The WRITE Prompt had a chance to speak with A.W. Miller, a successful voice actor, teacher, and author of the brand new book, Ocean Salt: The Allagi.

A.W. Miller is a creative junkie who thrives on having a lot of irons in the fire.  Writing, designing, voice acting, photography, short filmmaker—he loves creating and storytelling.  Thankfully, he says, he is married to a woman who understands that and is willing to fuel those passions.  She also makes sure that all of his I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed!

You can connect with A.W. Miller through his author website, here.

TWP: Tell Us a Little About Your Newly Released Book

A.W. Miller: Ocean Salt Book I: The Allagi is part of a two-volume, 6-book series.  It’s my first full-length novel and it’s been a long time coming:  15 years, to be exact. 

I’d written the first draft and it sort of lingered—life, full-time teaching career, laziness, you know the usual.  I finished the second draft and started sending out queries to agents and started collecting rejection notices. 

Then, an agent actually responded with a personal note that went something like this:

I think you have a solid idea here but the genre doesn’t support a single POV.  Consider adding perspectives of different characters.

I’d never considered doing that and, honestly, I don’t know why I hadn’t. 

So, for the next ten years, I wrote, tweaked, edited, revised, and nurtured this story.  Originally, it was a single book, roughly 500 pages but after some research, I decided to split the book into three smaller (and ultimately more reader-friendly) books.

Book two is nearly complete.  And, I’ve also started on a new series that puts a bit of a spin on ghosts

TWP: What was your road to publishing like? Did you always envision self-publishing?

A.W. Miller: My road to publishing was filled with lots of mistakes.  And no, self-publishing wasn’t my first consideration. 

While I was working on Ocean Salt, I did self-publish a 72-page novella titled The Sad Man but that was because I knew no agent would rep such a short book. 

After that, I gathered a few short horror stories and self-published those as well.

All stories, regardless of culture, origin, language, or genre are really only about one of two things:  Getting to or getting away from something.

But Ocean Salt was going to be my “big break”.  The book was going to land me an agent.  And then, my wife and I were talking about the crazy year we’ve had (along with the rest of the world) and we were just like “Why don’t we just self-publish it?  How hard can it be?”

It wasn’t easy, but we learned a great deal along the way and are far better prepared for self-publishing book 2 of the series.

TWP: What is the most surprising source of inspiration you’ve ever had that led to an idea for a book or a scene?

A.W. Miller: So, my wife is the first person to take me to the ocean. 

After that first year we went, I was hooked!  Could not get enough. 

On our second trip to the beach, Treasure Island, Florida to be exact, we were standing on the beach.  The waves were doing their gentle caressing of our feet.  The horizon was pristine, a dash of Impressionist clouds accenting the eastern sky.  And my wife takes my hand and says, “Poseidon is happy…”

I said, “Maybe he’s in love…”

She said, “That would be nice…”

And I said, “That would make a great story, don’t you think?”

And here we are 15 years later.

TWP: Do you have any favorite writing exercises or prompts that have inspired you in the past?

A.W. Miller: So, I used to teach creative writing at the high school level. 

I dreamed up some pretty gnarly writing exercises and writing prompts. Here are a few of my favorites that worked with both my students and my own writing:

• Search for a photograph of two people.  Create dialogue based on all elements present in the photograph
• Cut pictures out of magazines and arrange them into a character collage
• Practice the art of drop words.  Instead of having your characters engage in call and response dialogue, drop the fluff and have them say what’s really on their (your) mind
• For every third “he/she said” replace it with a sensory description of what’s happening in the moment
• Take a long narrative scene and try writing it as only dialogue
• Have your MC write a letter to her/his past self from the future of your book

TWP: Do you ever get writer’s block? How do you keep the creativity flowing and stay positive?

A.W. Miller: I don’t get writer’s block often—and 9 out of 10 times when I do get it, it’s because I’m tired, or bogged down by some trials or tribulations of life. 

Best way for me to get past that kind of writer’s block is to go outside for a walk, listen to music, play some video games, or find ways to occupy my brain with anything but the story I’m writing.

But, occasionally, the writer’s block is specifically related to the scene or chapter I’m working on and that’s a bit more of a Houdini-esque escape plan. 

More often than not, I have to sleep on it.  Other times, I will pause the chapter progress to do a bit of what I call ‘narrative draft’.  Basically, I tell myself the story as if I’m relating a movie to a friend.

I’ve found this to be effective in helping me line up plot points, and discovering previously undiscovered scenes and organically work through any challenges.  And, surprisingly, this also allows the characters to tell me the story and I’ve learned to listen better.

TWP: Lastly, do you have any parting advice for aspiring authors who are hoping to one-day get published themselves?

A.W. Miller: Storytelling is really a simple thing that we humans spend hours overcomplicating.  Here’s the formula:

1. Create a compelling lead character.
2. Put that character in a tree.
3. Throw rocks at the character
4. Get the character out of the tree.

Here’s another, perhaps even simpler, way to think of stories:

All stories, regardless of culture, origin, language, or genre are really only about one of two things:  Getting to or getting away from something.

Again, simple.  The rest are details and trimmings that we can often get caught up in like cobwebs.

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