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.



Kitchen Privileges by Mary Higgins Clark

Kitchen Privileges
by Mary Higgins Clark

I've always found memoirs by fiction writers fascinating, even when I'm not a fan of their fiction work.  There's something about their powers of description and storytelling that have been honed through fiction writing which make their memoirs particularly engaging. 

Several years ago my sister gave me a copy of Kitchen Privileges by Mary Higgins Clark and I wasn't terribly interested because I didn't care for her mysteries, but I started reading the first few pages and was hooked.

Like most authors, Clark has led an interesting life in her own right.  (It seems most authors have held a variety of jobs in their life and draw on those varying experiences to put life into their writing.) 

Clark grew up during the Great Depression, a time when the neighborhood Good Humor man, felt lucky to lose his thumb and index finger up to the knuckle when the lid of the freezer smashed it because “it was a good accident... The company gave me forty-two dollars, and I was able to buy a winter coat for my wife.  She really needed one.”

Recollections of a huge extended family gathered around the table sharing stories and her Irish ancestry give the atmosphere.  She talks about being in love with her future husband (who lived on the next block) from age sixteen, though they wouldn't date for another five years.

Childhood asthma and frequently missed school taught Clark to be observant when she was home with her mother, hearing the stories as visitors came calling during the day.  A future writer couldn't help but be influenced by that kind of input.  Her father died when she was ten and her memories of him are warm and probably a little larger than life.  Her mother was unable to get a job so they rented rooms in their house.

Her mother was unstinting in her praise of Clark's writing from an early age, making her recite poems to guests and telling them she would be a great writer one day.  She admonishes others to be as encouraging to young people.  “When a child comes to you wanting to share something he or she has written or sketched, be generous with your praise.  If it's a written piece, don't talk about the spelling or the penmanship, look for the creativity and applaud it.  The flame of inspiration needs to be encouraged.  Put a glass around that small candle and protect it from discouragement or ridicule.”

All of this is just the beginning of her story, told in the first twenty pages.  I highly recommend this book for the personal story and the history.  As I looked it over again to write this review, I felt myself drawn in all over again.  It would also make a fine gift for a writer, as it did for me.