Six Simple Questions With Naomi Benaron

Welcome to Six Simple Questions With...

This is the sixth post in a series aimed at providing insight and knowledge to readers and aspiring authors alike.

Previous guests include Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Philipp Meyer, Pulitzer Prize finalist Lee Martin, and Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz.

Today's guest is Naomi Benaron, whose beautiful new novel Running the Rift just won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction.

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Naomi Benaron is a professor of fiction...but she is also a student of fiction. How do I know? Read her answers to these six simple questions - or better yet, read her new novel, Running the Rift, which takes a close, personal, painful look at the genocide in Rwanda. It seems like you cannot turn anywhere without glimpsing this book these days - and for good reason: Benaron takes on a gigantic subject in Running the Rift, and she does so in such a personal manner (i.e., small-scale focus) that you feel the individual emotion of the tragedy yourself (not just pain - but struggle as well: fighting against the all-powerful inevitable), while also witnessing the pure, grand scope of it. Need more of an endorsement for Benaron's powerful novel? Well, how about this...

Here Are Six Simple Questions
with Naomi Benaron:

1) Do you write each day, or do you write "when the mood strikes"?

I write every day, even if it's just a little poem or an essay. Lately, it's been difficult to focus on my new novel as there is always one more thing that needs attention. I am a very, very slow writer. Writing sometimes consists of eking out a page and then e-ripping it to shreds teh following day.


2) Do you have a "writing spot," or do you move around?

Writing spot. Definitely. Anchored to my chair in my office, which is nice because it looks out over the mountains. The view provides a little bit of relief when I get too crazy.


3) What is the one book (written by someone else) you wish you had written yourself?

One book? That's too tough. I'm going to follow Junot Diaz's example and give you three. SNOW, by Orphan Pamuk (in Turkish, of course)Women WITHOUT MEN, by Shahrnush Parsipur (in Persian) and THE LAND OF GREEN PLUMS, by Herta Muller.


4) What is the one book you feel every aspiring author should read?

Every book. Aspiring authors should read every book they can.


5) What is the best writing advice you have ever heard/read?

Write every day and keep writing. Always keep writing.


6) What is the best advice you can give to aspiring authors?

Trust in yourself and write for yourself.

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"Write every day and keep writing. Always keep writing."

Check out Naomi Benaron's Bellwether Prize winner,
Running the Rift


[And be sure to check out the other Six Simple Question posts as well.]

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Not Even Great Writers Are Great All The Time...

Random Writing Thought:

Not even great writers are great all the time. Some days, they are great. Some days, they are mediocre. Some days, they are even less than that. If you want to create something great as a writer, you do not need to be great every day; rather, you need only enough great days in close proximity to one another. Then, once you throw out the bad stuff, you will be left with something great.


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Thoughts On Multitasking

Sometimes, I'll be telling my fiancé a story, and I'll look over and realize she is pounding away at that little keyboard on her phone. And I'll pause so she can finish. And she'll pause and look at me and repeat everything I just said.

Oh.

Apparently females can type and listen at the same time.

Guys can't do that (at least, most guys can't do that) - and probably, not even all women can do that. But for some reason, it seems like far too many aspiring authors try to do this.

Twitter and writing.

Working and writing.

Web browsing and writing.

Hanging out with people and writing.

Pausing writing to pick up the phone and chat with someone and going back to writing and pausing writing to read an email and going back to writing and pausing writing to respond to a text and going back to writing and...

My challenge to you: Just write.

Practice that, for a day. For a week. Shield yourself from all the excess stuff. Hide from the world. Disable your web browser and turn off your phone. Shut down your email. Write.

What do you think? Do you do this already?

Do you think it's okay to write while doing other things?



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Six Simple Questions With Stewart O'Nan

Welcome to Six Simple Questions With...

This is the fifth post in a series aimed at providing insight and knowledge to readers and aspiring authors alike.

Previous guests include Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Philipp Meyer, Pulitzer Prize finalist Lee Martin, and Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz.

Today's guest is Stewart O'Nan, who is regarded as one of the consummate 'author's authors,' and whose new book The Odds: A Love Story just came out a couple days ago (January 19, 2012!). I have not yet had the pleasure of reading this book, but if I know anything about Stewart O'nan - and I do - I can tell you with absolute certainty this book will be worth picking up!

