Festive Readers! Here’s hoping yesterday was a great Thanksgiving for those who observed Thanksgiving yesterday. I am so thankful for your readership and support!
I’m very excited to share this second video Q/A (answering questions submitted by subscribers through Chat).
These are the questions I addressed this time:
Monica: “Could you please walk us through the process of writing a short story? I’m in an MFA program and lately short stories are completely eluding me.”
Asha Indralingam: “As a writer whose work I am greatly inspired by, can you share a little bit on your novel-in-progress process? Assuming you have an idea in mind, do you just start writing and worry about plotting later? When is the right time to solicit external feedback and what could this look like? How long did it take you to write your first book?”
Tanja: “I wanted to ask how you approach the writing process where you have various ‘scenes’ of the novel but don’t have an event that links them into a coherent story. I have pieces that I want to go into the novel but don’t have that big idea/conflict that will link them together.”
Caroline Jacquie: “What is your relationship to research like? Your books (and substack) often feel deeply researched and full of knowledge. Do you usually start from the research and build a story around it or start from the story/characters and research follows?”
Hannah Frances Johansson “How do you come up with a concept for a novel?”
Mynda: “I absolutely love your work, and as a university student myself find so much relatability in your writing. As a semi-autobiographical fiction writer, how would you describe your writing process/what gives you artistic inspiration? Do you record interesting interactions/ conversations? How often are you thinking about your writing in your day-to-day interactions? Does it ever get in the way of being present in a moment?”
Thanks to everyone who submitted questions - next time I’m going to answer the ones about “autofiction.” In the meantime, love to all the writers and all the students and all the student writers!
Here’s a list of references, aka Show Notes
Earlier posts on short stories: “My Journey With Short Stories, Part I,” “Short stories, II,” and “Short Story Maps”
Anton Chekhov, “House with a Mezzanine” and “A Boring Story” (short stories)
Haruki Murakami, “Sleep” (short story)
André Alexis, “Houyhnhnm” (short story)
Osip Mandelstam, The Noise of Time (book) (free pdf here)
Cara Blue Adams, You Never Get It Back (book)
This Jungian Life (podcast)
Bruno Schultz, The Street of Crocodiles (book
Céline Sciamma BAFTA talk (video)
Isaac Babel, Red Cavalry (story cycle about the Russo-Polish War, a.k.a. Polish-Soviet War)
Isaac Babel, 1920 Diary
The Save the Cat franchise
NB Although I am not convinced that Mark Twain ever said or wrote, “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way,” that doesn’t make it any less true or poignant.
Thank you for reading/ watching/ listening!
