Why We Write by Meredith Maran

 

 

 

I just picked up Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors on How and Why They Do What They Do by Meredith Maran and I've been enjoying the entries on the various authors tremendously. (I admit I've been skipping around instead of reading straight through.) 

Most writers have tried to answer the question at some point, either formally on a grant application or informally, of why they write.  Some will say there is a “right” answer but I believe it is a very personal answer, and in this book we hear those answers from 20 well-known authors. 

For authors, you may also glean some ideas from the portion about “how” they do what they do. Years ago, Terry McMillan picked up a job application for McDonald’s and fills it out for every single character in her books.  She goes further though. “I create a five-page profile for every one of my characters so I know everything about them: what size shoes they wear, if their hair is dyed, if they bounce checks, have allergies, what they hate about themselves, what they wish they could change, if they pay their bills on time.”

Now, maybe this isn’t completely necessary but I can sure see the benefit.  I’ve always been something of a “method” writer, getting inside the character and writing from the inside out.  I need to know whether my character would really do the things that I’m writing for them.  Will it ring true for the reader?  I figure if I really know my character, I can put them in a situation and I will know what they will do, how they think and how they will react.

I think it would be of interest to anyone who wants to know more about these particular writers or how writers work in general and there’s a good variety of authors – Isabel Allende, David Baldacci, Jennifer Egan, James Frey, Sue Grafton, Sara Gruen, Kathryn Harrison, Gish Jen, Sebastian Junger, Mary Karr, Michael Lewis, Armistead Maupin, Terry McMillan, Rick Moody, Walter Mosley, Susan Orlean, Ann Patchett, Jodi Picoult, Jane Smiley and Meg Wolitzer.

It’s a fascinating look and, potentially, a useful one.



Foreign Devil Girl in Hong Kong by Ruth Epp

Foreign Devil Girl in Hong Kong

By Ruth Epp

Ruth Epp knew she wanted to go to China from childhood.  She didn’t know exactly what sparked the call but it was there as long as she could remember.  Her chance came in 1959, at age 22, when an English missionary born and raised in China, Vera McGillivray, invited her to come out. 

At first she was simply excited, but she would be gone for five years and eventually she realized how much of her family life she would be missing, on the other side of the world for so long. 

I had never thought of all that would be happening in my family during the five years I expected to be away – weddings, babies, graduations, illnesses, maybe even deaths – and I would be too far away to know and share these things with them. I wouldn’t even have a phone!

Still, Ruth stayed true to her early dream and prepared herself for the journey.  There were certain things she couldn’t prepare for though, such as arriving a whole week ahead of schedule and having to find Vera with the help of the first engineer from her ship and a taxi driver who spoke very little English.

Ruth found her way and as she went into the village with Vera, she describes the experience as a homecoming, “I had the strangest feeling that I had come home and that I belonged in this place – a place whose name I didn’t even know how to pronounce.”

I was struck by the connection she drew between feeling embarrassed as a teen for not having much as the child of a preacher but now feeling embarrassed for having so much more than the people she was living among.

“The closer I got to my neighbors, the more I saw that though I couldn’t help very much with the problems that poverty caused, the love and life that came from Jesus could make a huge difference in their heart and spirit.  And I was here to help them find him – through talking about him, and by real friendship and acts of love and kindness when they needed it.”

Learning the language was certainly not easy, “The young guys at church who knew some English would hoot with laughter at my mistakes.  It was friendly laughter, and they were on my side, but I still hated to be laughed at.”

It takes some time for Ruth to learn not just the sounds and intonation of words but the cultural literacy.  One day she says thank you for a compliment and is laughed at for her “conceit.”  Miss Wong explained, “That’s not the way it is with us. If you go around thanking people for compliments, everyone will think you are proud and conceited.  You should always say that whatever they admired is no good, not pretty, etc.  Then they will know that you are humble and modest.”

This is an InspiringVoices book from Guideposts and the focus is her missionary work in Hong Kong but it never felt preachy to me.  This book is written from the perspective of her cultural experiences, living in a new country during a time when knowledge of other cultures was a little more limited than it is today.  It is a gentle and humorous read about a young girl experiencing a new culture for the first time, a thoroughly enjoyable read.