On grief — and dying without finishing your book
Just about every time my father-in-law (above) and I talked on the phone, we began by filling each other in on whatever progress we’d made with the books we were writing. I don’t remember exactly when he decided to start working on a study of Macbeth, but I remember his interest developing and his [...]
Organizational feat, or technological boondoggle?
Organization, as you may recall, is not a virtue I possess in excess. And it depresses me when plans are drawn up and fail. So I hadn’t attempted to outline my novel draft in a couple of years. Now that the project has changed so fundamentally, though, I decided to spend a couple hours this [...]
On realizing I’ve been writing two novels, not one
Kelsey Newman, the narrator of Scarlett Thomas’ forthcoming Our Tragic Universe, aspires to literary greatness but actually ghostwrites YA thrillers. Her descriptions of the ever-evolving Serious Novel she’s been writing for years remind me so much of my own experience, laughing at them feels like an admission that I have no idea what I’m [...]
On the interconnectedness of stories and ideas
Iris Murdoch’s novels were deeply informed — if not consciously shaped — by her readings in philosophy. Walker Percy found a theoretical framework for his fiction in Kierkegaard, who also influenced Kafka.
And Donald Barthelme urged his students to choose their “literary fathers” carefully, and to be well-versed in philosophy. Hiding Man, Tracy [...]
On being intimidated by a favorite writer’s work
I’m focused on my own writing right now, thus the dearth of longer posts, slowdown in reviewing, and trickle of remainders. I feel guilty about it, if that helps.
A couple weeks ago, I was reading Rupert Thomson’s gorgeously evocative, meticulously pared-down This Party’s Got to Stop.
About a third of the way through, I [...]
Making your brain (and fingers) keep going
A friend who just finished writing a(n excellent) book in a short period of time says you have to ignore your brain when it tells you it’s done for the day. You may think you can’t keep going, but if you push on, what comes out will be even better. The next day, do [...]
Suggested writers’ agenda for January
I’ve been thinking about Saul Bellow’s notion that “art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos.”
Coincidentally, Colson Whitehead has declared this ShThFuUpAnWoOnYrNo (Shut the fuck up and work on your novel) Month. And why not? It’s winter, you’re going to be miserable anyway. What better things [...]
Fears, impulses & dangers I’ve been sensitized to
I’ve written plenty of autobiographical essays, and I’m sure I’ll continue to write them, but at the LA Times I try to explain why I’m working on a novel rather than a memoir, even though I’m mining my own life for the book. An excerpt:
When I was 12, I [...]
The silence of a falling star: on Hank Williams’ phrasing
Over the years I’ve developed a bad habit of going over sentences again and again in my fiction because they don’t quite sound right. By that I mean that the rhythm is off or the vowel sounds clash or an adjective is too bland or, worse, too “creative” in some [...]
On the melding of fact and invention in fiction II
In A.S. Byatt’s forthcoming novel, The Children’s Book, a children’s author visiting a museum in search of inspiration for a magical story she’s writing hears a great anecdote but has “the feeling writers often have when told perfect tales for fictions, that there was too much fact, too little space for the necessary insertion of [...]
In defense of agnosticism
When Bookforum relaunched its website recently, the editors introduced my favorite feature: an idiosyncratic collection of writers’ syllabi on various topics. Mine is devoted to doubt.
The narrator of my novel in progress has a storefront preacher mother and a family legacy of extremism that seem, the more she struggles against [...]
Literary quips, observations, and warnings #6
Many writers say that they write what they do because the novels they want to read don’t exist.
I don’t think about my own book quite that way, but to me one of the most frightening things about writing fiction is the corollary to this idea: namely, if you have an [...]
On the melding of fact and invention in fiction
Fiction writers who borrow from life often dodge inquiries about what’s true in their work, causing readers to see them as cagey or coy. But unless you’re writing strict autobiography and just changing names, these kinds of questions are difficult to answer honestly.
In some sections of my own book, [...]
Excerpt from my novel
An excerpt from my novel(-in-progress) is up at Narrative Backstage today, alongside audio readings from James Salter, Donald Hall, and Ann Beattie, new fiction from Richard Bausch, Stuart Dybek, Josh Weil, and Charlie Smith, new nonfiction from Rick Bass, and much more.
Originally this post included a disquisition on [...]
On the importance of what is culled
For years I’ve hoarded some of my stranger and darker experiences, with the intent of twisting parts of them into my novel. My narrator is not — and never was supposed to be — me, but I’ve inflicted many events from my own life on her. Even when [...]
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