Living the Dream

Sadly, my dear friend Patrick Robbins’s blog, MeTube, is no more. Pat had one of the most fun blogs I’ve come across. Luckily, a fan decided to take over the blog, but it won't be quite the same without Pat's unique sensibility. The video clip he chose for his last post is fantastic. This might be my favorite farewell since watching Claire Fisher drive through the desert in the finale of Six Feet Under.

Pat is leaving MeTube to be a modern-day Thoreau; he’s moving into an Airstream trailer in the middle of nowhere with no electricity or telephone, so he can focus on writing his novel. He will go into town once a week for groceries and to check his e-mail, which I’m sure Thoreau would have done instead of visiting his mother had it been available to him at the time. I applaud Pat’s discipline and have refrained from asking him all sorts of motherly questions like, “Just how do you plan on feeding yourself with no refrigerator?”

Writing in exile has been the dream of many a writer. Even if living in a trailer in the wilderness isn’t a possibility, there is always the hope that one day we’ll be able to abandon our day jobs and devote ourselves full-time to our real work. I was lucky enough to be able to do this for a few years, so here’s my advice for Pat and anyone else who wants to stay at home by themselves all day and write.

1. Make a Schedule. Somehow we think freedom is the answer, but most of us function best with limits. Try to wake up and take your meals at the same time every day. Schedule regular breaks and time for leisure. Organizing your time gives direction to your day.

2. Talk to yourself—out loud. When you’re in your head all day, it’s surprising how quickly you can lose the ability to form a coherent sentence. Vocal exercises are necessary so that when the opportunity for conversation strikes, you’ll be able to reply with real words instead of primal grunts. Talking out loud also prevents you from experiencing the very unsettling phenomenon of being startled by the sound of your own voice.

3. Lack of sleep + Isolation = Cuckoo For Cocoa Puffs. Writing well means being in top form, and that begins with sleep. Exhaustion opens the door to all sorts of paranoia, neuroses, and phobias. If you find yourself wallowing in idle worries take a nap, then go to a public place or talk to someone.

4. Exercise. It’s tempting to work on your story every waking minute, especially when you’re on a roll, but it’s important to give your mind a rest. Exercise is one of the best ways to do this, taking you out of your mental fog and bringing you right back to reality.

5. Volunteer. If you have the time, volunteering a few hours a week to a place like your local library is a great way to achieve all of the above. Volunteering helped me through many a rough writing patch by giving me a sense of purpose. Plus, it’s a great way to meet new people.

Jealous Name Dropper

There must have been something in the water at Writers House, because at least three of my colleagues from when I worked there in the 90’s went on to be rather famous. The agency was relatively small at the time (about 12 agents and as many assistants), and although there was a fair bit of turnover in my six years, the odds of so many successes are still pretty impressive.

First, there’s the very talented writer, Hannah Tinti, whose book of short stories entitled ANIMAL CRACKERS was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Hannah was also one of the founders of the literary magazine One Story. As I understand it, Hannah’s first novel, THE GOOD THIEF will be published by Dial Press this August. Go Hannah!

Next is Christian Finnegan. Christian is a stand-up comedian who has had his own special on Comedy Central and has appeared on Chappelle’s Show. He’s probably best known, though, for being a regular on VH1’s Best Week Ever. Christian was just as hilarious then as he is now, and he was always such a fan of pop culture that this must be a dream gig for him. Good on ya, Christian!

And then there’s John Hodgman.

On the off chance you don’t recognize his name, trust me, you’ve seen him. His Q rating skyrocketed when he starred in a series of Apple commercials with Justin Long. He’s the PC, as in “Hi, I’m a Mac….and I’m a PC.” Oh yeah, THAT guy.

John has accomplished so much, it’s amazing. He’s written a very funny, fictitious almanac entitled THE AREAS OF MY EXPERTISE, which has had a cult following. He’s appeared in numerous TV shows and is a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He’s had a cameo on one of my favorite shows ever, Flight of the Conchords. If that wasn't enough, a few weeks ago he was in Newsweek’s CW sidebar with an arrow pointing up, for cripes sake. And these are just the things I know about. I have a sneaking suspicion that John has an underground army of fans who are plotting at this very moment to help him achieve world domination.

All right, I’ll admit it…I’m a teeny, tiny bit jealous. Just a wee bit. I always knew John would do really well—he’s off-the-charts smart, charming, and very funny—but I thought he’d end up as a power agent, not a cultural phenomenon. I knew he’d be successful, but did he really have to go ahead and be that successful?

