Rebecca Onion

How did you become a writer?

I assume every “Advice to Writers” reader loved English classes and worked for the literary magazine in high school and college, so that’s a given. I’ll answer this question by describing how I came to be paid for writing. My first “real” job was as a staff writer at YM Magazine, in the early 2000s. I freelanced for a while between leaving YM and going to graduate school in 2005. I completed a Ph.D in American Studies, at the University of Texas at Austin, in 2012. In graduate school I got into historical research in a big way, which totally changed the set of things I thought of as “My Subjects.” I freelanced a bit during graduate school, and am just now returning to full-time paid writing. 

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

My freshman-year English teacher, at Milton Academy in Massachusetts, helped me turn an elementary-school love of reading and words into an ability to analyze and explore the workings of poetry and prose. (Shout-out, Jim Connolly!) That class, and Milton’s other great English classes, brought me together with people who loved writing, some of whom are still close friends today. With them—Sarah Bennett, Elanor Starmer, Cristie Ellis, and Julia Turner (who’s now the editor at Slate)—I learned the joy of passing around poems, making word-nerd jokes, and writing loooong emails. 

In college, many late-night discussions of submissions to the Yale Literary Magazine instilled a healthy fear of cliché and overwriting. Christina Kelly, my favorite editor at YM, taught me a lot about specificity, accuracy, and a sparing approach to prose. My advisors in graduate school, Julia Mickenberg and Janet Davis, imparted a love of research and an infectious sense of historical curiosity. My editors at Slate—I’ve primarily worked with John Swansburg—are great at framing and developing stories, noticing lapses in argument, and generally suggesting shape for my shapelessness.

And my dad, Perry Onion, writes with a dry wit that’s inspirational.

When and where do you write?

I try to treat it like a full-time job: 9-7, M-F, with time out for lunch, exercise, and appointments. Of course, I’m not actively writing all of that time; I’ve got research, interviews, email, and Twitter to break up my bouts with Word. If I’m on deadline, I use the program Antisocial to cut the cord to the Internet and dive into the topic at hand. On the weekends (unless I’ve got a big deadline) I read magazines and novels, cook, and send out my newsletter

As for place: If I’m at home, in Ohio, I write at my desk, by a sliding door that looks out on a forested gully. Suet hanging from the window attracts birds, which, in turn, attract our cat; watching her watching them makes for a great break from the desk. If I’m traveling—at my parents’ house in New Hampshire, or in a hotel room or an Air BnB—I write from whichever desk is free, behind as many closed doors as possible. I used to write well in coffee shops, but I’m now addicted to using more than one computer monitor, which really helps when you’re doing work that draws from a plethora of documents. 

What are you working on now?

My history blog for Slate, The Vault, is a five-day-a-week job, so that’s constant. I’m in the middle of completing some bits of academic writing that I committed to before I decided to transition out of academia for a while: an article on chemistry sets and the toy safety movement of the early 1970s, and a few book reviews, including one of a set of graphic novel biographies of scientists that I’m really excited to write. I have a bunch of pitches that I’m working on, around the edges of those larger projects. And I’m finishing up revisions on an article for Slate, about the digitization of historical medical images. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I think “writer’s block” works differently for people who write heavily-researched nonfiction. I tend to sublimate my nervousness about a given assignment into research, so that I find myself following more and more leads, rather than just sucking it up and getting started with the writing part. That way I can fool myself into believing that I’m moving forward. (In graduate school, we called this “productination.”) I also get “blocked” about revisions—even revisions that I know won’t be too painful. In every single case, if I can force myself to open the Word document and get going, I’ll feel much better within fifteen minutes. (Knowing this fact doesn’t help me do it, though.) 

What’s your advice to new writers?

Again, this is probably much more useful to people writing nonfiction, but I argue that new writers should strive to be as curious and well-read as possible. Develop some core competencies, but also diversify your interests; try a lot of different approaches. Don’t get hung up on any one failure. Pitch as widely as possible, with an attitude of detached striving. 

I have a few quotes on post-its over my desk. One is from Pat Kirkham’s biography of Charles and Ray Eames. Kirkham writes that Charles often referred to this quote from the Bhagavad Gita: “Work done with anxiety about results is far inferior to work done without such anxiety, in the calm of self-surrender.” +1 to that. 

Rebecca runs Slate.com’s history blog, The Vault, and writes about history and culture for publications including Slate, the Boston Globe Ideas section, Aeon Magazine, and Lapham’s Quarterly’s Roundtable blog. (An archive of clips is available on her website.) She holds a Ph.D in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Her first book, Innocent Experiments: Childhood and the Culture of Public Science in the United States, is under contract with the University of North Carolina Press.

Follow Rebecca on Twitter: @rebeccaonion.

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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