Avery Chenoweth

How did you become a writer?

Before I ever wrote a line, I was a story-teller, and those very first stories were about the dreams I was having then in Kindergarten--so vivid and textured they seemed real. Some were nightmares, and I learned to control them--to go into the dream, run them back, and start them forward again but to a different ending. Years later, I would tell kids Twilight Zone episodes in school, and students and teachers would listen. A teacher in 8th grade finally put a pen in my hand and told me to write it down. In spite of the years, education, and professional work since then, that primal experience of seeing dreams and guiding them continues to be my path into writing.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

We had some marvelous influences in our neighborhood when I was growing up, like the one night I climbed out on the garage roof on a summer night, and in my pajamas and sneakers went sneaking along until I came to the source of a crazy party going on, and watched all the 60s swinging hipsters out by the pool, having a great time drinking and dancing. Many years later I learned it was the pub party for Seven Days in May, by Fletcher Knebel, and got to know him well. So it was a social inspiration that connected with the books in my room and made the writing life a reality. In time I got to meet John McPhee and others--which made it seem a great career to pursue. As for the inspiration on the shelf, what lit me up was always the mood of the prose, the intimacy of place and character that gave me sweeping daydreams, so powerful I could hardly read more than a page or two an hour. Salinger and Fitzgerald gave me complete hallucinations, their prose was so evocative. At Hopkins, as a graduate student, I was fortunate to study with John Barth, who proved to be an inspiring writer, mentor, and friend.

When and where do you write?

At newspapers, I learned to write when and wherever it had to be done, and on deadline, but on my own, I prefer an early morning with coffee and darkness and even fog in the valley, if nature would only cooperate. Something alluring and not quite right in the world, and transporting--that takes me out of this leather chair to a place whose reality appears alive in front of me--those are great mornings.

What are you working on now?

My obsession now is a pair of connected novels about an old family here in Charlottesville. I believe I’m working on the one that is closest to being finished, though I’ve been wrong before.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Writer’s block has been an issue at times, and when it is, I realize that I’m writing about a situation, not a story, and that’s the cause of the block. As soon as the dream-scape opens again, the block vanishes, and the story is racing on.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Write a story as if you’re talking to a friend in a bar about something that has to be told, quickly, before the check comes. That tends to fire the imagination to the point of finishing the arc--and, for novels, always finish the first draft before re-working the beginning. Stick to what’s urgent--and always write to the one or two people who would get it, not to the “readers” or the “market.” Just keep it simple, like telling your mother a story about why you’re home late from school--cause you had to stop and explore a deserted house and what you found inside that made you so late coming home.

Avery Chenoweth is the author of four books, including the newly released novel, Radical Doubt, a darkly-comic literary thriller that is available on Amazon Kindle. His novel-in-stories, Wingtips, was short-listed for the Library of Virginia Prize, and his two non-fiction books, Empires in the Forest: Jamestown and the Beginning of America, and Albemarle: a Story of Landscape and American Identity together won almost two dozen national awards, including a 2007 Ippy Gold Medal for regional-nonfiction, for Empires. He has written for Harper’s, The Washington Post, and People magazine, and got his masters degrees in creative writing from Johns Hopkins and UVA.

Christian Wolmar

How did you become a writer?

I always wanted to be a journalist and taught myself to type at 13 to work on the school newspaper. The books came relatively late when, through various circumstances, I got offered two book contracts and have now written ten, mostly on railway history.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.)

I have had a few very encouraging news editors in my time at various newspapers, but really the drive to write and make a living out of it has come from me.

When and where do you write?

I write anywhere and almost constantly. I do not have a schedule and have a small laptop that is excellent for trains and planes. The key to being a successful journalist is being able to write quickly and having a speciality, and I am fortunate to have both those qualities. Writing fast and accurately gets easier as you get older. It also pays not to be precious – I can write in a busy newsroom, or at home with kids running around the place. Books obviously take longer and require more intense concentration, but nevertheless, getting the words down on paper is the key. The editing and the later embellishments are the easy bits. It is the first draft that is so hard.

What are you working on now?

I am proofing the galleys for To the Edge of the World, the history of the Transsiberian railway, which is being published in the UK in time for xmas, and also putting in corrections for my previous book, The Great Railroad Revolution for the American paperback edition. I am also working hard on my campaign to be Mayor of London.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Not really. You can’t afford to as a journalist. There are definite times when the words flow more easily. I suffer greatly from deadlinitis. In other words, I desperately need a deadline to work to. Interestingly, even for my books I have developed a kind of internal clock of just how much I need to do to ensure I get there on time, even if it is 6 months ahead. I never write out schedules, but instinctively know when things need to be down by. A lot of this comes with experience.

