Gregory Gottfried - On Drawing Inspiration from Real Life

While many writers sit around and wait for inspiration to strike them at their writing desks, Gregory Gottfried works for his inspiration. One of his main sources for inspiration for his debut novel or his series of screenplays he has been working on since high school is his everyday life in upstate New York. He works at the front desk of the Sheraton Tarrytown Hotel and he has worked at many different customer service positions throughout the area. Gottfried has many ways of using his everyday experiences in his writing that he swears by.



Writers like Gregory Gottfried, who know they will be using much of their everyday experiences in their writing, make a point to write down bits of interesting dialogue or thoughts they may have so they can remember the moment and use in their writing. This takes discipline work. The notion that you will remember something for later without writing it down is a myth—one that Gregory Gottfried figured out much earlier in his career. He brings a small notebook everywhere he goes so he can jot down an idea or a scene he can use later in his writing. Gottfried has drawn many critical moments and aspects of characters from his daily notes that he keeps every day when he goes to work at the hotel. Many writers keep running daily journals of everything they do, hear, or say so they have plenty of material to draw from.

Gregory Gottfried hopes to draw as many readers into his novel and other writing as possible, crafting believable characters that drive the plot of the story.

Gregory Gottfried - Finding the Best Characters for a Story

Every story, long or short, needs compelling characters that push the plot along and create the motions for the climax. Gregory Gottfried draws heavily from his everyday life and work as a customer service representative in upstate New York. Gottfried is at work on his debut novel, which he plans on publishing sometime in 2017. Gottfried is constantly reading and re-writing screenplays and drafts for his novel, which also helps to inspire him and push his plot forward.

 
Creating compelling characters takes the patience to let the characters themselves breathe and inhabit a world that the author creates for them. Gregory Gottfried started with a few characters he based on real people he has interacted with in his life, put them in impossible situations, and wrote down what happened next, similar in the way that Stephen King plots his compelling novels of the supernatural. Gregory Gottfried wants his characters to be everyday heroes and villains, people capable of immense good or evil depending on the situations they are in and the choices they make to achieve their goals. Gottfried writes to push his characters as far as they will go to see what they will do to reach their destinations and their goals. What cost will his characters pay for their chance at success? Read Gottfried’s debut novel to find out.

Gregory Gottfried is nearly finished with the manuscript for the novel and he plans on finding representation for his work soon in 2016, or he may look into self-publishing as well.

Gregory Gottfried - The Publishing Process

Gregory Gottfried is an aspiring novelist who is hard at work on his first work of fiction. He plans on releasing the novel by 2017. Gottfried isn’t afraid of going the traditional or the new way to publish his novel. The traditional way is usually longer and more difficult, but usually brings more long-term success. Authors are self-publishing their work now at a much higher rate than ever before as well. While this is an easier way to get their work into the hands of readers, self-publishing too has its own pitfalls. 

 

Gregory Gottfried hopes to get his novel published the traditional way, but he would also love to self-publish his work as well, depending on his options. For a novel to travel from the author’s mind to the bookshelves in the traditional manner, the author must first sell his or her novel to an agent. Gregory Gottfried, in the process of drafting his first novel now, has already sent samples of the work to prospective agents in NewYork City, hoping that what he has written so far will inspire one of these agents to represent him to a publishing firm there. Once an agent accepts a writer as a client, he or she will start selling it to publishers. The publisher will decide if they can sell the author’s work and offer the author a contract, from there the marketing effort begins. 

Gregory Gottfried has worked hard on his first novel and plans on publishing it himself if can’t find an agent.