Ariel Gore

How did you become a writer?

I was a terrible talker. I was shy and quiet in part because I was accustomed to getting slapped across the face if I said the wrong thing. So I thought, well, I'll write. And I found that a much less stressful way to organize my thoughts. Later, as a teenager, I became a traveler and we wrote letters in those days. It was expensive international phone calls or letters if you wanted to keep your intimate friendships across the miles so, again, I thought, I'll write.

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

Maya Angelou and Ntozake Shange were big for me when I was first learning to see myself as a writer. Muriel Rukeyser. Diane Di Prima. Those were the early writers who showed me that writing wasn't just for men in tweed coats.

When and where do you write?

I write in the laundromat. Literally. But also in all the laundromats of life. I am a woman. I am a mother. I am the breadwinner for my family. I don't have a room of my own. So I write when and where I can.

What are you working on now?

I'm promoting my new memoir, The End of Eve, a dark comedy about taking care of my crazy, beautiful mother when she dying of lung cancer. So I'm on tour.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I wouldn't call it writer's block. Sometimes my brain is cluttered with other things. Sometimes my time is consumed with better-paying work or I get a repetitive strain injury writing someone else's stuff and I can't write my own then. 

What’s your advice to new writers?

Keep your overhead low. Being a writer is feast or famine and a lot of time it's famine so you want to keep your credit card bills and rent or mortgage and all the rest of it low so you have time. What you need is time. You don't need a room of your own or anyone else to take care of you, but like Gertrude Stein says it take a lot of loafing to write a book and you need time to loaf and if you have to work 24-7 it's tricky.

Ariel Gore is the editor and publisher of Hip Mama. Her latest book, The End of Eve (Hawthorne Books), is also, she thinks, her best and most vulnerable.

Lawrence Grobel

How did you become a writer?

When I was 11 I was curious about a certain old house in my suburban neighborhood and disguised myself as a reporter for my nonexistent elementary school paper, knocked on the owner’s door and got invited in to ask anything I wanted about the place. I then became an actual reporter for and then editor of my high school newspaper. I entered an essay contest sponsored by Newsday and won a watch, a trip to Washington D.C, to meet the head of the FBI, my two N.Y. U.S. Senators, and Attorney-General Robert Kennedy. I saw that writing “paid.” In college I wrote for both the newspaper and the humor magazine, joined the Meredith Mississippi March with Dr. King and called in my (unpaid) observations to a Newsday editor. In the Peace Corps I had plenty of time to write a novel and a book about my life in Ghana, neither of which was shown to anyone. When I returned to the States after 4 years abroad I convinced the editor of Newsday’s new Sunday magazine that I could write for him and wound up with some assignments which kept me busy and, when accepted, gave me the confidence to approach the N.Y. Times with some story ideas. They took two of them, and then I turned to magazines—got plenty of rejections but never gave up. Once Playboy took a chance with me, I convinced Barbra Streisand that she should give me an in-depth interview…that led to Marlon Brando and I haven’t stopped talking to people for 35 years.

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

My piano teacher, Ted Harris, was a great character who believed in me when I was 9. I started reading James Joyce at an early age, along with Dostoyevsky, Hesse, Joseph Heller, Norman Mailer, and Saul Bellow. At UCLA I studied independently with the novelist Bernard Wolfe and used to hang around his office in Beverly Hills and his home as well, talking about what he was working on and what I was. He turned me on to reading J.P. Donleavy, whom I eventually interviewed at his home in Ireland.  Also at UCLA I became friends with my Spanish teacher, Enrique Cortes, who was sort of like a Don Juan figure for me. He read everything I wrote and rarely liked anything, but when he once asked if he could keep one page of something I had written, I was elated.

When and where do you write?

I work in an office in my home in the Hollywood Hills. I’m not good at writing at coffee shops or hotels or on planes or in foreign places. I try to be at my desk every day, whether I accomplish anything or not.

What are you working on now?

I’m starting a script based on my last novel, Begin Again Finnegan. I also went back to some fiction I wrote years ago about Africa—I screwed that up by introducing the wrong characters in the middle of it, so I am rewriting it and seeing where that goes. I’m doing some short pieces for the Saturday Evening Post. I started a story last week based on something I heard that got my attention. And some producers in Singapore contacted me about writing a script for them, so we’re talking about that. But I probably spend more time trying to figure out how to market and promote the 15 books I self-published on Amazon these last few years…and I wish I didn’t have to do that.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Rarely. But I did stop working on the last chapter of my memoir (dealing with my time with Brando on his island) because I was afraid that I was going to hear from the person who was featured in the previous chapter, Barbra Streisand, since I wrote about all the behind-the-scenes stuff that happened between us over 9 months, when I was interviewing her for Playboy. I could hear her calling me and saying, “I never said that.” Or, “You’ve got it all wrong.”  Or, “Why would you write about that, it’s mean.” Just thinking about that kept me from finishing the book for over five years. Until I just said, to hell with it, it’s my life. (I think Truman Capote helped me here, when he said about how he felt writing about his rich friends, “Who did they think I was? I’m not a court jester, I’m a writer.”) So I finished it, and self-published it on Amazon. Kind of a quiet way to put it out, I know. Maybe I’m still thinking about her.

What’s your advice to new writers?

