Fiona Davis

How did you become a writer?

For the past fifteen years, I’ve been working as a journalist, and I turned to fiction after hearing a great story idea: that after the Barbizon Hotel for Women was turned into luxury condos in 2005, a dozen or so of the longtime residents were moved into rent-controlled apartments on the same floor. I couldn’t shake the idea that this might make an intriguing setup for a novel.

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

I’m a big fan of Geraldine Brooks, Shirley Jackson, Jo Baker, Jane Austen, Kathleen Tessaro, Liane Moriarity, Mary-Louise Parker, and Kristin Hannah, as well as playwrights like Tom Stoppard, Shakespeare, Edward Albee, and Tennessee Williams.

When and where do you write?

I tend to write new scenes in the mornings, but I enjoy editing any time. There’s nothing like the satisfaction of turning a so-so sentence into something that pops. I work in the study of my apartment, and I have a glimpse of the Hudson River from my desk. Watching the tides go in and out is very calming.

What are you working on now?

I’m writing another work of historical fiction that’s similar in structure to The Dollhouse, in that it takes place in an iconic New York City building in two time periods and reveals a secret at the end. But it’s very different from the previous work in tone and subject matter.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

As a journalist, you don’t get paid if you don’t turn in the article on deadline, so that takes the whole concept of writer’s block right out of the equation. The idea of hitting a word count every day isn’t at all precious to me, it’s just work. That’s not to say I don’t procrastinate – I’m very easily distracted by Facebook, emails, laundry – you name it.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

The actress Uta Hagen wrote something that applies to both acting and writing: “The making of art consists of the selection of appropriate life realities to create a new canvas, to make a new living, breathing statement.” For me, that means the emotion behind the words has to be real and grounded.

What's your advice to new writers?

Don’t worry too much about the industry side of writing until you have a strong manuscript in hand. Better to spend time taking classes and workshops and going to conferences to work on craft than wondering which agent would best represent your future novel.

Fiona Davis is an author and journalist based in New York City, where she worked as an actress for ten years before graduating from the Columbia School of Journalism. Her work of historical fiction, The Dollhouse, was published by Dutton (2016). She can be found online at fionadavis.net.

Colin Broderick

How did you become a writer?

Some days I'm not really sure if I am a writer.  Some days I am a carpenter, other days, just dad.  I've been writing on an off my whole life. I tried to write my first novel when I was nine or ten. I still have the notebook somewhere. I think I got to about page three.  I'm getting better at finishing my stories now.

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

When I was a kid it was Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton. As I got a little older it was Bukowski for a while, then the obligatory Hemingway and Fitzgerald phase. Then as I aged I drifted into John Irving (earlier Irving). Over the past twenty years it's been mostly Philip Roth, and of course The Snow Leopard by Matthiessen which I re-read again and again. I love clarity when I read. I want to know where I am in a book. I love a good story. Give me a good story with some depth to it, clear concise no-nonsense writing and I'm all over it.

When and where do you write?

I write at home with my laptop in my lap. I like a quiet room if at all possible; soft light, a nice window, a view of some trees, leaves falling, to remind me of the impermanence of it all.

What are you working on now?

I am frantically polishing my first feature movie, "Emerald City." I wrote it, directed and acted in it. We've just been accepted into The London Irish Film Festival and it's been shortlisted for Best Feature. I also just signed the contracts on my new book, "The Writing Irish of New York." Fordham University Press will publish that one in 2017. I also have another couple of screenplays currently in development: "The Catalpa" and "The Rising."

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

There was a period of about eight years when I went back drinking in my thirties where I didn't write at all but I've been pretty active ever since I got sober again. I have two kids; I can't afford writers block.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

"Writers write." I can't remember who said it...maybe it's just what my inner voice yells at me daily. My mentor Billy Collins also used to say, "All writing is rewriting." That's true also. Everything is a work in progress until they pry it from your cold dead hands.

What’s your advice to new writers?

My advice is just write: write, write, write...but just as important: know when to let go. You must let go in order to move forward. Again and again I see young writers I admire getting stuck on one book. They try to get it published and nobody wants it and they go back and tweak it again and again for years without getting into something new. My advice is, "LET IT GO!" Stick it in a drawer, move on. Trust me, you will get better just by virtue of experience, and if you turn out to be Ernest Hemingway twenty years down the line, they'll ask you what you have stored away in that drawer of yours.

Colin Broderick was born and raised in Northern Ireland. He has published two memoirs "Orangutan" Random House 2009, and "That's That," Random House 2013. He lives in upstate New York with his wife, two kids, and a dog named Beckett. His new book, The Writing Irish of New York, will be published in 2017 by Fordham University Press.

Blake Bailey

How did you become a writer?

In college I surprised myself by writing a pretty good senior thesis on Walker Percy. "Maybe I can do this," I thought, then spent the next 15 years writing bad fiction and the occasional book review. Suddenly I stumbled into a number of lucky breaks, and before I quite knew what was happening I managed to sell a proposed biography of the novelist Richard Yates. Oddly enough I learned thereby that my main calling was to be a literary biographer.

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

In no particular order: Wodehouse, Strachey, Christina Stead, Waugh, Nabokov, Joseph Mitchell, A. J. Liebling, many others (including my own biographical subjects and their influences), various literary biographies such as Brian Boyd's superb two-volume work on Nabokov, Gerald Clarke on Capote, and (of course) Ellmann on Joyce.

When and where do you write? 

I try to stop farting around with email, Twitter, the NYT website, etc., by 10:30 AM or so, and write most of the day--when I'm writing. (Bear in mind biographers go through years of research without a properly stringent writing routine.) Then I write all day, allowing myself a break at lunch if I've managed to meet roughly half my daily quota, about 600-750 words. My office is on the third floor opposite my 12-year-old daughter's bedroom; she's very considerate and quiet and has her own work to do, after all.

What are you working on now? 

A biography of Philip Roth.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Oh yes. Especially when I was trying to write fiction. Nowadays I try to prepare my notes as meticulously as possible, precisely because I have a horror of getting stuck.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Writing is rewriting.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Find what interests you passionately and write about it. If, after a seemly interval, you find yourself hating your life, do something else.

Blake Bailey is the author of biographies of John Cheever, Richard Yates, and Charles Jackson. He's the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Parkman Prize, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His latest book, The Splendid Things We Planned, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography.