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Author Interview: G. J. Dunn is Going Fourth

On By Beth Riggott-Turnage

Cover ofGoing Forth(Beth Turnage Blog) Going Fourth by G. J. Dunn is a delightful fourth-wall-breaking fairy tale farce. Here’s the story:

When Brian starts hearing an incredibly mean voice in his head, his attempts to get rid of it set him on an adventure through a fairy tale world he won’t soon forget.

As it turns out, his voice is something called a Narra Torr, a bodyless storyteller from another world, and Brian is his Protagonist. Luckily for Brian, the Narra Torr wants rid of him too. Journeying alongside the Cockney, a magical being who does not grant wishes, and a Princess that just wants to live her own life, Brian sets off on a journey to fix the Fourth Wall—the Wall that separates Brian’s world from that of the Narra Torr’s.

What adventures will they have? What disasters and triumphs will they find? Will Brian succeed in his goal of fixing the Fourth Wall?

Today we have the pleasure of interviewing fantasy author G. J. Dunn, who is a member of Fantasy-Writers.org, an online writing group that I belong too. G. J. is a talented writer who specializes in comic fantasy—a tough niche to write braved only by the boldest and silliest fantasy writers.

At what point did you decide to be an author, and what was your path to publication?

I can remember my first attempt at writing SFF at about 13/14. I wrote an incredible story about people who could use the four elements like magic. It was only later I found out about Avatar: The Last Airbender…

I tried again at 18/19, but, for some reason, my 40k High Fantasy novel lacked depth.

I only got around to actually realising I wanted to give it a go as a hobby at about 24/25 and it took me until 28 to write my first novel and actually get some serious word-counts down. I suppose you could say that I’ve had to repeatedly decide I wanted to be an author. The path to publication of this novel was quite long. It started as a 2018 NaNoWriMo. I took it through an alpha and beta reader groups and wrote 7 drafts before circulating to agents, where I generated a lot of feedback in the realms of “this is great, but we can’t really sell it”. After that, it sat in my hard drive for a time while I worked on other projects.

Describe your writing process. Do you outline, plot, and plan, or is your writing more organic?

I’ve always been very much a fan of one informing the other. I do start out with a rough outline, maybe a sentence or two on each of the plot beats, before getting started on my first draft, but I often find that as I write that and the characters become more fleshed out, they can make decisions that I hadn’t originally planned and that impacts the plot to take it in new and interesting directions.

What are some books or authors that you would recommend to our readers?

I think a lot of praise in comic fantasy rightly goes to Terry Pratchett and to Adams for comic Sci-Fi, but there are a lot of authors who aren’t those guys writing great stuff. Zachary J Pike’s Dark Profit Saga is definitely worth a read, as is Justin Lee Anderson’s Carpet Diem. One of my other favourites is Tom Holt, who has a massive backlist of comic fantasy and also writes slightly more serious (but no less funny) fantasy. My most recommended recent read is probably How to Become a Dark Load and Die Trying by Django Wexler.

Tell us what you enjoy most about writing comic fantasy.

In the moment, it’s the joy of a joke occurring two-thirds of the way through a novel purely because you’ve grown to know the characters well enough to know that’s exactly what would happen. There are a few moments like this in Going Fourth and just the shear thrill of “obviously, that’s what happened” realisation is quite unbeatable.

In general, the thing I enjoy the most is letting myself go a bit with the characters. I think in comic fantasy you can get away with the characters being slightly less grounded than they might be otherwise and this can be so much fun to play around with.

What have you found to be most challenging about writing in comic fantasy?

Definitely the editing. All writing is subjective to an extent but humour is fully subjective and it’s very hard to walk the line of editing. Sometimes things that make me laugh aren’t things that make everyone else laugh. And sometimes very funny scenes don’t actually add to the story or move the plot forward. Having alpha and beta readers who give me an idea of which is which is a massive help.

Do you identify with your main character, or did you create a character that is your opposite?
Oh I really hope not. My protagonist, Brian, is not a heroic person at all and is relatively incompetent. I wouldn’t call him an exact opposite and he’s definitely learned a lot by the end of the novel, but I really hope there’s nothing similar between us. Although we do have the same hair do…

Describe Going Fourth in 10 words or less for people just learning about it.

It’s Monty Python’s Brothers Grimm

Do you have any odd (writing) habits?

I’m the only writer I know who can write while watching TV. A lot of people have mood music, but mine is mood television. It has to be something I’ve seen before so I don’t get engrossed in the story on screen, but I’ve found it really useful.

What has been the toughest criticism you have received as an author? What has been the best compliment?

My toughest criticism is one I received from someone in our writers group. I’d submitted a comedy flash fiction piece that I was relatively proud of (for once) and was perfectly ready to accept my well-deserved praise. Instead I got a battering over topics as far-ranging as the length and humour. The worst part about it all is that the critique was right on every single point. After a bit of moping, I internalised the feedback for the next draft and the story became my first paid publication, so it’s now quite satisfying to look back on.

The best compliment I’ve had is on my novel, Going Fourth, where one of my readers told me they’d sat down and read the book cover to cover in an afternoon.

Share some advice for aspiring authors. What advice would you give to your younger self?

I think the key thing for me is perseverance. Rejection is all around us as writers, not because the writing is bad but because of the subjectivity. That in itself can be a tough thing to work through, but the key thing in writing is to keep writing. It’s the only way to improve and it’s the best way to maximise your chances of success.

Have you ever experienced writer’s block? How did you deal with it?

I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a true “I haven’t written anything in months and I stare at an empty page for hours every night” writer’s block. I think, in part, that’s because there are solutions that work for me. The biggest and most important in my journey was giving myself permission to fail and permission to write non-linear. Write it bad. Write it terrible. Write it so it’s almost an outline rather than actual narrative. And if you can’t do that, write the next bit your excited about. Then join the dots between that bit and this bit. You can’t fix an empty page.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

My day job is developing gene therapies, which keeps me relatively busy and annoyingly interested. Other than that, I’m a big fan of distance running, so I’ll be spending at least 4-5 waking hours a week out pounding pavement with my border collie. She’ll get tired eventually…

G. J. DunnG. J. Dunn writes from a sofa in Leyland, UK. His short fiction can be found in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Every Day Fiction, and the 99 Fleeting Fantasies anthology. His debut novel, Going Fourth, is now available online. You can find him online at gjdunn.co.uk or @ridicufiction on Instagram. When not writing, he develops gene therapies, runs half marathons, and attempts to tire out his border collie, Belle. So far, he’s only succeeded with the first two.

US Amazon: Going Fourth:
Going Fourth: Amazon.co.uk: Dunn, G. J.: 9781738512904: Books
Goodreads: Going Fourth by G.J. Dunn

Images used by permission of G. J. Dunn.

The post Author Interview: G. J. Dunn is Going Fourth first appeared on Beth Turnage.

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