Karen Dunak

How did you become a writer?

I’m a historian – so writing is a fundamental part of my trade. But writing has been natural to me since I was a child, in part, I think, because I’ve been a voracious reader since I could read. When I first went to college, I thought I would enter into journalism because I aspired to be a writer, but as I took history courses, I realized I could combine my interest in the past with my penchant for writing. I liked the idea of story-telling – and particularly if I could tell stories from an unconsidered or overlooked angle.

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

I was fortunate to have remarkable teachers who shared their views with me at each stage of my educational development. In my New Jersey high school, I had an excellent English teacher, Judy LaVigne, in 10th and 12th grades who assigned writing that aimed to develop both understanding of content as well as test students’ ability as writers. She would sometimes assign just individual paragraphs but with the stipulation that each sentence had to begin in a different way. Or I remember very clearly an assignment where sentences could be no more than seven words each. That kind of judiciousness is something my best writing guides continued emphasize as I moved forward. As an undergraduate at American University, one of my Communications professors, Lenny Steinhorn, insisted that each sentence should prove its usefulness, that every sentence – really, every word – should move your argument forward. He advised reading essays aloud to consider what was absolutely necessary and what could be removed, and as a way of ensuring that one idea led fluidly to another. And then when I was a graduate student at Indiana University, my advisor, Michael McGerr, all but rejected the concept of compound sentences. Each sentence should be allowed its own idea. All of this has led to me a very clear mantra about writing: shorter sentences = clearer sentences. And this is something I repeat nonstop to my students as I attempt to help them improve their writing. My other mantra: you become a better writer by writing more, so keep writing.

When it comes to professional writers who’ve inspired me: Stephen King (On Writing), Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird), and Ann Patchett (This is the Story of a Happy Marriage) are some of my favorite writers for talking about writing. All of them are great for emphasizing the kind of *work* writing requires, the discipline of sitting down and grinding out but also the understanding of when to walk away and return to the page if you find yourself stuck.

Historians whose writing I love are Jill Lepore (Book of Ages) and Danielle McGuire (At the Dark End of the Street). They are exceptional historians AND exceptional writers. Their prose is as elegant as their construction of argument is masterful. They prove that good history and good writing are not mutually exclusive – and also show what good writing can do to make academic texts extremely readable.

When and where do you write? 

Whenever I can, I write in the morning. When I first wake up, I’m freshest, so I like to get right to work. Sometimes that’s evaluating evidence. Sometimes it’s editing. As often as possible, though, I attempt to do my fresh, first-draft writing early in the day. And then as the day continues, I’ll do more reading and note-taking, more consideration of how what I’ve just written fits with what I’ve already done. I have a home office that I use, or I’ll go to the library of my home institution, Muskingum University. It’s big and beautiful and (during the summer) quiet and flooded with sunlight.

What are you working on now? 

I’m writing a book about media representations of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis over the course of her public life. As the most famous woman in the world for consecutive decades, Onassis was a constant point of emphasis across publications and mediums. As such, she served as a kind of barometer for views about American womanhood at a time when conceptions of womanhood were undergoing fundamental shifts.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Not really. And that may well be linked to the kind of writing I do. If I feel stymied in my building of argument, it’s probably more of an intellectual problem than a writing problem. I need to revisit my evidence or mine new sources or reconsider my argument. I think there are always ways to jumpstart your writing. For me, I might take a source I want to use eventually and write 250 words about why I think it’s important. Maybe I’ll use some part of that analysis later and maybe I won’t, but the act of writing is important for keeping me focused and moving forward with the project.

I just wrote an essay about Shirley Jackson, author of “The Lottery,” and I was so struck by her insistence that writing is not merely about sitting down and putting words on the page. As she balanced her domestic responsibilities with her professional commitments, she crafted stories and ruminated on plotlines and developed characters while grocery shopping or doing the dishes or vacuuming the carpet. The act of getting words on a page was only the physical element of an ongoing mental labor. Thinking about writing in that way can help, I think, from feeling defeated when the words aren’t coming at the pace you wish they would.

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

Start writing. And I don’t think this is specific to historians or even people writing non-fiction. There’s a temptation to wait until you “have enough” or “are ready.” More evidence, a better sense of argument, a clearer idea of the story you want to tell, etc. But I think the best way to see *what* evidence you need or *how* your argument or story is going to develop is by doing the writing. From there, you can strengthen and advance whatever the project is you’re working on.

What’s your advice to new writers?

The advice above is right on. Write. And then rewrite. I love having a first draft, largely because I find revising to be easier than the crafting of the original material. And I’m borrowing this, I think, from Stephen King, but READ. Seeing what good writers do, understanding how they communicate, considering their form, all of that is fundamental to developing a model and providing a starting point.