My point here is not just to drop names, but to address the issue of professional jealousy, which is something that hits most of us at one time or another. When we know someone of similar age and opportunities who suddenly breaks out in their field, it can leave us feeling a little lacking, like maybe we did something wrong. Or we didn’t do enough. Or maybe that there is only so much success and happiness in the world, and now there’s less to go around. Who hasn’t felt this at one time or another?

But if we really take time to stop and think, we know this can’t be true. It makes no sense to take another person’s success personally, because it has absolutely nothing to do with us. Nothing. It can’t diminish us, because it never had anything to do with us in the first place. Some people hit it big right out of the starting gate, others take decades. Most of us never hit it big at all, and that’s all right, too—fame is not the only measure of a person’s worth. One person’s happiness and prosperity is good for all, and takes away from none...at least that's what I told myself the other night when I saw that he was in Tina Fey's new movie BABY MAMA.

Knock ‘em dead, John.

Book Notes

Congratulations to Junot Diaz, who just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Diaz’s 11 year gap between the highly acclaimed DROWN and THE BRIEF WONDEROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO proves that writers don't have to necessarily churn out a book every year to be successful. I just hope that this award, along with the National Book Critics Circle Award, will give him a tad more confidence than he showed in this Newsweek interview.

What Do You Stand For?

This being an election year, there’s a great deal of talk about platforms. We all want to know what the candidates stand for. Platforms, however, need not be limited to Presidential candidates or politics.

Have you ever thought about what you stand for as a writer? As a human being? I’m not talking issues or ideology. I’m talking about the intersection of passion and talent, the place where your particular point of view gives your work energy and direction. As artists, we can’t be all things to all people and expect to have any kind of impact. We must carefully choose what is most important to us and make that the focus of our work.

For example, I love to cook. Several years ago I decided that even though I wasn’t cut out for a career in the culinary arts, I would make it part of my personal platform to feed people. That means I cook for friends, family, and any neighbors who might be going through a rough patch. I’ve cooked for a homeless shelter and donate regularly to the local food bank. Basically, if someone needs help and it happens to be food-related, I’m on it. It’s not just because I enjoy feeding others—there have been plenty of occasions when finding the time to cook for others has been a sacrifice—but because it’s something that’s important to me.

As a writer, I’m still discovering my platform. One thing that is important to me, however, is the concept of compassion. I once saw an interview with Meryl Streep on Inside the Actors Studio where she said that acting gives voice to people who may otherwise go unheard. The same is true, of course, for fiction. We live in age where people are so hyper-critical of each other, that to give readers an opportunity to step into the shoes of someone different from themselves and view them with a tender eye seems to me like a worthy pursuit. To that end, I keep compassion in mind when I develop my characters, trying to make them at least sympathetic even when they are unlovable.

I Didn't Know Saltines Were Involved

This being casual Friday and all, I thought I’d lighten up and post something fun for a change. Here’s a short video of writer/performer Miranda July showing us how buttons are made.

That's Why They Call It Fiction

I love this article in today’s Guardian by Linda Grant about the public’s need to believe that all fictional stories are somewhat based in fact. I understand her aggravation—though I don’t feel it quite so acutely—when readers automatically assume that ‘writing what you know’ means directly lifting stories from your own life.

At every reading I’ve ever been to, someone always asks the author “Where do you get your ideas?” This is often a thinly veiled way of asking, “Is the story true?” or “Are these characters based on real people?” I recently spoke to a reader who lived close to my hometown. She said she enjoyed the characters in my book, but because she didn’t live in my hometown she, in her words, “wasn’t able to connect the dots,” which I took to mean that she wasn’t able to figure out who I was writing about. Afterward, I started wondering if people in my hometown were also trying to “connect the dots”, and if so, how horrifying that would be. I have no interest in exposing the secrets of people I know or dressing them up to be unrecognizable. Just because I grew up in a small town and wrote a book about a small town, doesn’t make my work any less fictional.

There's no question that life informs a writer's work, but fiction writers are not interested in documenting their experiences. If we were, we would write memoirs or essays instead or simply become journalists. What we love is the act of creation, not disguise.

Book Notes

Jhumpa Lahiri has a new short story collection out today entitled, UNACCUSTOMED EARTH. If you’re like me and can’t wait to get your grubby little paws on it but can’t get to the store right away, you can cool your jets on these interviews with Book Forum and The Atlantic.