Matt Nagel writes stories influenced by his passion for our greatest frontier: Space. He is frequently pondering the unknown wishing he had a gift for numbers that would allow him to solve a mystery or two. Matt lives in Stroudsburg, PA with his wife and their one-year-old son.
How long have you been writing and what got you started?
I’ve been writing as far back as elementary school. I used writing as an excuse to use some “bad words” while skirting around getting in trouble by writing a series of stories about a farmer and his missing jackass.
What is the best piece of advice you have for new writers?
Keep it simple and write about something you know for your own enjoyment.
Are there any writing resources, such as books or websites, you’d like to recommend?
It’s almost cliché at this point, but Stephen King’s On Writing and also Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing.
If you could go back and find yourself five years ago, what advice would you give yourself?
Write more!
Are you an outliner or discovery writer? Or somewhere in between?
Somewhere in between. I have stories that were afternoon discoveries and others that I’ve been thinking about for years. Regardless, I edit the heck out of them.
How do you deal with rejections?
Form rejections just sort of roll off of me, while I actually get some pleasure from personal rejections. I enjoy the feedback and insights into what others are seeing in my work.
Were you taught anything about creative writing in high school or college that just didn’t work for you?
I pitched an idea to college professor that was responded to what amounted to: “no, I don’t know how that would work.” I did it anyway. The class enjoyed it and it was later published in the school’s literary magazine. “No” has no place in creative writing.
What are your writing goals for the next twelve months?
I’d like to get on paper a few of the short stories that have been banging around in my head asking to come out.
What are your writing goals for the next five years?
The plan is to stop making excuses and finally write a novel that I’ve conceptually had in mind for about ten years now and started and stopped two times.
What book(s) are you reading right now?
After finishing the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy by Cixin Liu, I decided to go back around read some of the Sci-Fi classics that I feel almost silly having never read including the Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and I’m presently reading his War of the Worlds.