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My first introduction to Stewart O'Nan came about five years ago, when - as a Red Sox fan - I picked up the book Faithful, in which Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan chronicled their journey as fans throughout the 2004 Red Sox season (yes - that 2004 Red Sox season, the one when they won their first World Series in 86 years; boy, old Stephen King sure has a knack for these kinds of things). I knew little about O'Nan before I picked up that book, but when I finished I wanted to know more.

My next O'Nan book was A Prayer for the Dying, and I have been in adoration of Mr. O'Nan ever since.

O'Nan may not make the money Stephen King makes (who does? - hey, he still makes a full-time living as an author, which is something many dream of achieving without ever getting there!), but he is one of those authors who every other author loves to read. He knows the craft; he handles the tools in an expert manner and produces expert products. He's like the Velvet Underground of authors...if that means anything to you.

But enough about my thoughts on the guy. How about the guy's thoughts on writing...

Here Are Six Simple Questions
with Stewart O'Nan:

1) Do you write each day, or do you write "when the mood strikes"?

Every day, when I've got something going.


2) Do you have a "writing spot," or do you move around?

I like my desk best, but I can write anywhere.


3) What is the one book (written by someone else) you wish you had written yourself?

I couldn't have written my books without the books of Ray Bradbury and Stephen King and Virginia Woolf and William Maxwell, but I don't wish I'd written them.


4) What is the one book you feel every aspiring author should read?

The book that makes you want to write.


5) What is the best writing advice you have ever heard/read?

From Russell Banks:  The ones who make it are the ones who stick with it.


6) What is the best advice you can give to aspiring authors?

Read, read, read.

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"The ones who make it are the ones who stick with it."

Check out Stewart O'Nan's new novel,
The Odds: A Love Story; I know you'll be happy you did!


[And be sure to check out the other Six Simple Question posts as well.]

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Mutter Under Your Breath That I'm An Idiot...

Last night, I sent an email to a brilliant Brooklyn businessman (hey, cool - alliteration!) whose clothes you have probably worn (I mean, you haven't worn his clothes - you've worn the clothes he sells). He has tossed questions my way before, asking about writing (and whatnot), and in an email he sent me a few days ago, he asked if I had any thoughts on 'how to get the wheels going' - that is, how to actually sit down and start something.

This is (the pertinent part of) my response:

As for writing stuff - yes, "getting started" truly is the hardest part! Especially if you have a number of ideas from which to choose (which, surmising from your statement of "just picking an idea and running with it," seems to be the case for you). My advice: Just write! Again, the hardest part is starting - but once you start, the hardest part will be stopping. You might write for months and find that what you churned out during that time is, in fact, useless. But no matter! You've been writing, and you can keep writing, and eventually, one of the ideas will hit.

Another piece of advice (that I could take myself!) is to finish your projects. Once you start something, see it through until the end, because you never really know how good something is until you finish it and set it aside and come back to it in a few weeks.

And finally, my advice is this: Don't listen to me.

What I mean by that is, writing is a solo journey, and it's perfectly fine for different writers and authors to disagree with one another! Figure out what works for you, and if you find that what works for you is different from what works for me, mutter under your breath that I'm an idiot, and go your own way.


Don't listen to me, but...

Just start writing. See what happens.



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The Great Thing About Books Is...We Never All Agree

One thing that is great about being a reader is that each of us have our own opinions - about what we like, about what is good, about what was worth reading and what we want to recommend to others.

That's one of the great things about being an author, also. Even those who like the same types of books can have greatly disparate opinions on any particular book.

Today, I came across these two new review of The Great Lenore on Goodreads:


Review 1: (2 stars)

Just finished the Great Lenore. I'm not sure what made her great. Everyone was in love with her, she collected men like some collect stamps. A quick but flat read.


Review 2: (5 stars)

Let me tell you a funny story about what happened to me on my way to the grocery store…

It’s around 10am, and I’m walking out of my house to my car, and the mailman is just coming up my walkway with a box. I go back inside to open it, (because, hey, you know, I have a strict “no package left behind” policy), and much to my delight it’s my copy of The Great Lenore.

Well, I’ve been dying to get my hands on this book, so I figured I’d sit down for a couple of minutes and just read “a couple of chapters”. Whet my appetite a little….

“Somewhere a clock ticked. Somewhere, time disappeared.”

Well, when next I looked up (after finishing the book in its entirety), it’s 7:30 pm, and I guess I’d better start scrounging something for dinner, since I never made it to the grocery store.

If you read one book this year, Hell, in the next TEN years, read The Great Lenore. I’m going to find some food and write a proper review for this incredible novel.

Did I fly? Oh, yes I did JM.

"Too Much."




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