“Failus Washington is an aspiring Science Fiction writer for both the silver screen and paperback. He has studied Film at Johnson C. Smith University, taking several English, screenwriting, film critique, and filmmaking classes. He began writing stories as a child and continuing to do so up until he decided that he wanted to pursue storytelling through many different mediums as a career.
Failus lives in Charlotte, North Carolina after living in Stone Mountain, Georgia from 2006 to 2016, and various cities in Maryland from birth until 2006. Failus has self-published his first book on Amazon in 2019 (Blur Havok: Paragon War), published a novella in 2020 (Blur Havok: Inciting Incident) and is currently working on the second of the Blur Havok: Civil War trilogy (Blur Havok 2: The Nexus Campaign) with the final entry in the trilogy, a standalone epilogue, and a companion novel in the works. His quest to create a band of lovable characters will most likely be the death of him.”
Website: https://alastorhacon.wordpress.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blurhavokofficial/?hl=en
1.) What elements and/or characteristics made you say to yourself that you wanted to do writing for a living? Who are your influences/heroes/role models?
I have always had a love for building things. I started writing (in a sense) when I was in primary school. I was the nerdy kid in class who would make comics in his composition notebook. It wasn’t until I reached high school that I considered becoming a writer or storyteller.
My biggest role model will always be the YouTuber “MauLer”. It was in 2017 when I stumbled upon his channel and understood the idea of objectivity in art. I then ironed out some principles and rules that I keep in mind with every project I take on. But in terms of fellow storytellers, I have definitely taken inspiration from the likes of filmmakers such as Todd Howard, The Russo Brothers, and George Lucas. Their attention to characters and each of their internal journeys and how they relate to their external adventures have always inspired me.
2.) If you could compare yourself to someone who is already established in your line of work, who would that be and why? If you don’t like to compare yourself, then what separates you from other everyone else who does what you do?
I’d have to break it down a bit:
My mentality for writing dialogue would be comparable to Dan Houser (Grand Theft Auto V) and Drew Karpyshyn (Mass Effect 1 and 2); Dan because he writes his dialogue in a realistic and hard-hitting way that feels like actual people conversing and Drew because of his ability to jam-pack nearly every line of dialogue in those games with meaningful content.
My world-building is comparable to Adam Gascoine (DOOM (2016)). It may come as a shock, but the lore and world-building for both “DOOM” and “DOOM Eternal” are incredibly well thought out and deep. But most players will never come across it because it’s not part of the main gameplay. They’ve developed a whole hierarchy and society for this fictional demonic society and it intrigued me.
My plot structure is the one thing I can’t compare to anyone. I take personal pride in trying to challenge myself to write in different ways for each book. “Blur Havok: Paragon War” was all about simply publishing a book. “Blur Havok: Inciting Incident” was all about making a character empathetic, even though she commits several heinous acts throughout the book. “Blur Havok 2: The Nexus Campaign” was an act of trying to flesh out the universe, cast of characters, and also take some ideas I thought were poorly implemented in other media and try my hand at the concepts.
3.) Everyone in life goes through adversity of some sort. Is there anything in your life that has any influence on the work that you do? What is the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure on your path to becoming an entrepreneur?
Since my career is only just starting, my biggest obstacle has simply been completing the books. My current obstacle is finding exciting and successful ways to get my books into the hands of readers.
Adversity itself is an influence in my writing. The concept of adversity and struggle is the very backbone of storytelling. I often tell people that “Every superhero has an origin story. And in that story, they usually get their face kicked in”. I feel like many famous writers have forgotten this, giving their characters a free pass to success and only giving them obstacles as a response to criticism from audiences. Often, it’s far too late in the game to try and fix it at that point.
4.) How do you prepare yourself to create? What is your process?
Depending on the mood and tone of what I’m writing, I play music from a variety of sources. I think of certain songs when I write and reread scenes in my projects. These songs often get put together into Spotify playlists I like to share as a sort of celebration whenever I release a book.
Some of my favorite songs and soundtracks to listen to are: the “DOOM 2016” and “DOOM Eternal” Soundtrack, Music from the “Transformers” live-action film scores, music from the rapper Logic, the score from the film “Joker”, music by the artist FKA Twigs, and the soundtrack for “Call of Duty: WWII”.
5.) Unfortunately many industries are full of talented individuals who more or less become the “starving artist” and don’t get any recognition for their talent and/or hard work. What do you plan to do to make sure you stand out and get noticed?
As one of my favorite characters ever, Garrus Vakarian once said: “Yell loud enough, and someone will eventually come over to see what all the fuss is about.”
I by no means believe in annoying and pestering people into reading my content, but by quietly releasing your content and never pushing it and letting people know that this is something you’re passionate about, you don’t necessarily exude confidence in your abilities as an artist. And that can make a big difference.