Karen Dunak is Associate Professor of History at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio where she teaches courses on a range of topics in Modern US History. She is author of As Long as We Both Shall Love: The White Wedding in Postwar America (New York University Press, 2013) and is a contributing author to Oxford University’s Press’s Of the People: A History of the United States. Her work has appeared in Gender & History, The Journal of American Culture, The Journal of American History, Salon, PublicBooks.org, and as part of the Popular Romance Project. Her current project examines mass media’s representations of and responses to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. You can follow her on Twitter @karendunak.

Jeffrey Lent

How did you become a writer?

I fall in the category of writers who claim they've always written. But first I was read to, and then began reading at a young age. An early poem exists fully in my memory, which I'd not recite at gunpoint. But reading was an early passion and has remained constant in my life. Through adolescence I dabbled in drawing and painting, handcrafts. In high school I seriously began to write, poetry and short fiction. At college I continued writing poetry but also took two serious stabs at novels. The process was exhilarating and I was still young enough to believe that being a writer meant the work would come easily and swiftly. Several years passed before I learned the truth, which is that the struggle of the work is daily, with every paragraph, every sentence.  I don't work from detailed outlines, although the arc of the story is firmly in place before I can begin. First draft is also a pleasure, as I'm discovering who these people are and what they're really up to. Revision and rewriting is much more challenging and can be quite grim. But that part of the process also allows for the opportunity to get as close as possible to restoring the book to my original hopes for it. A good editor is priceless and my wife Marion is not only my first editor but also my best. For marital harmony and balance of ego I take about fifty percent of her suggestions, the other fifty percent usually work their way in as I revise further.

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

I had a couple of good teachers at college but the strongest lesson I gained, in different ways, from both of them was to avoid the academic world. There are a small number of writers who have successfully navigated those waters and produced outstanding work but it's terribly demanding to be first-rate as both a teacher and a writer. Again, from an early age, reading. I grew up in a house with books and long before I could understand the complexities of their work, I'd read Steinbeck, Hemingway, Dreiser, Conrad Richter, the poetry of Robert Frost. I was fortunate also to have a good public library that beyond the permanent collection had a bookcase devoted to a rotating selection of freshly published books. I was in the fifth grade when Charles Portis published True Grit and it impressed me so deeply that I ordered a copy from the local bookstore. This was the first contemporary book I read and owned. That same library later introduced me to Jim Harrison (A Good Day to Die) and Robert Stone (Dog Soldiers). I'd come back to both of those writers in my twenties. Harrison became a lifelong friend when I impulsively wrote him a letter at 23 and much to my surprise he wrote back. Stylistically he was less of an influence than his dedication to the pursuit of the writing life, although his poetry resonates deeply. Robert Frost taught me that art exists in stories from rural life and landscape. When I encountered William Faulkner's work at college it was as if a bomb had gone off. All three of those writers made me realize that writers and stories could indeed arise from rural America, an important part of my own process. I'd add here Mark Twain and Thomas Hardy, both writers that also wrote about those marginalized within those rural landscapes and cultures. At college I also discovered Toni Morrison when i read The Bluest Eye, which was my first exposure to African American culture as seen from the inside. I attended a small alternative high school that was evenly split between white middle class kids and black kids from NYC. All of us were terrified, it's quite safe to say, but the small size of the school, about seventy kids, made it impossible for us all not to get to know each other deeply and personally. In my college years I began spending time in rural North Carolina and therefore began to learn more about race in America. All of this coincided to gather force and produce my first published novel, In The Fall. Other women that remain important to my own understanding and therefore my work, would be Anne Carson, Alice Munro, Annie Proulx, Nancy Huston, Marilynne Robinson and Jennifer Egan. The early reading of The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett. Also of significance was reading the Russians in my late teens, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Goncharov. And finally, in the late 70's-early 80's there was a paperback imprint that published Latin American writers in translation, not only Garcia Marquez but also Vargas Llosa, Cortazar, Amado, and more. Reading modern work from the other America also built upon my sense of the importance of stories from beyond the metropolitan and cosmopolitan worlds of New York, London, Paris. 

When and where do you write? 

I work in a studio space that's separate from but attached to my house—when my daughters were younger I had a studio in the barn. I enjoy the separation but also appreciate being able to wander into the house and visit, or cook dinner or simply step away from the work for a few minutes. I work on new writing in the afternoons. Mornings I edit, respond to email and letters, errands, things of that nature. When I'm composing new work I often step outside for a few minutes, into silence for my own thoughts to clarify but away from the desk. This seems to help a great deal. I am a bear about writing every day. The entire rhythm gets broken by a day away. Planned vacations are both a luxury and a relief. 

