Hello, this is Celeste. I have been writing poems since 2017 and my low-fantasy crime novel Project Dylan since 2022. Letters for Creatives is the place where I share my thoughts on writing, creativity, resources for creatives, and interview creators and authors.

Taking advice from fellow writers and creatives | #113 Apr 18 Read full story

Jimmy Doom is an author and actor. He has won multiple awards for his acting. He was a 2022 Hour Detroit Magazine Nominee for Best Author. He has been posting his short stories on Substack, every day, which he has amassed over a thousand stories in the archive. Every story has his mark on it. His characters building is one of his competitive edge. He can manage to make you see the characters who they are, with the first paragraph. If you are one of my poetrygram friends and like Colin Tan’s work, make sure to check out Jimmy Doom’s work as well.

We talked about how he leaves his mark on his stories, character building, choosing character names and so much more.

Can you tell us about you and your work?

I started publishing daily fiction on Substack in August 2020. Acting work had dried up due to the pandemic and I wanted to challenge myself to see how many days in a row I could publish a short story. 

Many of the friends who had followed my work on Medium and knew me from the Detroit acting, music and cultural scene were early subscribers and I didn't want to let them down. 

There is a great deal of variety in my work, but I do love to tell stories of people on the fringes—the homeless, street musicians, addicts, criminals. 

I grew up in Detroit and worked in the city much of my life in the bar and restaurant industry, as well as the nearly mandatory stint most Detroiters have in an auto plant. I prefer writing about people who have been overlooked or underappreciated to writing about slick spies or private detectives in Armani suits.

Street corners have better stories than boardrooms.

Addicts are just as marginalized as some of the marginalized communities that have been embraced in recent years.

Where can we find your work online and offline?

I have published two collections of my work, Humans, Being: A Story a Day for a Year and That Fountain Ain't Gonna Grant Your Wish.

The only place to read my fiction is on Jimmy Doom's Roulette Weal Substack.

You have been posting your stories on Substack daily. How can you manage to do that?

The daily writing has been an immense challenge, but also a ton of fun. There is a daredevil aspect to it: "Will he publish again today?" 

Sometimes it has been daunting and there has been a sense of pressure, but that is mostly due to everyone's nemesis: The clock. 

If all I had to do every day is write, it would be much easier. COVID took me out for five days in December 2021 but since then I am on a 859 day daily streak. Even when I have had 14-hour days on movie sets, my subscribers have gotten a story because they pay money and I don't want to let them down.

Do you submit your work to literary magazines and other places?

I do not submit to literary magazines. Here is my impression of literary magazines:

Please send us 38 dollars and a short work of fiction between 412 and 6002 words in 11.37 reverse Helvetica Dominatrix font. We will review the work and if we deem it worthy of a response, you may receive a rejection letter within 9-14 months unless you have violated rules we have outlined in our March 2012 issue. 

In the unliklely occurrence that we accept your work, our next publication window is January 2039 when we will be publishing a limited edition run of 74 copies to be distributed to professors at small South American Bible Colleges.

Yeah, no thanks. I will publish my work every day on Substack and let the world read it and enjoy it.

You have chosen quite uncommon names for your characters. Kaddri, Dorvik Kzmat, Terrence Taldin and so on. Did you get them from your friends, eavesdropping or Google?

As far as character names go, I make them up in my own head, trying to grab them from various ethnic origins. As most of my stories are set in America, we really do have a rich melting pot of names that traveled from other areas of the world and may have been completely reworked at Ellis Island. 

My readers tell me character names are a strong suit of mine. I read other writer's work and sometimes I feel like they didn't put enough effort into naming the character. If you are a fiction writer and struggle with naming characters, one suggestion I have is watching movie credits and mixing and matching the names. You should always stay for the credits anyway because the people behind the scenes work harder than the people on camera. Trust me. I work very hard at what I do, but the average gaffer will put in 200X my hours and sweat.

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You have been so prolific posting your stories. Do you have any tricks or routines that help you write so much?...