Saturday, March 09, 2013

Work in progress - authors and editors in conversation

Eric Chinksi:  In The Fun Parts you're returning to short stories after publishing a novel, The Ask. Do you approach writing stories and novels differently?
Sam Lipsyte:  Once I know what I'm writing I start to approach them differently, but in the beginning I'm just trying to get something down on the page. As I go I can start to sense whether it's opening up and might be something longer or if a closing is already in view. Sometimes I know it's a short story from the start but often it takes a little while. Nathanael West, who wrote rather short novels, said, "You only have time to explode." I think of that when I write the short pieces. You are creating a new world and new language to navigate it and there will be some nice effects along the way, but you are usually after a single moment for the piece to turn on. You are putting something -- characters in the case of some stories, the very mode of utterance in others -- under increasing pressure. It's the same with the novel, in some sense, but you vary the pressure, digress in a controlled way, gather in more stories to feed into a larger narrative.

Eric Chinski:  I don't think it quite hit me until I heard you read from The Ask a few years ago, but there's clearly a Sam Lipsyte sentence. I heard music at that reading [....]

wip_sep 
Photo Essay: Object Lessons
by Mark S. Weiner
When I'm working on a book, I cover an entire wall with butcher paper and write notes and ideas on it in bold, black marker. I've done this ever since I was in college. I think I got the idea from one of those posters about how to write published years ago by the International Paper Company. This tube has just a few feet left, and I'll buy another one soon.
Read on...

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