Friday, November 11, 2005
yet another interview
Q: How many hours a week do you write? How many hours a week would you like to write? (a two-part question)
A: Depends on the week...can be as many as 50+ in a week, if i'm going
really well...and it can be zero...if i'm between things, if i'm busy with
work, or whatever... How many would i like to write: Hmmm. Tough one. Probably about as much as i do...though if i could work a little less, i would write more...or record more music...but i seem to get about a book a year done and that
seems to be pretty good...don't know if i could do it faster if i had more
time...
Q: You said work keeps you from writing now. Do you consider being a novelist a job?
A: yes, being a novelist is a career, if not a job...most writers i know have
at least 2 careers...the writing and what pays for the time to write, if
that makes sense...
Q: Have you ever or do you now solely value lived experience as fodder for your writing?
A: nope, i value life for life and if i can use it for matereial, so much
the better...but i don't plan, say, to take out my own appendix so that i
can write about it...
Q: What changed the intensity of your focus and drive from your twenties
to your thirties (if it changed at all)?
A: intensity of focus from 20's to 30's is easy...quit drinking when i was 27
Q: Was there ever any point at which you wanted to quit writing?
A: Hmmm...nope...it seems to be something i do...
Q: When you begin putting together a story, how does it usually evolve
(e.g. from a single line, an outline, a character sketch)?
A: Usually from a sentence...which gives me a voice...which gets me thinking about who this person speaking might be...voice is everything to me...
Q: As the single line progresses into a voice, then into a character, do the
tools you use progress as well (meaning, do you move from the couch
to your desk, from a notepad to the computer)?
A: you're not bored with my stupid answers yet? i feel like i should be more
exciting...:) pretty much always write on a computer...BUT, before (and during) then...i write on notebooks...also, the insides of books (almost all of my paperbacks have the beginnings of stories on the front and back inside covers...)...napkins and such...i put all of the scrambled notes into a
drawer in my writing desk and every once in a while look through them for
ideas for what i'm working on.
Q: I remember the way your office was set up with your desk on one side of the room and your wife's on the other. Does this encourage a support system you guys have going? Who helps you through the hard times?
A: Gayle is my person i lean on in all things writing and otherwise...and i have a good circle of friends...
Q: Do you have somewhere you go or something you do when you want to empty your mind?
A: re: somewhere to go...i like going surfing or out to the desert to clear my
head...reading is always good...and i restore vintage tube amps, which is a great different way to think for me...can get lost for hours doing it...also, playing guitar...which i do a couple of hours every day...
Q: Do you contribute any sort of diet to your success--keeping your energy level high and head focused (e.g. I once read that Alice Sebold couldn't have written her novel without tapioca and coffee)?
A: diet? hmmm...i don't eat much during the day...or when i write...used to
smoke, but not anymore...coffee...water.. .that's about it :)
Q: What role does your family play in your writing life (motivational, distraction, pain)?
A: family...hmmmm...my folks are very supportive...in general...nice, crazy folks...they let me kind of go my own path, so i've been lucky.
Q: You said you begin with voice. Do all your characters originate from voice or only your narrators?
A: The narrative voice, i think...the other characters sort of establish themselves...i had ideas, for instance, about this one character in the new book i just finished, and about 20 pages after he entered, i realized he was a totally different guy than i at first thought...so, i went back...if i allow them to talk to each other, i find stuff out...learning to listen to the words, as it were...
Q: As you've gotten better at listening to the words, do you make your editorial decisions on instinct? Or is listening more cultivating than just figuring out what to cut and revamp?
A: I think i've gotten better...but it's one of those lessons you (or i, at any rate) have to keep re-learning...the early drafts are always pretty bad...lots of fits and starts and cruddy writing...
Q: Do you ever listen to music when you write? Is there anything you've
learned as a musician that you've transported to writing?
A: always, pretty much, listen to music when i write...frequently what i'm listening to turns into what the character is listening to in the scene i'm writing-ha...so, there's a clue for people who want to know what i listened to during More Than They Could Chew...love listening...the music helps me enter that zen-space i need when i'm writing where i get very focused and tune out the rest of the world.... re: what playing music has taught me? hmmm...good one...i'd say, Listen and Don't Show Off. You are a tool, at service to a bigger whole (whether it be the song or the story...your job is to make it better, not show off how good you are...)...
Q: What about jobs?
A: wow...tons of shit jobs...lot of food service...house and industrial painter...labor pool/day labor...a lot of dull jobs...copy cops in boston...they influenced my writing in that i got to meet a wide variety of folks...and i got a sense of what people have to do for money...which is important to me in my stories...
