When did you first know that you were a writer? What aspects of your childhood propelled you toward this career?
I was always a huge bookworm. I read Nancy Drew books in my room while my sisters made lemonade stands and rode their bikes. (Until my father took them away after he found me hacking a hole in our bathroom wall -- I claimed there was a hollow place in which, I was sure, a secret note was hidden.)
In retrospect, I think I always felt a bit outside of things -- like an observer rather than a participant. This stance has been useful to me as a writer. It wasn’t until college that I let myself imagine I could be a novelist myself. I still read a book every few days . . . when I’m without something to read, I feel completely bereft.
How was writing your second and third novels different from writing your first? Has it gotten easier, or have you found that you simply confront different challenges?
It is always very hard. I have more confidence now, and more people who are willing to hear me out when I have a crazy idea or odd obsession, but writing a novel is just a long, slow process. I keep thinking I must have learned something by now -- there must be a way I can skip ahead, do without the hundreds of discarded pages. But the main thing I have learned is to wait for the story to take shape, to have faith in the scenes that seem alive, to know that they will lead me to the heart of the book.
Luckily, I love the process. I love sitting alone and typing. There’s a great cartoon about a man who’s looking at writers in heaven and hell. In hell, they are all chained to typewriters, working. In heaven, it’s the same, but the man is told, “The difference is, they have a contract.”
You wrote part of Forgive Me at an inn in Massachusetts. How long did you spend there, and what did an inn offer that an apartment or rented room would not have?
The first thing I did when I sold Forgive Me as a partial manuscript was look for somewhere to write. If I could have a permanent seedy motel room to write in, that would be my dream. I love motels. They are filled with ghosts, with secrets, with burning moments.
I emailed a number of places, looking for a place to write Forgive Me. The wonderful Don Filiault at the Beach Breeze Inn rented me a room for the winter. (The Beach Breeze is a lovely inn, about as far as you could get from a seedy motel.) Each morning, I shared coffee with Walt Sullivan, Oatz the dog, and anyone who was doing winter renovations. Then I got down to work. When I brought them a copy of the book while I was on tour this summer, they said, “So you really were writing a book! We thought maybe you were just a nut job.”
You advise writers to “set aside a desk for writing.” What is your workspace like at home?
Unhappily, there is no off-season in Austin, TX, where I live now, so I can’t afford a room at an inn. I have been pondering an Airstream trailer or something, but in the meantime I write in a corner of our renovated attic, overlooking a place where my kids play pirate ship. I have photos of the space on my website.
Working at home is not ideal for me…I am a mess, and I like to have my notes and photographs all over the place, which isn’t good when you have two boys wandering around.
How much time do you typically take between novels? How much time do you spend researching, on average, before you start writing?
This depends completely on the book. I tend to write while I’m researching. I never take time off -- though it’s hard to get work done while on tour. That said, I just spent a day writing at the Cincinnatian Hotel last week. I wrote and ate four-way Skyline chili. I can’t shut off the part of my brain that thinks about novel-writing. Even when I’m not actually typing, I’m wondering what my main character would think about what I’m doing. I guess this is a little strange.
How do you balance writing and motherhood? How has being a mother changed your writing (if it has)?
Being responsible for and madly in love with my boys has changed everything for me. For one thing, I can’t bear certain stories . . . dark stories, books about bad things happening to children. For another, I am just rapt when I hear about how women balance life and love and work. It’s an endless mystery. But it’s not considered a “cool” or even “important” topic to write about. While I love to talk about it, even I shy away from buying books about moms -- I want to read about sex and war.
I find myself thinking I want to write about motherhood, and then stopping myself. I am a huge fan of Helen Simpson, a British writer who writes acidly and thoughtfully about what she calls “the indoor world.”
In terms of balance, let’s just say my son is still in his pajamas, watching cartoons as I type. I’ve gotten used to doing things distractedly. I’m trying to make the most of this time, and the fact is, I’ll have decades when my sons don’t want to talk to me at all and I can write all day in a cabin in the woods.
What advice do you have for people who are just starting out as writers?
Have faith. Surround yourself with people who believe writing is important. Fall in love with writers and read everything they’ve done. Be kind to yourself…if you write a page, you deserve to feel proud. And lastly, know that it is possible to make a living as a writer. It’s hard, but it happens, and it’s a great life.
What are you working on now? I have a vision of two women -- a young mother and a much older woman, in her late eighties. They are sharing a drink and talking late into the night in some dim bar. I am trying to figure out who they are and what they say to each other.
Read more from the "How I Write" series.
