How to Write a Book Right Now
Every time I turn around, Jami Attenberg has published another novel or memoir. But I do not begrudge her this, because I know how she does it. For years, Jami has enlisted conspirators in writing a thousand words a day, come hell or high water. Today, she’s out with another book (see what I mean?) about writing books, featuring advice from dozens of writers. The book is called 1000 Words. She’s doing events with contributors in New Orleans, Brooklyn, D.C., and Philly this week and may be appearing near you soon. We chatted the other day before she left her home in New Orleans for the tour.
What I really liked about reading this book was — well, my writing advice is like yours. You have to write a lot. Sure, be nice to yourself, but go. But then other people had other kinds of advice. J. Courtney Sullivan’s thing was so brilliant. She had a really young kid. She didn’t have child care. And so every night she would send herself an email with the same subject line. And when she came back later, she called these emails her bread crumbs waiting for her to come and write them through. That’s a brilliant technique.
I could write this book because these people all told me I could.
You said recently you’ve been thinking a lot about aging, as one does at our age. Are you leaving yourself bread crumbs about aging?
I think so. I started this other little newsletter about it. It has to do with aging as a woman, menopause, the culture. It’s very small, personal stuff, building a little community out of it. But it’s not the big thing that I do — well! I always say it’s not the thing that I do and then it’ll always become something more. I think I’m using this thinking for a character. If you’ve been writing professionally for a long time, nothing you do is a waste of time. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah!
It’s the same thing as the vibe of the book. It’s not a waste of time. People worry too much about that. Why don’t you be playful? Why don’t you enjoy what you’re doing and not worry, not compare yourself to other people or say, Oh, I’m not this. I’m not that. Just sit down and try it.
All of our lives show that if you follow interests, they take you somewhere worthwhile. This book is really interesting about — this is really ’90s — but about declaring, “Well, I’m an artist. I’m living an artist’s life. Where I live and how I live reflect these choices.” It’s refreshing to hear.
I was thinking about the very first time I met you, I think you had a party for bloggers? It was on the Lower East Side, and maybe it was even that bar that looked like an airplane. [Idlewild, on Houston Street, opened in 1998 and there is not a single picture of it online that I can find! The staff wore “stewardess outfits”!]
That is so funny. Co-hosted by writer and writing teacher Blaise Allysen Kearsley, I believe.
We didn’t really know what blogging meant or if it would do anything for us or if it would take us anywhere. We were like, “This seems kind of interesting and cool.” It felt experimental. Your imagination never really steers you wrong. Your curiosity doesn’t steer you wrong.
Had you published your first book yet?
No, I just had a blog. And I was making zines. I miss it. I really do. I like having things you can touch, because so much of what we do is ephemeral on the internet. I still have them. They’re like precious little objects to me. And they don’t take two years, too.
Books are so long, and that’s what stops so many of us, or traps so many of us.
Now that I’ve crossed over the 50 threshold. I’m really seeing, Okay, this is the second half of my life. I figured out what I like to do, but there’s more to learn, more to try. I just want to keep doing as much cool stuff as I can for the rest of my time.
I was thinking about bad habits — habits that have stayed too long at the fair. That’s drinking, eating, smoking. When you quit smoking, were you afraid that you would never write again?
Oh, I did love smoking. It was definitely how I took a break. If I write a couple hundred words, then I can have a cigarette. And it was part of going out. The conversation was better outside than it was inside. Or so we believed. I don’t know if it’s true, but it is fun to hang out with the smokers. I’m okay without it.
A lot of the book is super-plain advice. Like, “Listen, you’re going to do a messy draft.” And then in comes Patricia Lockwood who’s literally like, “Okay, so I needed a bag of magic rocks to tell me what to write every day.” Do you ever do anything esoteric or superstitious? Do you ask anything for help?
Every once in a while I’ll have Alex Chee read my tarot cards.
He’s a great tarot reader.
That’s what his bio should be. Legendary tarot reader Alexander Chee. But yeah, I spend time thinking about ghosts and visiting otherworldly places, catacombs and cemeteries. I live in a very haunted city. It’s a special environment that’s very creative, and there’s a lot of interesting old houses. This city is really inspiring to me. This city maybe helps me.
You write about the sounds in your house in the front and how that soundscape is different from the sounds in the back. The environment of the place is part of what you’re making.
Everything I do is centered around being creative in one way or another. At this point I have to have my long walks and I have to read and I have to write in my journal. And I know a lot of people who are creative or interesting or open to creative conversations. That’s really helpful. It’s having people you can surround yourself with. The book is so much about community, and I really believe in that. Finding your people is half the battle.
People have asked you since forever: How do I write a novel? Has your answer now changed, cemented? Now that you have a big answer in a book form, do you have a set answer that you give them?
There are no shortcuts. The most important thing is that the best part of it is the writing. The best part of it is making something cool. We should really enjoy that process and not worry about the book deal or if you’re going to get an agent or if you should build your social-media presence now. Which is a question that people ask: “How much should I be focusing on social media?” And I’m like, “You should be focusing on getting 65,000 words down on the page.” And enjoying it. Why do you want to be here? What kind of writer do you want to be? What kind of stories do you want to tell? Those are the real questions you need to be asking. The answers are going to fill you up. The answers are going to help you grow as a person. Do I sound self-help-y?
No. You’re saying what I say to young writers, which is: “You probably don’t write enough. You’re uncomfortable writing. If you wrote a thousand or 4,000 words a day, you’re going to feel more secure. You’re going to be a better writer every day that you write.” But that also feels boring and unsatisfying. So people ask about your career.
The people I know who have done really cool stuff, it’s like they just figured out what they were interested in. They just spent time trying different things and writing about different things. And I don’t think you’re supposed to do something you feel like you’re supposed to. You make a career out of what you love to do.
Also, we should acknowledge that you can’t move to New York City and spend $250 a month for a room in an East Village apartment anymore. So that path of becoming a writer has changed.
It’s really cool that people can live in other cities that are more affordable. There are people writing books all over the place. There are people making their art all over the place. You don’t have to be in New York City anymore. The internet has changed all that. The way we communicate has changed all that. You can be anywhere and make your art. I’m also not saying that you can make a living at it. In fact, the book is not about that at all. This book is not about getting a publishing deal but the satisfaction you get out of making your art.
People talk about adversity a lot in the book, which I really appreciate. Rebecca Carroll writes about how she works in the middle of her house while her son and her husband are watching TV. She’s saying, “If you’re going to write, you’re going to write. If you’re not going to write, you’re not going to write.” And Rumaan Alam says something really funny about how he was blown away when a friend told him “No one is going to ever ask you to write a book.” We should go to people’s doors like Jehovah’s Witnesses, like Prince. We should ring people’s doors and be like, “Hello, it’s time for you to write a book.”
These letters of advice showed me how to write the book. My stuff is fine, but the book is really just a vessel for their advice.
I really loved hearing from parents about how they met those challenges. I had a lot of respect for how they did that.
They just work all the time, and they’re hungry for it, and they fight for it. I mean, I fight for it too, but they’ve chosen this more complex path. I did NPR’s “1A” show with Deesha Philyaw and Isaac Fitzgerald, and Deesha answered a question in a really interesting way. She had four kids and then she worked on that story collection over a ten-year period. Somebody asked, “How do you manage your time when you have other obligations?” I always am afraid to answer that question. I literally don’t have any obligations except I have to take my dog for a walk twice a day. I have the luxury of time. She said that you have to be willing to disappoint other people in order to be a writer. I thought that that was really fascinating. Sometimes you will make choices that other people might not be happy with — but for sure you will be happy with yourself because you claimed your time to write.