pay more. Still, I do try to make a living from writing, but have no expectations that it will be an extravagant one. I know this sounds a little downbeat or lacking ambition (maybe I should say I write for the utter thrill, but that’s not entirely true) but essentially it now boils down to this: I write because I can, I enjoy it, and it pays my bills. It is one part of my life that slots into many others.


Where can readers find you, do you have a writer website, how active
are you on social media? Do you have any works coming out soon, if so 
could you please describe them? Thank you for your time and answers.

I can be googled, but you can find more specific on my books and writing life on my blog: http://writerrusselljones.blogspot.com/

I post a lot of pictures of food and my dogs on social media, as well as updates on what I’m writing each day. I’ve heard concern lately that people are having their writing rejected because of a lack of a social media following, but I’ve never personally experienced that. I just post about what I am interested in, and others who are also interested in those things seem to engage with it.

I have a novella (“Dating Superman”) coming out with an indie press (Leamington Books) this year. It’s based on a true story about a young girl whose neighbour dresses as Superman (to meet women). The girl believes her mum and Superman would make a great couple, so tries to make them fall in love. Originally, this story was set in Brooklyn (USA) but I moved it to Birmingham in the West Midlands (England, where I grew up) in the 1980s (when I grew up).

I also have several unpublished novels waiting to find homes. I separated from my agent this year, but thankfully managed to grab a great new agent quite quickly – so hopefully some of those unpublished novels will find their homes after all. I’m currently working on two novels:

Bucket List is a story about an intergenerational friendship between a widow and a young offender who, on winning the lottery, attempt to complete a bucket list together.

Deep Wood is a psychological drama about a couple who move from the city to a woodland community, in which they must fight and face the fears that pursue them.