6.) Would you rather work for a big corporation or would you rather stay independent? Why or why not? What makes one better than the other? Are you able to make a living with your art? If so, how were you able to attain a career doing what you love? If not, what do you do in order to fund your business? What advice would give to someone who’s interested in pursuing a career in the creative industry?
I feel like many people think there’s a dichotomy between staying an indie artist and being swallowed into a big corporation. There’s an alternative; a simple partnership. We see it all the time in the video game industry, publishers work with developers to release games, but developers don’t end up being assimilated by these massive corporations. CD Projekt Red is a prime example.
I currently work a 9-to-5 job to fund my artistic pursuits and keep a roof over my head. My advice would be not to leap headfirst into making your art your only source of income. It may be a few years before you can make a livable income with your art. I can attest to this with heartbreaking certainty. You should start off working a regular job with benefits and acceptable pay so that that is one less thing you need to be worrying about while creating your art.
7.) How do you think the internet and social media affected the creative industry and how artists are able to market themselves? Social media is obviously an extremely important element in today’s world, especially when it comes to business, branding, marketing, etc. With that being said, do you think an artist will be able to survive in today’s economy if they’re not social media savvy?
I’m not 100% sure an artist can survive in this landscape with absolutely zero social media presence. You can more than likely survive with just one or two platforms, however. I can’t say this from business experience, but I can speak from personal experience; there are big-name artists and content creators that don’t use certain platforms for personal or business reasons. Personally, I don’t use Twitter for my brand.
Social Media is amazing in the fact that you can be your own marketing team and advertiser. There’s a shift occurring that allows the common man or woman to create high-quality content easily through services like Kindle Direct Publishing and IngramSpark. There may be a day very soon when even movies, TV shows, and video games can be 100% developed, marketed, and published independently of any big corporation.
8.) Typically, entrepreneurs who try to create products and/or services for mass consumption for the general public and make more money are seen as “sell-outs.” Do you see it that way and if so, what do you plan to do to make sure that what you offer stays true to your brand and make a good living at the same time without having to “sell out”?
I don’t believe making content for the mass consumption automatically makes someone a “sell-out”. What makes someone a “sell-out” would be if they compromise on their beliefs, creative process, and artistic integrity to ensure maximum profit. At that point, you’ve lost your core audience and then the mass audience will then soon follow. I’ve seen it quite a few times with modern and classic franchises. I won’t name names, however. 😉
9.) What are the positives and negatives of the creative industry? What is it about the creative industry that makes some writers push forward? What do you think makes some writers quit?
One of the big positives of the creative industry is the cyclical nature of inspiration. Old classics inspire new artists who, in turn, make new classics. Some artists have the willpower to push forward because they love what they do. Many quit because they prioritize the potential result over the passion of their craft; they expect Marvel Cinematic Universe levels of success sooner rather than later.
10.) What trends do you see staying or going?”
The Cinematic Universe trend is definitely dying down. Mostly because people can feel when you are prioritizing future entries in your series over the current entry. One trend that I am seeing and absolutely love is the films that are adaptations of established brands and characters being given to directors that genuinely care about the franchise they’ve been given to work with. I saw it in “Joker”, “Bumblebee”, “Sonic The Hedgehog”, “Detective Pikachu”, and “Alita: Battle Angel”. These films may not be perfect, but you can absolutely feel the love and respect for these franchises in these movies.
11.) With so many people online who are expressing their opinions on any and everything under the sun, how do you know when to take something as constructive criticism or when to see it as trolling?
Constructive criticism can come in a number of ways, but it always has one thing: a point. I haven’t had that many reviews of my books quite yet, but I have experienced criticism in real life. Usually, constructive criticism comes from a place of well-meaning; you can feel the person criticizing you cares about you. Trolling, on the other hand, is baseless noise with no point or objective; it’s made to simply break you down and destroy your vibe. But constructive criticism is absolutely key; every editor I’ve hired, I ask them to critique the book afterward because I genuinely value differing opinions.
12.) If you were to advise an up and coming author on how to get more fans, what advice would you give them?
I honestly have no solid advice to give. Each franchise and artist has risen through different means. Some have been around for over 50 years, some cropped up overnight. You should see how Overwatch got popular. Don’t look it up at work, though. You will definitely get in trouble.
13.) There are multiple ways of attaining fans and building up your fanbase, so what are some ways you acquire fans?
I like to reach out to reviewers and ask if they would like a copy of my book for a fair and honest review. Is it cliche? Yes. But it’s one path out of many and I’m not tied down to following one path. I definitely will be expanding my options and finding new ways to reach out to people.
14.) Professionally, where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
In five years, I will be done with what I am calling the “Blur Havok: Civil War Trilogy”. I plan on taking a break from writing to really focus on advertising, marketing, and generating a core audience through public and other appearances. Once I feel comfortable with the size of my audience, I plan on jumping back into writing and expanding the type of content I create. I certainly don’t plan on stopping my writing career anytime soon.