Anne Corlett

How did you become a writer?

I wrote compulsively from a very young age, but took a break from it when I was first working as a lawyer in London. The break lasted ten years, and came to an end when I suddenly decided that I needed to sit down then and there and write the novel that had been brewing for all that time. Unfortunately, this was right in the middle of a move from London to Somerset, and our eldest son was 18 months old at the time. I was therefore extremely unpopular with everyone involved in the moving process, and I’m probably very lucky that people were still speaking to me by the time the first draft was finished.

That novel got me an agent, and garnered some interest, but ultimately went unpublished. The second got as far as an acquisitions meeting. It was the third, written in the closing months of the Bath Spa Creative Writing MA, after a late change of project, that made it to the finishing post.

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

I had a very inspirational English teacher when I was at secondary school. She always encouraged me in my writing, and also encouraged me to read widely. She did, however, once say to me that if I was serious about writing, I needed to spend less time reading science fiction and fantasy and more time on the classics. It was probably the one bit of her advice that I didn’t take, as shortly after that I discovered some of the incredible speculative fiction of writers such as Margaret Atwood and Doris Lessing, and, as a result, realised that ‘literary fiction’ and ‘speculative fiction’ were not mutually exclusive concepts!

While we’re talking about writing influences, I’d also like to give a nod to the wonderful How Not to Write a Novel by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman. It might make you wince regularly as you recognise some of your own horrible habits, but it’s ultimately an incredibly insightful and accurate look at the worst mistakes that a writer can make, set out in a humourous, laughing-with-you-not-at-you way.

When and where do you write?

I’m a bit of a nomad when it comes to writing. If I try to spend the whole working day in the same place, I generally get bored and find my attention wandering. I therefore tend to move about over the course of the day. I might start in the local bookshop café, then head home to my desk, for a couple of hours, before moving downstairs to the kitchen table for a last burst. If the weather is good. For some reason, I also like being high up when I’m working, so I’ve been known to head up the garden to perch on the kids’ climbing frame with my laptop.

As to the ‘when’, the answer is any time I’m not being harassed by three small boys who expect me to act as cook, cleaner, chauffeur and referee, and be on call 24/7.

What are you working on now?

I’ve returned to the project I put on hold to write The Space Between the Stars. It’s set in an alternate version of London and based around the strange and compelling world of immersive theatre.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I’ve never suffered from a complete block, but I do sometimes find things very slow going. Oddly, the times when I’m plodding along, thinking ‘Good grief, I’m even boring myself here’ quite often seem to be the times that produce my better work!

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

My MA tutor Maggie Gee put a huge amount of time and effort into getting me to realise that, when it comes to writing, less is almost always more. She once said that I had a habit of ruining a great sentence by going on just a beat too long. That advice often echoes in my mind when I feel myself getting carried away, and trying to remember the last time I hit the full-stop key.

What’s your advice to new writers?

I think that learning to write is a patchwork process. You can’t rely entirely on courses and classes – you have to spend time on your own, just getting the words down on the page and learning from your own mistakes. But equally, there probably aren’t that many writers who can reach publication standard entirely on their own natural ability, with no input from anyone else. It’s probably worth spending a bit of time figuring out what it is that you want to write, and getting a decent number of words down on the page, before starting to look around for ways to hone your skills. Have a look at some books on writing – like How Not to Write a Novel, mentioned above – or online courses. Once you’re feeling confident with the basics, you might want to consider joining a local writing group – feeding back on other people’s work is as valuable as receiving feedback on your own – or investing in a more intensive course or retreat.

Anne Corlett is originally from the north-east of England, but sort of slid down the map and now lives in the south-west with her partner and three young sons. She is a criminal lawyer by profession, but now writes full-time – or as full time as the aforementioned sons will allow. The Space Between the Stars is her first published novel, and was released in the UK on1 June by Pan Macmillan and in the US on 13 June by Berkley Publishing.

David Burr Gerrard

How did you become a writer?

Reading certain books gave me a certain intense feeling, and it seemed to me that a major point of being alive was to experience that feeling. I wanted to write books that would make readers experience that feeling. So I wrote, then threw away what I had written because it was terrible, then wrote some more. Eventually I made a significant amount of headway on two manuscripts—one called Short Century, the second called The Epiphany Machine—but with each one I got stuck. I went back and forth between the two for years. I often thought that neither manuscript would ever be published, that nothing I wrote would ever be published. I kept writing anyway. Short Century was published in 2014, The Epiphany Machine is being published this summer, and I am well under way on my third novel.  

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

Kafka is the clearest influence on The Epiphany Machine. He’s the only writer in the history of literature whose work might reasonably be called “realistic.” My other biggest influence is Philip Roth, the writer whose books I always want to put down and yell at, then to keep reading. That’s my model for what engagement with literature should look like. If you’re not tempted to hate a book, why would you bother loving it?

My most important writing teacher was Leslie Woodard, with whom I took creative-writing classes in high school and college. She died in 2013 at the age of fifty-three. I am only stating the facts when I say that I still hear her voice in my head whenever I sit down to write, and especially whenever I try to avoid sitting down to write.  

When and where do you write? 

Whenever and wherever I can manage not to have an internet connection. This usually means both leaving my apartment and using the Internet-blocking app that is strangely but perceptively called Freedom. 

What are you working on now?

