Talking to Writers: The Craft of Writing Fiction

Journalist Nelson (Talk to Me) compiles highlights from more than 30 years of interviews conducted at his Writer’s Symposium by the Sea in this witty and invigorating window into the writing life. Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Lamott, N. Scott Momaday, Don Winslow, and others share how they got their starts as writers, how they’ve endured rejection, what keeps them writing, and where they get ideas, along with a few less expected topics (e.g., how faith does or does not affect one’s writing). The conversations mix levity with gravity: Momaday jokes that a writer’s intent should be to write something that might astonish God or James Earl Jones, who are almost the same. Others paraphrase common but essential truths; in observing that specifics make the story, Anthony Doerr muses that “the great irony of fiction writing is that the path to the universal is through the individual... you can’t lose yourself too often in the big ideas, but you also can’t get so focused on the minutiae of your characters’ lives that you forget that you’re trying to tell something other people can relate to”). At its best, the collection captures the spark of a live conversation, balancing practical insight with moments of genuine delight. Less how-to manual than a mosaic of perspectives, this will be a boon to aspiring writers. (Nov.)