Maria Konnikova

How did you become a writer?

I think I've always known I wanted to be a writer--or at least, I've known for as long as I can remember. I wrote my first "book" in first grade and never really stopped. Professionally, though, I started in the least creative writing environment possible: as a copywriter at an ad agency. That didn't last very long; I was out in under a year and never looked back. I next worked in television--a much better fit--but kept coming back to print and writing smaller pieces on the side. And it kind of snowballed from there.

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

I've been lucky to have some amazing teachers and mentors along the way. There was my first grade teacher, Mrs. Parker, who retired the year after I was in her class. Five years later, when I was already in junior high, she came back for a day to visit with her old students. When she saw me, she asked, "Are you still writing?" Somehow, I've never forgotten that moment. There was Mr. Murphy, my AP English teacher, whose passion for all literature, from William Goldman's "Princess Bride" to James Joyce was contagious in all the right ways. There was--and still is--Katherine Vaz, my undergraduate creative writing instructor, a brilliant writer and teacher who has continued to mentor me through the years and has been one of the lasting influences in my life. As for my other teachers: I wouldn't be a writer without W. H. Auden and Joseph Brodsky. Their prose and poetry are two of my constant companions.

When and where do you write?

Mostly at home, in my "office"--a corner of the living room that has my desk and books. I write first thing in the morning, until lunch. I like to take an hour break, to walk around and let my mind wander a bit. And then I write until seven or so. Unless I'm on deadline. Then, I don't keep normal person hours.

What are you working on now?

I'm working on two books: my next non-fiction book, "The Confidence Game," is on the psychology of the con, and will be out from Viking/Penguin in 2015. And my first novel is waiting in an impatient stack on my desk, complete with my agent's revisions. I won't be tackling that until "Confidence Game" is turned in, though.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

No. I don't believe in writer's block. Truman Capote once said that he was never bored. Whenever he found a person boring, he would start to catalog details of his face, his manner, his voice, his conversation, to figure out what it was that was so off-putting. In the process, he would realize that he wasn't bored any longer. To me, writing is the exact same way. If you feel blocked, just start writing anything, and before long, you're writing something that makes sense. 

What’s your advice to new writers?

Write. Then write some more. And never be afraid to revise, scrap, or take criticism. That's the only way to learn.

Maria is a contributing writer for The New Yorker online, where she writes a weekly column with a focus on psychology and science. Her first book, Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes (Viking/Penguin, 2013), was a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into seventeen languages. It was nominated for an Agatha Award and an Anthony Award for best non-fiction. Her second book, on the psychology of the con, is scheduled for publication by Viking/Penguin in 2015. Her writing has appeared online and in print in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Slate, The New Republic, The Paris Review, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, The Boston Globe, The Observer, Scientific American MIND, WIRED, and Scientific American, among numerous other publications. Maria formerly wrote the “Literally Psyched” column for Scientific American and the popular psychology blog “Artful Choice” for Big Think. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where she studied psychology, creative writing, and government, and received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University.

Garth Stein

How did you become a writer?

I think I was born a writer. I tried to do other stuff for a while and be normal, but then I just gave up.

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

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, for sure. Tennessee Williams, definitely. Eugene O’Neill. Ken Kesey.

When and where do you write?

I write like writing is a job. I have an office. I go to it. I fart around in the mornings, tending to business, editing, reading. In the afternoon, I look at the clock and think, "Oh, crud, I have to get something done! It’s almost time to go home a fix dinner!” So I write furiously until I go home and fix dinner.

What are you working on now?

My life right now is all about doing book business for my new book coming out on September 30th. I don’t have time to start new writing. So I’m just jotting down notes and ideas that come to me until I’m done with my tour in November and can put my energy into a new book.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Who hasn’t? But you have to look at your story and say, okay, what comes next. Something HAS to come next. So write it. Even if it sucks, write it. Even if you’re going to throw it away, write it. Only by writing will you get yourself free of your stuck-ness. Only by writing will you discover your story and your characters. So quit moaning and write something!

What’s your advice to new writers?

Take acting classes. Actors need to know all about the motivation of their characters. They need to know where the character is coming from and where he is going to, what he wants, what he needs, what he will die without having, etc. Actors are trained to create this world of the character, even though it might not all be in the text. It has to be in the mind of the actor playing the part. I think often novels fall slack or seem unrealistic or unbelievable because the author hasn’t done the homework on the intention and motivation of his or her characters. So I believe all writers should learn to be actors; it will improve their writing.

Garth Stein is the author of the soon to be released ghost story, A Sudden Light. His last novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain, has been on the New York Times and other bestseller lists nation-wide for more than three years, and is published in 35 languages. He is the producer of a number of award-winning documentaries, and the author of the novels How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets and Raven Stole the Moon, and a full-length play, Brother Jones, upon which A Sudden Light is based. He is the co-founder of Seattle7Writers, a non-profit collective of NW writers dedicated to strengthening the ties between readers, writers, booksellers, and librarians. He lives with his wife and three sons in Seattle.

