Write On! interviews writer Tim Roberts
Tim Roberts is a writer of role-playing games and short fiction. He also runs an independent publishing house that curates unique voices from across the globe. His writing and games have won several awards, including the Faber and Faber QuickFic Prize, the Kilburn Literary Festival Short Story award, and the tabletop gaming industry’s most prestigious award: ‘The Ennie.’ He remains committed to mentoring new talent and convincing everyone that they can write great stories.
WO: How would you describe your writing to someone new to it?
TR: My writing is a good example of the diverse opportunities available to writers. I create tabletop role-playing games for a living, which means I get to build worlds, breathe life into the characters that inhabit them, and introduce objectives and conflicts. I then wrap that up in storytelling games. In essence, I spend my days creating tools that enable others to tell stories.
WO: Can you tell us a bit about your latest project, Folk Hero?
TR: I’m usually working on a few projects at a time, most of them just in their early stages, but one will be the dominant project. Currently, it’s Folk Hero, a follow-up to a songwriting game I created last year called Punk Is Dead. Folk Hero is a solo version of that game, which sees you travelling around a post-apocalyptic version of the UK with just your guitar and a message. Like many of my games, it has a desperate backdrop, but is infused with hope, which in this game is conveyed specifically through music and songwriting. Folk Hero is a solo journalling game in which you write out your story as you play. I love creating solo games as it’s my way of sneakily proving to people that they can write by hiding it inside a fun game. That’s correct, you can write and have fun at the same time.
WO: What inspired you to write in the first place, and what inspires you now?
TR: When I was young, I was an avid reader, likely because I was an only child and a latchkey kid, so I didn’t have many distractions. By the time I was 13, I was devouring horror classics by writers like Stephen King and Clive Barker. I’d never really considered writing anything myself until I fell ill around the age of 19. I had to spend six weeks in bed, and to help relieve the boredom, I signed up for a book club. The first book they sent me was What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver. I’m going to admit that I didn’t like it at first. Story after story, I felt like I was missing something. So, of course, I went and reread them all, multiple times, each time picking out a new detail and realising that I was going to have to do work to engage with his writing. It was a whole new kind of reading experience for me — the dirty realism of Carver’s short stories as opposed to the fantastical genre fiction I had grown up on. It opened up my tastes in reading, and from there, it gave me an unscratchable itch to try to place my hopes, fears, and dreams in the format of short stories.
These days, as a professional writer, everything inspires me: music, other writers, overheard conversations, and the convergence of two random thoughts — the input for our creative writing output is all around us. The real skill is tuning in to it. Of course, the other thing that inspires me to write is the opportunity to look after my family without having to get a ‘real job.’
WO: Recently Write On! explored the theme of ‘Mindset.’ What helps you get into the right frame of mind to write? Do you have any tips to prevent your mindset from being disrupted?
TR: Belief in yourself is an essential but elusive skill to have as a writer. And that means seeing yourself as a writer, regardless of what stage you are in that journey. You also have to be selfish. That may mean telling someone you love that you need to be left alone to write. It also means you must write for yourself and not for anyone else. Always write something that you want to see in the world; forget the audience. As Stephen King says, you’ll be surprised at how many people there are like you out there!
WO: What one piece of advice would you give an aspiring writer?
TR: Trust the process. That effectively means write anything, even when you’re not feeling it. Just write. No one has to see it. And, if your writing leads somewhere, follow it, don’t force it to go anywhere and do not give up on it. Ask the story what it needs and keep going. Most of my first attempts are absolute crap. But I’ve come to have confidence that the multiple iterations of edits will sculpt it into something I can be proud of. And that comes through trusting the process.
WO: Question from Instagram user: @lisalovesbooksx – Which aspects of self-publishing are the trickiest?
TR: Short answer: Capitalism. Longer answer: all the things that are the business end, and are not writing. You need to set aside time to work on things like marketing, cash flow and all your other business responsibilities. The dream is that, eventually, you will sell enough of your work to pay people who enjoy doing that kind of stuff to do it for you.
WO: Can you tell us anything about future projects?
TR: Yes and no. I have numerous projects at various stages, but I am most excited about pushing the boundaries of role-playing games. I’m currently formulating ideas for epistolary games where you play by email, text message or even good old-fashioned postal letters. I also want to try my hand at screenwriting, comic book scripts, and more short stories. The ones I can’t tell you about are the ones I don’t know about yet, which will descend from the ether into my brain around two am one morning.
WO: Lastly, if you could choose one fictional animal/creature to be a pet or companion, who would it be and why?
TR: A crow. Primarily because they gave me my big break with my solo journalling game, Be Like A Crow. I’m not superstitious, but whenever I see crows, I feel like things are going to be good. I’m sure they will come to collect their royalties one day.
You can find out more about Tim Roberts here www.criticalkit.co.uk/creators/tim-roberts and connect with them on Instagram @critkituk. Folk Hero and all other titles mentioned are available to buy from www.criticalkit.co.uk
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Issue 27 of Write On! is out now and you can read it online here. Find it in libraries and other outlets. You can find previous editions of our magazines here.
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