Calgary author and Alberta Order of Excellence inductee talks quirky writing strategies and mining the world for ‘gems’

Will Ferguson says some of his best fictional works began with a little something he heard or read about in real life.

That’s exactly how the Calgary author and recent inductee to the Alberta Order of Excellence describes how his novel 419 began, his imagination taking it from there.

“My first instincts are usually comedic and when I read an article about people sending hundreds of thousands, mortgaging their houses and losing their houses for these weird internet scams and, like everyone else, I thought ‘I would never fall for that, how can people be so dumb?'” Ferguson says.

“But they’re not dumb. They’re trusting.”

On the original idea for the novel, he says, “Wouldn’t it be funny if there really is this exiled Nigerian prince who has seven million dollars and no one will take it?'”

But after speaking to fraud investigators with Calgary police, the story took a twist.

“They just told me horrific, tragic stories of people whose lives were destroyed and ruined, who committed suicide or lost everything. And I thought this is not comedic at all.”

And that story like many set out to answer — what would happen next?

“What if it was someone I loved, how would you go about getting revenge?”

As a travel writer, Ferguson gathers gems for his works from around the world.

His first novel, Happiness, was launched by an amusing encounter right here in Calgary.

“I’d been writing non-fiction, I believe it was Beauty Tips From Moosejaw — or, no, it was Bastards and Boneheads, a scientific book I wrote about Canadian leaders,” Ferguson says.

“I was touring and there was another author and it was a self-help book about how to connect with other people. And I met her, I think four times in three days and she didn’t remember my name one time, and she wrote a book about how to connect with people which I thought was funny.”

His story in a snapshot?

“It’s actually a self-help book that actually solves all your problems and then the world ends,” he says.

Ferguson says he always loved travel and writing so combining the two makes sense.

“My father had said to me when I was young and kind of restless — try to figure out what you love to do and then try to figure out a way to get somebody else to pay you to do that so travel writing came naturally. So, I began in travel and moved into fiction.”

Every writer, no doubt, has their own approach.

Ferguson relies on colour-coding his characters for his fictional pieces as they develop.

“I write time germs of idea for scenes. Some of it is … you just think about moments they might have. You lay them about and then you shuffle about and then put them in order. It’s more about making sure there is a balance of the characters. If you have a big cluster of green that means you are spending too much time with one character … if you have too much yellow over here it means that character.  It’s just a visual way to outline what it’s about,” he says.

“I always start out with a very clear idea. But by the time it’s done, it’s confetti.”

He concedes it’s obsessive and can get out of hand.

But the process works.

“I think I’m single-handedly keeping the Post-it note industry in business,” he says.

Earlier this month, Ferguson was one of eight Albertans honoured with the Alberta Order of Excellence.

Listen to the full interview with Ferguson below.

Full-Will-Ferguson-interview