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Steve Albrecht

How did you become a writer?

I was a bookish child, so having skipped a grade and not being very big, all types of literature were my companions. My parents were big readers and my dad was an aerospace engineer and a skilled writer. They always bought me books, took me to the library every weekend, and encouraged my short stories. I sent crime stories to the Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen magazines in the 70s, when I was about 12 or 13, to no avail. I went to the University of San Diego and as an English major, I thought I knew how to write. Outside of college, I learned that comparing and contrasting the literary themes of Chaucer’s General Prologue was not going to be needed everyday. When I was working as a San Diego Police officer, I started writing a monthly column on officer safety for the Police Officers Association newspaper. I wrote that column for 14 years. That gave me the discipline to freelance to other police and specialty magazines. I left police work after my workplace violence book, Ticking Bombs, started to gain momentum in 1999, which was right after the tragedy at Columbine.    

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

I still have the mystery novels I read as a kid and a young adult, including Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe, John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee, and Robert B. Parker’s Spenser. I re-read Mark Twain’s works and consider him and Ernest Hemingway to be two of our greatest American writers. Twain’s use of sly humor and Hemingway’s power and brevity had a big impact on my writing style. I re-read Roughing It and the Tom Sawyer / Huck Finn books from Twain and The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms from Hemingway every few years. On the modern side, I envy Sebastian Junger’s machismo on the page and Jon Krakauer’s take-you-there skill. I’ll grudgingly admit I learned something from every book editor I ever worked with; the best being my father, Karl Albrecht. We co-wrote several books together and he taught me early not to write in the passive voice, a bad habit I developed in college. My dad wrote an entire book in E-Prime, which is the absence of the verb form to be. He continues to be my biggest influence, especially with his ability to organize an entire book before he begins, which I do for each of mine as well.

When and where do you write?

I have an office in San Diego where it’s quiet and I can think. I have a table fountain and with some classical music I can write for long stretches on my Mac, while photos of Twain and Hemingway stare down at me. I also work out of my home on an ancient Windows XP computer with an old version of Word, which works just fine. My usual habit with book deadlines is to go to a cabin we have in the eastern San Diego mountains and write to completion for a week. The cabin schedule is quite Spartan: get up, write, eat, short nap, write, hike for an hour, eat, write, sleep, repeat, for a week. It sounds noble but it’s mostly because I procrastinate when the book deadline is months away and then I have to crash it to finish on time. A lot of genius words don’t make it into the final manuscript. Cutting chapters is not a bad thing.  

What are you working on now?

I have written several books for police officers over the last 25 years, and I just finished my last officer safety book this week. Patrol Cop will be out next year and that will be the end of my writings for cops. I write a blog for PsychologyToday.com, which I find rewarding. My topic area is in their “Law and Crime” section, which is fun because I’m not a lawyer or a psychologist, so I can write about crooks, human conflict, workplace violence, and school violence issues, which are my primary training workshop subjects. I enjoy the blog process and do two or so a month at about 1000 words each. People don’t want to read stuff that goes on forever. I find the people who write vicious comments about my blogs to be tedious since they never argue from a position of facts, only their sourness. I’m also finishing a niche book for the American Library Association on library security. Most people don’t realize how tough it is in our libraries, with the aggressive homeless, thieves, sexual predators looking for kids, mentally ill patrons, and entitled people who give the library staff a hard time. They really have to be part-time social workers as well as full-time information providers.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Once, for about 18 months and it was agony. I had a contract to write a small book on business ethics (never an easy subject) and one to write for the popular Complete Idiot’s Guide series on customer service. I had to send back both contracts — and the advance money — with my apologies that I just had nothing in the tank. Going back to writing articles broke me of the block and I learned to trust my notes on what I want to write about. They don’t have to be perfect, but they do give me a place to start instead of a blank screen.

What’s your advice to new writers?

I’ve had lots of people tell me their life story would make a great book. Fortunately for all of us, that’s as far as the conversation went. I believe you know you have the talent to write fairly early. I teach business writing workshops and some people enjoy them and others find it a miserable experience. I’m not convinced the desire to write can be taught, although we can all improve our techniques. Real writers write and when they aren’t writing they are thinking about writing. I have a tattoo on my inner left bicep that says, “Cacoethes scribendi,” loosely translated to mean “the burning desire to write.” I can see it every day as I type.     

Steve Albrecht is based in San Diego and has written professionally since 1985. He co-wrote Ticking Bombs in 1994, which was one of the first business books on workplace violence, and featured his prison interview with a double workplace murderer. Steve worked for the San Diego Police Department for 15 years and retired to write and teach. He holds a doctorate in Business Administration; an M.A. in Security Management; a B.S. in Psychology; and a B.A. in English. His 10 business books include Added Value Negotiating; Service! Service! Service!; The Timeless Leader; Fear and Violence on the Job; and Tough Training Topics. His six books for law enforcement include Streetwork; Surviving Street Patrol; and Contact & Cover. He is finishing his first police novel.