What are you working on now? 

I never talk about a work in progress. My standard bad joke when asked what my new book is about, is to respond, about 280 pages, so far. The truth is that it takes about a year after finishing a novel before I can accurately sum it up in a couple of sentences. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Daily, but that's simply part of the job. Several years ago I went through a bad patch of depression where I no longer understood the value of telling stories. Oddly enough I read throughout this time but did not write. A bad combination of personal factors brought me to that point. It was very strange and difficult to have the way I'd identified myself no longer make sense. Finally I realized the only way out of the hole was to write my way out, which I did. Someone, probably Harrison, once said, "Write or die." I have no retirement plan, beyond the hope of going on as long as I can and hopefully going facedown on the keyboard. 

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

Beckett's "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Truly sums up the writing life. I also like a line from a poem of Harrison, "I realized I'd never wake up in the morning and know how to play the piano."  And a well-known critic once told me, "If you're not pissing some people off, you're not doing your job."

What’s your advice to new writers?

Read. Write and write some more. Read. Keep writing. Read more. Also this: If you have a Plan B, if you give yourself a year or five to write and if that doesn't pan out, you'll go on to something else, skip the wasted time writing and go to Plan B. It's a life, not a job. All work has high points and low points so expect those. 

Jeffrey Lent grew up in Vermont and western New York, on dairy farms powered by draft horses. He attended Franconia College and SUNY College at Purchase. He lived in North Carolina for almost twenty years. His novels include In the Fall, which was a National Bestseller, Lost Nation, A Peculiar Grace, After You've Gone, and A Slant of Light, which was a finalist for the New England Book Award. His most recent novel is Before We Sleep. Lent lives with his wife and two daughters in central Vermont.

Chinelo Okparanta

How did you become a writer?

I always wrote as a small child, but primarily essays. I won a number of contests, starting at age 10, shortly after my family and I arrived in America. I remember an essay contest held in the greater Boston area that was advertised under the umbrella of "Justice for All." Most of the middle school students in the area entered. I wrote about different types of violence. Domestic violence was at the forefront of my mind. I was happy when I was announced a winner. The prize was a $100 savings bond, which was great, since my immigrant family was very poor at the time, and every day was a struggle. Those were the days when we relied on church food banks and thrift stores for nourishment and clothing. We--all of us, my 8 and 4 year old sisters included--had been cleaning floors and trash rooms and laundry rooms to be able to afford living in our basement, cockroach and mice-infested apartment. My writing, in a sense, became a minor sort of salvation, a respite: We could afford just a bit more with the money that I earned in that contest.

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

I claim so many influences--I love the works of Edwidge Danticat, Flora Nwapa, Toni Morrison, Alice Munro, Marilynne Robinson, Jumpa Lahiri. Of course, Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe. My own classmates at Iowa were also influential, as well as my teachers--Marilynne Robinson, Samantha Chang, Jim McPherson while he lived, Ethan Canin, Robin Hemley and Michael Martone. I was also a lover of French and Irish literature--Le Petit Prince by Antoine de St. Exupéry, Candide by Voltaire, Molière's L'Ecole des Femmes, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien. 

When and where do you write?

Formerly, in the early morning, before rising from bed, when my head was still clear. Now, whenever I have time and feel inspired. 

What are you working on now?

A novel and a collection of short stories.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

No. I never approach writing with a sense of "I must sit down and write this very minute." I write only when I feel inspired, which makes it more fun and less like an obligation. 

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

Focus on the work. All the rest is a great distraction. 

Also, during a group dinner at an artists' residency in Umbertide, Italy, a poet whose work I greatly admire, cautioned, "Never believe your own hype." I thought that was sound advice. He's one of the most humble writers I know. But if you're a person of color, a marginalized woman, a member of the lgbtq community, a victim of abuse, a person who is trying so hard to build yourself up from the falling apart-ness of life, for whom every day has been and sometimes still is a real struggle, a person who sees confidence as a thing belonging only to other people, then I say believe your own hype a bit. Sometimes believing can be a matter, not of arrogance, but of self-assurance, and ultimately, of survival. 

What’s your advice to new writers?

Focus on the work. All the rest is a great distraction.  

Chinelo Okparanta is the author of the short-story collection Happiness, Like Water and the novel Under the Udala Trees. Her honors include an O. Henry Prize, two Lambda Literary Awards, and finalist selections for the Young Lions, the Caine Prize, the Etisalat Prize, the Rolex Mentors and Protégé Arts Initiative, and the International Dublin Literary Award. She currently lives in Pennsylvania and teaches at Bucknell University.

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