about meeting famous authors
I think a lot about how to write—both because I’m trying to teach other people how to do it and because I’m trying to figure it out myself. So imagine my pleasure when last week I got to hear two quite respectable authors talk about their own processes. One was Arthur Phillips, whose new novel, The Song is You, was just reviewed on the front page of The New York Times, and the other was Lee Child, whose Jack Reacher series of thrillers is one of the most popular out there.
Arthur Phillips was leading a workshop at a Just Words program at the Greenwich Arts Council (and I’ll be teaching a workshop there myself on point of view on May 21). He spoke about the “Mysteries of Structure,” giving a fascinating analysis of how he’d come to construct his four books. He wrote each book in a different way, in one case starting off because he had a feeling about a city he wanted to convey. In another case knowing the ending scene and needing to figure out how to get there. What I found interesting was that he described structuring as though it was a whole separate process—just as you might set aside time to consider a particular character, he set aside time to think about structure. Where should the book begin? End? This seems obvious, and yet it’s very different than the organic approach that many people, myself included, use, which is to set a character in motion and see where she goes.
Lee Child spoke at a meeting of the Westchester Library Association (at which I was honored by receiving a Washington Irving award, which was a great great thrill.) He spoke about how he gets his ideas for his novels and said that he needs three intersecting ideas to get his novels going. For example, in his newest novel, he got one idea from finding out that there was a (secret, I think) list of twelve characteristics of terrorists. If a police officer found a character exhibiting all twelve traits, he was required to act. The other idea came from his niece, who thought up a name that sparked his interest, and the third idea I forget. But the important thing was that he required himself to have three ideas before starting.
Interestingly, both men became most enthusiastic when responding to the question of which authors had influenced them—in the case of Phillips it was Vladimir Nabokov, and in the case of Child, Alistair MacLean. It reminded me, at the end of the day, all writers are people who like to read. And that’s the best process of all.
How about you? What’s your writing process?
June 26th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Hi Susan,
I think there are almost as many writing processes as there are writers. If only there were an exact formula. Still, it’s interesting to hear how some writers go about their work. Edward P. Jones said he spent 10 years thinking about The Known World and 1 year writing it. Toni Morrison also starts with the end and then figures out how to get there.
For me, I usually have a strong image to start with, and my writing is about trying to figure out what that image could mean. For example, I was out for a walk one day, and I saw a tree with purple flowers blooming from what looked like gnarled joints. I had this amazing image flash through my mind of a person’s hand suddenly sprouting flowers. It took me a while, but I finally sat down and wrote a story about a sculptor with ALS who tries to commit suicide. Instead, she be
June 26th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
oops. I hit enter too soon. Anyway, she literally blooms to escape her inability to move and to sculpt, much like stone transcends various stages to become whatever it is in the moment.