My Essay on Literary Hub
I wrote a piece about what really happens while writing a book (especially fiction, but this can apply to memoir, as well), and Literary Hub—many thanks to them!—published it on the day that MOLLY FALLS TO EARTH came out. I think a lot about the impulse that many writers, especially beginning ones maybe, have toward ten-step lists and formulas, and what this says about how writing is taught. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with lists and trying to find a concrete pathway through the sometimes murky terrain of creating something, but rather that the fever to plan everything out and know in advance what is going to happen—either in terms of the trajectory of the narrative or even what will happen to the book itself—can indicate a desire to dominate a process that is only partly concrete; the rest is mysterious, thankfully, and often out of our control. This is excellent and good news. Click here to read the essay on LitHub.