I’m writing a novel about a mysterious disease that appears to be killing everyone born in the calendar year 1981 (the year I was born) but is leaving everyone else unaffected. It obviously reflects my own concerns about my encroaching middle age, just as The Epiphany Machine reflects my own concerns about finding my own way and my own value system. I like taking whatever is most personal to me and spinning it around I can find a weird angle that allows me to see it more fully and clearly.   

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Every day. Writer’s block is like heavy traffic or problems with the subway on your commute to work. It’s so frustrating it can make you want to peel your skin off. But you wouldn’t let a bad commute keep you from getting to work, would you?

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

Write every day, and accept no excuse to miss a day. Then, when you inevitably go for days or weeks or months without writing, forgive yourself and get right back to work. 

What’s your advice to new writers?

That even when you’ve ignored the best writing advice, even when you feel you’ve squandered every opportunity, even when your other obligations nibble at your day until it seems there is nothing left but the tiniest crumbs, even when you’re convinced you have zero talent and that your time at the keyboard could be better spent any other way, still, STILL you can get some writing done today. Finally, the best writing advice is also the best life advice: remember that nobody else has any idea what they’re doing, either.

David Burr Gerrard is the author of THE EPIPHANY MACHINE (Putnam, July 2017) and SHORT CENTURY (Rare Bird, 2014). He teaches creative writing at the 92nd Street Y, The New School, and the Sackett Street Writers' Workshop. He lives in Queens, NY with his wife.

Andrea Askowitz

How did you become a writer?

I became a writer after I failed at saving the world. I was 25 when I went to graduate school in public policy because I wanted to understand the government so I could be a more effective advocate. In grad school I had a teacher, Jill Kasle, who had us write a one-page story in the style of an author. I picked The Bell Jar and really thought I nailed Sylvia Plath. When I first read The Bell Jar I though it was funny although I did get that the narrator was severely depressed. The last time I read it, it didn’t seem as funny, but almost 25 years ago, Plath’s humor and simple style gave me the feeling that I could write too. The same thing happened when I was assigned A Room of One’s Own and was instructed to explain my book in the voice of Virginia Woolf. I understood that the book was a serious essay on the inequality between men and women, but I also thought Woolf was really funny. I still remember the line, "It is the nature of biscuits to be dry and these were biscuits to the core.” Woolf was talking about how bad the food was at women’s colleges versus the food at men’s colleges. After grad school, while looking for a job (not that hard), I read Julia Cameron’s The Artist's Way. She tells you to get rid of people in your life who are crazy-makers. At the time I had a big, unrequited crush on a woman who was a drinker, and to stay away from her, for nine months, I holed up and wrote a novel. The novel is somewhere buried on my computer, but the experience got me started. For about 10 years after that, I worked a few jobs—environmentalist, advocate for homeless people, reproductive rights organizer—and got fired from all of them before I decided, at 35, to take writing seriously. That was 14 years ago.

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

I've had great teachers: Joyce Maynard, Terrie Silverman, Jill Kasle, Peggy Sanday, Cheryl Strayed, Steve Almond, Vikram Chandra, Ann Randolph. The books that have taught me are The Bell Jar, A Room of One’s Own, The Things They Carried, At Home in the World, In Cold Blood, Into Thin Air, Wild, Torch, Tiny Beautiful Things, so many David Sedaris stories, same for Joyce Maynard, and lots and lots of essays both published and ones written by my students for almost ten years.

When and where do you write?

I write in my office, which is the garage of my house. I get to my desk at about 9 a.m., but I’m never in a huge rush. Everyday, I try to write until my kids come home from school at 4:30, but I don’t write everyday.

What are you working on now?

I finished my second memoir currently titled, Attention Whore, which is about a woman who needs lots of attention. The author Kim Severson says the kitchen table is the modern-day tribal fire, the place where people come together to connect. I’m looking for tribal fires everywhere. Sometimes I even start them. The problem is, I’m married to a classic introvert who needs hours of alone-time daily. You know how they say every couple has their fight? Ours is the one where my wife isn’t listening and I want more attention.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I think I might be suffering right now. This is a hard moment because I broke up with my agent. I’m looking for a new agent and at the same time, I polish and re-polish my finished memoir. I know I need to start something new, but the book just needs a little more polish. Also, I’m chicken-shit.

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

Steve Almond said he got better as a writer by reading bad writing. He was the editor of his college journal, so lots of the submissions weren’t the best. I took that as advice, to put myself in the position of editor, which I do as the teacher and co-producer of the podcast Writing Class Radio.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Get yourself into a writing class or form a writing group. Learn to be a good listener. Figure out what works and what doesn’t in other people's stories so you can identify what works and doesn’t in your own. Also, there’s nothing more motivating than having an audience and deadlines. If you can’t find a group or even if you can, listen to the podcast Writing Class Radio. 

Andrea Askowitz is the author of the memoir My Miserable, Lonely, Lesbian Pregnancy (Cleis) and the editor of Badass: True Stories, the Double Album (Lominy Books). Her stories have appeared in The New York Times, Salon, xoJane, Brain, Child, AEON, and have aired on NPR and PBS.  She is the founder of the Knight award-winning, true-stories reading series Lip Service. She is also co-producer, teacher and co-host of the podcast Writing Class Radio. Andrea grew up in Miami where she lives with her wife, Victoria, and children Natasha, Sebastian and Beast. Tweet her at @andreaaskowitz. Info at andreaaskowitz.com.