What’s your advice to new writers?

First answer the question, "have you got anything to say?" If not, stop there! If yes, then develop expertise and speciality – write non-fiction first, learn to tell stories and be a reporter – much good fiction is based on the old journalistic skills of reporting and analyzing. Be humble and write for local papers, trade papers, anywhere that will take your work. But don’t just blog; you need the discipline of writing for people who will criticize your copy and require professional standards.

Follow me on Twitter @christianwolmar and see more than 1,000 articles and blogs on my website archive www.christianwolmar.co.uk For my mayoral campaign, the Twitter account is @wolmarforlondon and the website www.wolmarforlondon.co.uk.

John Kaag

How did you become a writer?

My brother went into the hard sciences, so I went into philosophy. I think I didn’t want to have to compete with him. Writing is what you do as a professional philosopher. But writing well is not. I have only in the last year considered myself a writer because I got tenure and had the freedom not to be strictly a philosopher. 

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

My mother (I know it is trite) is a beautiful writer and an English teacher. Probably my most formidable critic too. I have learned the most from her. I taught Expository Writing at Harvard for a time so my students (both there and at UMass Lowell) actually taught me a great deal about how to make an argument in compelling ways. I hated reading growing up. I just couldn’t sit still. But when I hit grade school, I began to pick up my brother’s books from college—Victor Frankl, Dostoyevsky (I am still blown away by his shorter pieces), and Tolstoy. They seemed exotic and somehow kept my attention long enough to learn something, I think. You can learn a lot about writing from reading philosophy (not today’s for the most part): Thoreau, Emerson, and Jane Addams are some of my favorites.  I have never read much contemporary fiction, but I should. I think I get some sense why David Foster Wallace is so enormously popular. I have learned something about writing personally from his Kenyon speech and the essays from Consider the Lobster. So his non-fiction, I guess. 

When and where do you write?

At home, on the couch, in the hour or two that I can steal when my toddler daughter is napping. I tend not to write at night (things get muddled and I tend to get a little anxious). I used to write in the early morning. But I usually can’t rouse myself before the little one gets up at 6.00. When she grows up, I suspect I will return to writing in the three hours between 6 and 9 in the morning with a cup of coffee, piece of toast and a banana. 

What are you working on now?

I am working on a collection of essays tentatively entitled “Think Again.” It is a book that came out of a conversation with a friend-philosopher about the irrelevance of today’s mainstream philosophy. We promised each other to submit an op-ed or popular essay a week for a year. We didn’t quite make that ambitious output, but we came close. A sort of experiment in public philosophy. The pieces/chapters address current issues in education, politics and culture. I guess I am really just working to find a publisher for that book. I am not really sure how to go about it since I am not keen to write another university-press book. Also, I am writing a book about drone warfare with Sarah Kreps which is due in August, but that is more standard philosophical fare. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Yes. One horrible bout of it. Only one. It lasted three years. I was fifteen, which might seem too young to have a real bout of writer’s block, but you would be surprised. My mother had just raked me over the coals for one of my English essays, and I just clammed up. I couldn’t work on another piece of writing for the rest of high school without her help and guidance. She sort of led through the block by making me her writing apprentice. Every time I had an assignment, she would make me write the draft first and then spend an evening with me working through the remaining problems. That companionship and tutelage made a big difference when it came to writer’s block.   

What’s your advice to new writers?

Write every day. But you already know that. I guess the one piece of advice that some might miss out on is what I fondly call “creative procrastination.” When you get stuck in one piece, or arrive at a transition that you are having trouble with, find another (perhaps more bite-size) piece of writing that can give you a break from your creative problem-child. Come back to the problem after you have done something productive and let the momentum from the small project carry through the larger one. Just make sure that you come back to the larger one. 

John Kaag is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He has held academic appointments at the Harvard Humanities Center, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Harvard Writing Center. He is the author of two books: Thinking Through the Imagination and Idealism, Pragmatism, and Feminism. In the last year he has turned his attention to more public writing, including essays in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Times Higher Education, the New Left Project, and Shambhala Sun. He lives in Boston with his partner, Carol, and daughter, Becca.