User blog:Helel ben Shahaar/Writer's Lounge Part 14: An Interview with DrBobSmith

Sorry for being late. I'll try to justify the wait. For this Writers' Lounge is with, none other than DrBobSmith. So without any further ado, let's just dive straight into.

Helel ben Shahaar: Start's pretty standard: would you tell us something about yourself?

DrBobSmith: How do I describe me? I live in the SouthWest USA currently, although I have been throughout most of the USA. I've been writing since High School, which was many decades ago. I would consider myself religious, which definitely has an influence on my work. I'm married and have three children. I also am a gun collector.

Hel: Gun collector? Groovy. And how did you come to discover Creepypasta?

Doc: I heard a couple of narrations on YouTube. There's No Such Thing as Area 51 and The Patron Saint of the Good-Looking Corpse especially. I liked those, "I can do this." I liked the Creepypasta Wiki site because of the Writer's Workshop, and that's where I decided to stay. Originally, I had been more of a Science Fiction writer.

Hel: Your use of language in writing is unique compared to some other authors. What would you say influenced that?

Doc: That's interesting. I wasn't aware of it. I had a strong Japanese influence as a child. Could that be it? My parents tended not to speak English at home. That changes how you see language, I think.

Hel: While you do writing work on wiki, your primary modus operandi is as editor and critic on WW. What prompted you to go in that direction?

Doc: I am someone who tries to help people. My father was a university professor. My sister is a university professor. It just runs in the family. So I try to assist people as I can. I know how much the Writer's Workshop has given me, so I have to give back.

Hel: Noble cause, to be certain.

But things aren't always so nice and peachy: there are also fears. What would you say is your greatest fear?

Doc: That's an interesting and a tough question. I can live in fear about everything or I can work very hard to not be in fear. I am not someone who like fears the supernatural. To me, the biggest horrors are the real ones, the everyday fears. Loneliness, death, pain, sickness. Death is something I have to live with. I figure I have fifteen to twenty years left here on Earth. Addiction, going back out. That probably is my worst fear. That nightmare. Living in a Hell between your own ears and destroying everything. These are also fears I see around me. People usually don't see ghosts or demons. I routinely see people living in that private Hell.

Hel: What pieces of CPW would you name as your favourites?

Doc: La Bruja and I Made a Teddy Bear for My Daughter. That build-up. Just wonderful.

La Bruja brings a complete world, and does so powerfully. I Made a Teddy Bear is so short, yet it turns so powerfully. It shows that wonderful build up from normal to creepy to just freaking horror in a couple of hundred words.

Hel: And maybe some of your least favourites?

Doc: My true least favorites disappear very quickly, and I thank you and the other Admins for serving us and keeping the site clean. I almost never get Ritual Pasta or like haunted video games. The other type I dislike are the ones that don't have any feeling. Incident reports, not emotion.

Flat out, I don't care.

Sometimes I think that while grammar and structure can be taught, that emotional sense can't be. I get annoyed by history pieces that have major lapses in their knowledge of history, but if the rest of the story is sound any such issue like factual details can be fixed.

Hel: How many squirrels could you fight off with a foam hammer?

Doc: Not many. They tend to be very persistent. A thousand little squirrel brains have been defeating manufacturers of squirrel proof bird feeders for generations.

(exclusive footage of Doctor Robert fighting off squirrels with a foam hammer)

Hel: Lastly, but not leastly, do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Doc: Find the passionate feeling within yourself. Remember those feelings, and write using those feelings. Make use of the Writer's Workshop. Many people there like BloodySpghetti, NedWolfkin, and RedNovaTyrant take time away from their own writing and do their best to help. Impartially ponder what they have said and see where they are right. Much of the time, they are.

Writing now is so much easier than when I started out. Do you remember manual typewriters? I started on horrible clunker manual typewriters. There was no spell correction or grammar correction or style correction. Research meant going through encyclopedia articles and books. If you want to write about pretty much any random place on Earth, you can quickly find detailed information about what it is really like. The same for any period or thing or job. Use it. Often the research carries you into the story.

Let me take an example, What's Your Name? I had no freaking idea what to write when you gave me that prompt. My one idea came from an old movie called Alexander Nevsky. The images seemed so extreme. Then I researched that time period and found "Wow, that's pretty much period correct, and this is what really was happening." In getting the monster, I got the location and even the time of year. It was just handed to me.

Hel: That'll be all, Doctor: thank you for your time.

Doc: My pleasure. Thank you again for giving me this opportunity, and thanks to all the Admins who make this community possible.