"Hey, J.F Sindel!" as I imagine the wildly rabid fan calls out to me who just adores everything I write, even if I write it in a half drunk stupor.
"What? Oh. Right. Alias. Or pseudonym, as the great writers call it. More like DON'T "sue-the-name"." I reply back and this rabid fan blinks at me but he loves my puns because everyone loves my puns. Even the bad ones (but secretly there are no bad puns).
The wildly rabid fan, as he worships me because I clearly would never type a word like "pseudonym" into Google for a spell check because I am just so good with words, wants to ask me questions that BILLIONS of fans from the Earth over have demanded answers to and he was the lucky one who got to ask me.
1. Where do you get your inspiration?
Back of a cereal box? Preferably the ones with cartoon characters. Those look snappy.
Okay, I suppose for a more deluxe answer. Inspiration comes from life. Enough of philosophy bullshit! Inspiration comes from real life events and surroundings. It is my utter belief that you should write what you observe, even if you observe nothing at all.
Real life is more terrifying, funny, and romantic than we're led to believe. As you notice, a lot of stories have real places (Koscuisko, San Antonio, New Braunfels, etc). You can Google every location and find it. Personally, that makes it so much more terrifying. You can attach it to something real and it becomes real.
2. Why Texas?
I live in Texas might be someone's first blush.
But I also think Texas is so large, with so much country in between, that it feels like a foreign place to a lot of people outside of Texas. And even residents of Texas! There's a difference between San Antonio and Dallas, believe me, and we know the difference.
3. Are your stories true?
Absolutely. Unless you're a lawyer and in that case, I'm a spambot. Beep boop.
4. Can I read/film your stories?
Yes! You're welcome to do so but if you make or sell or claim a profit, then I request that you pay me what is owed and by that, I mean you need to sacrifice bowls of buffalo chicken dip or monetary gain.
But I actually welcome and appreciate people reading my stories. I feel they are better read out loud since most of first-person narrative and require intense feeling. For instance, "Breathing Exercises" is a very emotionally wrought piece with brutal anger.
Don't just read the story, act the story. That's really all I request.
5. Do you have any advice?
Act like me all the time. Become me. Eat my flesh, bones, and hair.
Well, if you want it to be easier. Write from your life first. Don't attempt the supernatural or freaky deaky because you saw a horror movie and it was "sick bro".
Horror films have themes to it. My favorite horror film of all time is actually not terrifying: Candyman. It still, to this day, has the best story I've seen in a horror film if not one of the best out there. But it has a running theme: fear, legacy, love, and betrayal. If you take out the supernatural elements, it still maintains a true sense of reality.
So if you feel like you aren't getting noticed, look at your life first. What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of someone coming into your room and killing you? Are you afraid of getting a phone call about how your mom died? Are you afraid of rejection, of laughter, of being made a fool?
Write the mundane stories first. Your life is not boring.
Then go to scary, if that's what you want to do.
Creepypasta writers take mundane for granted, even foolish. But it's the mundane that terrifies us daily: the guy who looks normal and snaps, killing ten people out of the blue. The person who accidentally discharges a gun and shoots a kid in the face. Our cars having a minor factory defect and spinning out of control, killing all passengers. Someone undercooks the roast beef and it kills her cheating husband by concidence.
These things happen in real life and these things are what most people are truly afraid of instead of the boogeyman going "SPOOKY SPOOKY SPOOKY" while doing jazz hands.
Then if you want to go further, go supernatural. Go to the bizarre. But don't forget your mundane history. Don't forget that people want to feel it real before they accept the unreal.
6. What movie scares you?
Helter Skelter.
7. You write differently than other creepypasta writers.
Possibly true. I use way more paragraphs than is allowed, I think.
8. What does "J.F Sindel" stand for?
The world is a mystery and there's no answer on page 112, I'm afraid.