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For a lot of writers
it’s just the creative side of them unleashed with
each new work they produce. That statement holds true for
even the likes of Eric Jerome Dickey. “I like creating
characters that are nothing like me, putting them in situations
that I’ve never been in and seeing if I could pull
it all off.
Shockingly, and although his work might show otherwise,
Eric Jerome Dickey was not always a writer. He started his
career off as an engineer, moved to acting and then comedy
and finally that took him to writing the books we all love
to read. Let him tell it all these career paths have brought
a different aspect to his writing that he would not have
had if he did not pursue them. “The engineering career
brings the logical side of it. There has to be a technical
and logical side to the writing. If the story doesn’t
make sense then the story falls apart. Acting teaches a
lot about character development because you give an actor
a script and actors have to bring the character to life.
From the walk to the talk to the way they eat. A lot of
actors do a history on their characters to see why they
behave the way they do. Comedy is story telling. You learn
a lot about what we call wordology because a joke is funny
because 1. The comic; and 2. Look at the way the jokes are
arranged. This is what the punch line is, this is the funny
word, that’s why you laugh right there. The last two
are just different parts of story telling.”
Eric has 16 books and one movie to his credit. He has consistently
dishing books out about once a year. I had to ask him how
he comes up with so many characters and topics. “I
flip the newspapers, I write a lot of stories from the paper.
It could be a little story on page 12 that no one reads
but for me it’s good plot. Relationship stuff like
the story I did last year with the love triangle turned
deadly, that happens everyday. For me it’s creating
characters, it’s like what could happen in someone’s
life to make them react like this. Stories are all around
you, its about what you choose to write about.” Eric
Jerome Dickey used to take a year and a half to write a
book but he was doing it in between juggling a nine to five.
These days though Eric is a full time writer and a novel
is easily completed in anywhere from 6 months to 8 months.
For you writers on the come up Eric also has advice for
you. “Get that foundation in writing, take some classes,
learn some stuff, but have fun. Find your voice, what’s
your style, what do you want to write about. It’s
not about being the next insert name here, but do what you
want to do.
Eric’s the latest novel is called “Drive Me
Crazy.” “The main characters name is Driver,
his nickname, he’s an ex-con. He did two years for
basically not snitching on someone. He has a felony conviction
so it’s hard for him to get a job. While he’s
going through his hard times he meets a girl named Lisa
who is rich and married not-happily, they start a steamy
affair Lisa offers him a better life if he kills her husband.
That’s the main part. It ends up with Driver having
a big debt on his head and he has 72 hours to pay this debt
so he comes up with a big scam. He’s in a position
where he has to commit a crime to stay alive. It touches
on a lot of things from marriage to the war.”
This novel is different from the rest because it has “different
characters, different story. There was a reader earlier
who told me, from book to book that what she likes is that
I don’t do the same thing. Some authors are more comfortable
writing about the same things but the readers will get tired
of you. She trust me because she knows whatever I write
it’s going to be a good story.”
Later this year Eric Jerome Dickey will have one of his
first novels “Friends & Lovers”, produced
as a play. The company putting it together is called ‘I’m
Ready Productions’ and they will work on Cheaters
as soon as that one is done. The play will be coming to
New York, so look out for it. You can get more info about
the play and about Eric Jerome Dickey on his website www.ericjeromedickey.com.
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