Jenny D linked the other day to this book excerpt in the Guardian. It's several authors explaining, "how they write". As I have been struggling a bit lately with the blahs (not blocked, just blahed), I was intrigued to see what published authors had to say.
I gotta tell ya - some of this is weird.
Jane Smiley likes hot water. I like hot water too - maybe I like it too much and have gotten too used to it. I take a hot shower every day, doesn't Jane? Showers are awesome, love showers. But for inspiration - not so much.
I liked that Jake Arnott is inspired by his grandmother's life and Douglas Copeland's chocolate cure is a nice one. (I can guarantee you this does not work for me, but I like the excuse of trying to find a way to make it work....) But I don't get Jonathan Franzen, the squeaky chair and talking to an empty room. I also don't know how he doesn't know that he's been talking out loud. But the really weird one is Jay McInerney and his axe:
This is an Acheulian hand axe, approximately a half-million years old, crafted by Homo erectus, which was given to me by my friend, Anthony Hamilton Russell, who found it on his farm in Walker Bay, South Africa.
The design of this hand axe was pretty consistent for more than a million years. I like to heft it and hold it between paragraphs. It fits the palm beautifully. It reminds me of a friend and a beautiful landscape; sometimes I try to imagine its maker and his world.
That has to be made up. He might have that axe but I really doubt that it provides inspiration. I mean an axe? Am I the only one who finds this just a bit too conveniently strange and exotic? (Wouldn't want to write that you have a cup of coffee and go for a walk when you're struggling - oh no! You must heft the prehistoric axe!)
Why am I so not surprised that it was McInerney with the axe? Please.
As for me - I talked to my agent on Friday and she would like 50 pages of the memoir sooner rather than later. And since I desperately want to keep this woman happy (she is the only one who thinks my book is wonderful right now that isn't related to me), I am now a power writer. I did break through the blahs right before our conversation however and wrote a full chapter, "Chasing Wolves" Thursday night. It's about a friend who flew into a mountain on a bright sunshiny day. I wanted to explain how some crashes happen even when it seems like they shouldn't. Even when you can't imagine how they could. So one essay-chapter down and many more to go. But I'm writing, and that's what matters.
As for the cure - credit Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Melissa Etheridge and the deep impression made on me by Christopher Barzak's haunted house story in Interfictions. Good tv, good music, good writing. Screw the axe, just give me creativity at its finest and I'm back; just give me something to love and I'm ready to do some work.
April 16
2007
10:51 AM
HAH! An axe!?
I wish the chocolate worked, too. But alas, no. And fondling an axe doesn't... er, cut it. I do read out loud to myself, but only when I'm trying out dialogue, and I do always KNOW it.
Either way - glad you're back, and I wanted to say that I appreciate all of your work on our other blogging stuff! Cheers!