Erika Krouse
/How did you become a writer?
When I was about 20, I woke up one morning and said, "I want to write books." I opened my dorm room door and my friend was studying on the hallway floor, highlighter in hand. I said, "I want to write books." He looked up from his textbook and said, "So go write books." Of course, it took me over ten years to finish one after that.
Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).
I'm a huge geek and really do love classic writers: George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Herman Melville, Kate Chopin, Emily Brontë, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, etc. More contemporary writers who have influenced me are Toni Morrison, Yuko Tsushima, John Edgar Wideman, Elena Ferrante, Amy Hempel, Charles Johnson, Margaret Atwood, Carson McCullers, Jean Stafford, and so many more. Lucia Berlin, one of my writing teachers, was a huge influence, both personally and artistically.
When and where do you write?
Whenever I can! I work for a living, so I snatch any writing time I can find. When I wrote my last book, I wrote 12-16 hours/day three days a week, and 4-8 hours/day the other four days a week when I had to do my other work. I didn't take days off until it was done. That lasted for 15 months, and it probably gave me brain damage. But between projects, I'll go months without writing anything other than emails.
What are you working on now?
My next book is a collection of short stories called Save Me. It was finished, but I've grown to hate a few of the stories, so I need to write new ones to replace them.
Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?
I think writer's block is mostly fear, right? It can also arise from an uncertainty about your subject matter and what you have to say. To address the uncertainty, I now work out the story beforehand and figure out what I want to say, the arc, ending, subplots, etc. It prophylactically prevents writer's block. And to address the fear, there's alcohol. Just kidding. It's drugs.
What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
It wasn't as much a piece of advice as it was a criticism. I used to be so afraid of melodrama that I would under-write, barely hinting at feelings, trying to be "literary." Then a famous writer told me, "Erika, you wouldn't be caught dead in the same room as an emotion." That woke me up.
What’s your advice to new writers?
Oh, I have too much advice (always), but I guess the best advice I can give is to get an education specifically about writing. It doesn't have to be an MFA—you can educate yourself, find a literary arts center and take classes, or find a mentor and colleagues. But study this shit. I'm talking about structure, characterization and character motivation, how to construct a theme and plot, etc. This is technical information that can be learned only through deliberate study and much practice. Great books don't magically flow out of your pen—they're the result of learned craft that is creatively and technically applied to a targeted set of ideas. Get teachers and editors, form writing groups, and read as many books as you can. Gather a full set of tools and use them all.
• Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation (Flatiron/Macmillan) is available here on Bookshop and here on Amazon.
• Other books by Erika: Contenders and Come Up and See Me Sometime.
• Book Project Faculty at Lighthouse Writers Workshop.