The same advice Bernard Wolfe gave to me when I first told him about a novel idea I had. “Write 100 pages, and if it doesn’t work, fuck it.”  I couldn’t believe it when he said that—100 pages?? And yet, he was right. Sometimes you need to write a lot just to find out what it is you are really writing. And sometimes you need to throw away a lot to keep the good stuff.  Writing is really rewriting, which every writer learns only by doing. You just need the self-confidence to believe in yourself. And not let anyone convince you otherwise.

Lawrence Grobel is a novelist, journalist, biographer, poet and teacher. Four of his 22 books have been singled out as Best Books of the Year by Publisher’s Weekly and many have appeared on Best Seller lists. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for his fiction. PEN gave his Conversations with Capote a Special Achievement Award. James A. Michener called his biography, The Hustons, “a masterpiece.” His The Art of the Interview is used as a text in many journalism schools. Writer’s Digest called him “a legend among journalists.” Joyce Carol Oates dubbed him “The Mozart of Interviewers” and Playboy singled him out as “The Interviewer’s Interviewer” after publishing his interviews with Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, Henry Fonda and Marlon Brando. He has written for dozens of magazines and has been a Contributing Editor for Playboy, World (New Zealand), and Trendy (Poland). He served in the Peace Corps, teaching at the Ghana Institute of Journalism; created the M.F.A. in Professional Writing for Antioch University; and taught in the English Dept. at UCLA for ten years. He has appeared on CNN, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose and in two documentaries, one on J.D. Salinger, the other Al Pacino’s Wilde Salome. His blog, books and articles can be found on his website: www.lawrencegrobel.com and at Amazon.com’s Kindle Store.

Katherine Harmon Courage

How did you become a writer?

I've always written--my mom says I even used to sit with a pad of paper and make rows and rows of squiggly lines before I knew the proper alphabet. As a kid and teenager I gravitated toward poetry and short stories. But once I reached college I became interested in narrative nonfiction. After looking at MFA programs while working as an assistant in book publishing in NYC, journalism school seemed downright practical (everything's relative). So I wound up getting my master's degree at the Missouri School of Journalism. From there, I was incredibly lucky to get an internship at Scientific American, which led to reporting and editing jobs there--as well as, indirectly, to my first book, Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature in the Sea.

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

I was lucky to be supplied with terrific books--by my parents and grandparents--and surrounded by wonderfully encouraging teachers when I was growing up and through college and graduate school. I could never say my humble writing efforts have been influenced by such great works, but books that I return to again and again include: Moby Dick, Mrs. Dalloway, Ulysses, Trawler (by Redmond O'Hanlon) and Trsitram Shandy.

When and where do you write?

I only recently moved from Brooklyn to Colorado and became a full-time freelance writer--with an actual home office. Before that, I wrote my articles for work each day at my desk in Scientific American's open floor-plan offices and worked on my book at home in the evenings and on weekends (admittedly, mostly from an arm chair or the couch). Now, I sit down to work in my little office at my little desk facing the mountains in the morning right after breakfast. The morning often gets consumed with email and managing various projects. Midday I try to break for lunch and a run (or bike or swim). My real, focused writing starts closer to 4pm (by which point, I've usually migrated with my laptop to my arm chair) and lasts until my fiancé harangues me enough to knock off for the day (usually around 7pm). 

What are you working on now?

I have some feature articles and a blog series coming out this spring that I'm excited about. I also do ongoing editing work for Scientific American and maintain a regular blog there called "Octopus Chronicles." Right now I am mostly scrambling to polish off a handful of lingering freelance writing assignments so that I can clear a little bit of writing (and brain) space to finish up proposals for a few new book ideas. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Will I make a lot of enemies if I say, not really? I suffer more from writer's procrastination. And when I do finally make myself stop reading email and start writing, I always end up over writing. And I think there are three reasons for this: 1. Much of my daily writing is for monthly, daily, or online publications, where I am working with a word count limit (800 words never seems long enough to explain the awesomeness of sequencing ancient pathogens!) and tight deadlines. 2. I currently stick to journalism and other nonfiction, so the material out there in the world is endless. 3. I'm still relatively new to this professional writing thing, having been out of journalism school for only five years now. But I think I may take it as a good sign if I start getting writer's block. That would mean I am actually giving an article or book the time and mental space that it deserves.

What’s your advice to new writers?

I think it's pretty common advice, but I recommend writing as much as possible. Even if it's not for publication. That said, do start writing with an eye toward public consumption. That doesn't mean dumb things down or pitch silly stories if you don't like silly stories. But crafting a succinct, engaging, well structured article or story is a challenge--and one that will force you to become a better writer. And if you can, find an editor or experienced writer who is willing to edit your work and talk through their revisions with you. I learned some of the best and most basic lessons from my daily editors when I first started working at Scientific American. Also, get a deadline. They are what keep me in business. 

Katherine Harmon Courage is an award-winning freelance journalist and author who recently traded in the wilds of New York City for those of Colorado. From there she works as a contributing editor for Scientific American and also writes for WIRED, Gourmet, Popular Science, Nature, and others. Her first book, Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature In the Sea was published in 2013 by Current, a division of Penguin Random House. Her work was also recently featured in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2013. Visit her website www.katherinecourage.com or follow her on Twitter: @KHCourage for more about health, science, writing, and, of course, octopuses.