OS: Could you tell everyone a little about your writing process? When, if ever, is a draft "done"?
J. Caleb Winters: I tend to write in bursts--an hour here or there, and I find that if I'm diciplined enough to take advantage of my "free" time, I can get quite a bit of writing done. I revise the same story over and over until I feel like it's done. Then, I put that draft aside for a few months, so I can look at it again, with fresh eyes. Issues with the story, that I couldn't see before, tend to become apparent to me if I give myself that distance from my work. I repeat the process of revision and storing the draft away, and when I can return to a story, after months of not reading it, and the story doesn't reveal any flaws, then I start to get excited, because the story is getting close to "done."
Katey: My love for writing actually began before I knew that's what I was falling for. Junior year of high school, a wonderful English teacher introduced me to Thoreau and, by extension, to the worlds of philosophy and nature. Ever since that moment, I understood that I could use writing to explore and make sense of the world around me--just as Thoreau wrote his way to new insight in Walden. In college, I read Joan Didion's The White Album and Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Didion showed me how this same kind of exploratory writing could be applied to contemporary society, utilizing the landscape of people rather than the natural world, to yield insight. Of course, this "exploratory writing" has a name, and that is the tried and true essay--still my go-to form of writing whenever I have something I really need to figure out.
It wasn't until after graduate school that fiction really took hold of my heart. Out there in "the real world," I encountered so many unanswered questions. I couldn't travel all over the globe investigating answers for myself, and I couldn't literally be inside the mind of another person...not in real life, at least. But I could in fiction, and once I realized that, I also realized that fiction yields just as much insight as nonfiction. The same kind of explorations I'd been enamored with through writing essays, suddenly became possible through fiction. Using research to make my stories realistic (my current collection involves military and civilian characters in and around the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, two countries I've never visited and two subcultures of a war zone I've never personally experienced), I tend to write my way into a story with enough facts to make something believable, but I always let my imagination take over in the end.
In fiction, I can still get that "ah-hah" moment that any good essay affords, only it's a lot more fun! Now, I write actively in both genres depending on whatever I'm exploring at the time. I've been delighted to find that there are deep insights to be discovered no matter which genre I'm writing in. Realizing how many "tools" I had at my disposal as a writer in both genres, it was easy to imagine myself dedicating my life to this art. Who wouldn't want to spend time exploring and understanding their surroundings--literally and figuratively--through art? It's a tough career to make a living at, though, so I'm grateful that I find it so rewarding.
OS: Could you share some thoughts about what you tend to look for in a work of fiction?
Katey: It's hard to beat a story that has a unique voice or perspective. But of course, voice doesn't always mean five syllable words and perspective doesn't always mean point of view. What I'm talking about here is a narrator or character's particular way of seeing the world. Do they notice the fingerprints on the window, or the majestic view on the other side? Do they hear the clock's incessant second hand, or laughter coming from across the street? I look for stories with that kind of attention to detail, because details after all, lead to insight.
I also look for stories of smart surprise. Smart surprise works best when a writer can create a world or character so thoroughly, that readers go along for the ride without question. The surprise comes into play when that thoroughness is disrupted or confirmed in a crafted manner that enhances story. I think this is done most successfully by tying up loose ends, presenting a convincing shift in mood, or (my personal favorite) a particularly fitting metaphor.
OS: What's next for you and your writing?
Katey: Over the next year, I'd like to finish my collection of war stories, tentatively titled Flashes of War. After that, I envision a collection of personal essays based on my current travels across the United States. That said, I'm obsessed with flash fiction--writing it, teaching it, reading it--and wouldn't mind a side project of an anthology or textbook of some sort. Did I just say that? Yeesh. I'd better stay focused. Back to the desk...
A Remington USB Typewriter!Of course, now that I've been writing on computers rather than manual typewriters for a good twenty-five years (Another high five for Generation X? Anyone?) the clip showing how slow typing on one of these babies really goes sinks my boat a bit.
Are you a pen-and-paper writer? Or do you do most of your work on a computer? I wonder if I would write more carefully if my brain-to-hand-computer-mind-meld thing wasn't at play. If I had to deliberately push every key on a typewriter again, would I choose my words deliberately?
I suppose only $800 or so stands in the way of finding out...
Jenny Halper's fiction has appeared in journals including Smokelong Quarterly, PANK, Frigg, Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Stories 2009, and is forthcoming in an anthology from Persea books. Jenny has written for the Boston Phoenix and Nylon Magazine, among others, and recently co-wrote a script with Susan Seidelman and adapted a novel for Pretty Pictures. She currently serves as Development Executive at Maven Pictures, and was previously Development Executive on films The Kids Are All Right and The Whistleblower. She lives in Brooklyn with her turtle, Herbert, plus lots of stray books picked up on Park Slope stoops, a ten-year-old VCR, and lots of Jolly Time Healthy Pop Kettle Corn.
Here's a short interview we conducted with Jenny recently about "Cyclone," her award-winning story, as well as her writing in general.
Congratulations to Jenny, and to all our blog readers, enjoy! ...
Q: Can you give everyone a few words about "Cyclone," your contest-winning submission? How did this story come about?
Well, the characters are from a terrible novella I was trying to write
a while ago. I tend to start a lot more than I can finish and when I
get stuck with one thing am unstuck about another. I wrote a draft of
this, I think, when I was trying to finish a story I was halfway
through and couldn't, so I went back to these characters and started
with the hot dog eating contest. Also, one of my best friends growing
up lived next to the train tracks and I was always kind of jealous and
wanted to imagine what it felt like to live there.
Q: What made you decide to become a writer?
I'm not sure -- probably the authors I loved in 7th, 8th, 9th grade -
Alice Hoffman, Anne Tyler, Pat Conroy, also Rosellen Brown, who I was
lucky enough to have as a professor and is amazing and I think one of
the things that keeps me working is getting to learn from authors I
really admire -- and of course the (very infrequent) feeling of
finally getting something intangible right. The first thing I remember
writing is an adaptation of Peter Pan when I was seven, but that was
only because I wanted something short enough that my friends could
perform at my birthday party, and that was only because I wanted to
play Wendy and wasn't a good enough actress to get cast in an actual
production. But that's not really a moment of decision - I don't
remember making a conscious decision. Sometimes I find it incredibly
difficult and sometimes I love it. Lately I've been thinking of
writing as putting together a puzzle and you have to create the
pieces, then make them fit. I have a very long way to go.
Q: What's next for you and your work?
I'm a little more than halfway through a collection of short stories
-- mostly I have a lot of revising to do on those. And I'm two thirds
of the way through what I'll call a longer work that will hopefully be
the first draft of a novel by 2012. I'm about to go back into a script
I sat on for a while, that I thought was done but I realized isn't.
That and there are a lot, a lot of books that are piled up around my
bed that I want to read.
