#17 Nicholson Baker on Writing Every Day, Attitude is All, Doing the Work: Three Questions with Bryan Gruley, The Power of Dialogue
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"Vehicle on the Streets of Tokyo"/Utagawa Yoshitora
WRITERS SPEAK
"If you write every day, you're going to write a lot of things that aren't terribly good, but you're going to have given things a chance to have their moments of sprouting."
- Nicholson Baker
Ever since I've committed to writing a page a day. Baker's sentiment has become especially appealing. If, like me, you're on a writing journey whose destination is uncertain. It's comforting to know that it doesn't matter if it's as good as you want. By making room for "moments of sprouting," you'll have something to revise which is where real writing happens.
CRAFT LESSON: Attitude is All
Three decades of working with writers and editors have convinced me that attitude—a way of thinking that is reflected in a person's behavior—matters more than talent, as I argue in this week's Craft Lesson.
"Most people place an undue emphasis on talent," influential designer Milton Glaser said. "I don't doubt that it exists, but talent is essentially a potential for something. The issue is really not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire and persistence. Talent without these things vanishes and even modest talent with those characteristics grows."
Talent may open the door, but attitude gets you inside the room. And as legendary coach Lou Holtz said, "The attitude we choose is by far the most important one we make every day."
A good attitude can pay off. That was the case for David Maraniss when he was writing investigations and series at The Washington Post. When news broke, he was one of the first to pitch in. “Even if I’m doing a series,” he told me, “I say, ‘Look, if you guys need me, I’d be happy to do something.’ I try to be in a position to say yes, and I try to volunteer so that I can have enormous freedom the rest of the time.
“I like newspapers, and I love to write on deadline. And so I volunteer. But one of the reasons I do that is so that there’s a fair exchange, where they know that I’m always around when they need me, and then in return, I get a lot of freedom the rest of the time to do what I want to do.” Maraniss, who won the Pulitzer Prize for one of those series, has gone on to write a string of best-selling critically acclaimed books.
Writing is a craft. It relies on a set of skills: the ability to generate ideas, excellence in reporting and researching, writing and revision (and more revision), understanding structure, and facility with language, syntax and style. Mastery requires years of study, work and, above all, patience. Malcolm Gladwell famously estimated that achieving mastery in many fields requires 10,000 hours of work. True or not, there's no doubt that becoming a good writer takes an enormous expenditure of time and effort. Without the right attitude and the willingness to do that work, the chances of success are slim to none.
In a field where so much — success and rejection for starters — is out of the writer's hands, attitude is the one thing that we can control. We can decide whether to procrastinate or write every day no matter how uninspired we feel, give up or commit to one more revision, try our hand at a different genre, or learn from other writers rather than be consumed with jealousy about their achievements.
Inspired by the wisdom of Maraniss, coach Holtz and designer Glaser, I found myself musing about the nature of attitude and its importance to writers, including myself, who seek success. It's a list I printed out and keep close as I work. I hope it may be of value to you.
Attitude matters more than talent.
Attitude makes the difference between giving up or sticking with a story.
Attitude means making one more phone call, writing one more draft and burrowing into that draft one more time to refine and polish your story.
Attitude means a collaborative relationship with editors rather than a toxic one.
Attitude sometimes means submerging your own interests to contribute to the greater good.
Attitude means submitting a story again the same day someone rejects it.
In the end, attitude is what makes the difference between failure and spectacular success.
"Illustration of a Balloon Ascending/Utagawa Yoshitora
INTERVIEW: Doing the Work: Three Questions with Bryan Gruley
Whenever Bryan Gruley hears a writer say, "That story just wrote itself," he has just two words: "If only."
The most important lesson Gruley, who writes long-form features for Bloomberg Business Magazine and critically acclaimed crime thrillers, has learned over the years is that it is hard work, not happenstance, that makes stories happen.
"Do the work" is his mantra, he told me in our interview. You can read our entire conversation in "Three Questions with Bryan Gruley."
When he's pursuing a feature story, doing the work means "looking at every page of notes, documents, and other materials I've gathered in my weeks of research, even though only about 1 percent of what's there is likely to make it into my story."
As a novelist, "doing the work is more about sitting at my laptop every morning and putting words to digital paper. Whether it's 300 or 500 or 1,000 words a day, if I keep doing the work, I know I'll eventually have enough in front of me that I can begin to see my way to the middle of a book and, finally, an end."
Gruley, whose latest novel is "Purgatory Bay," says he loves rewriting, "especially the tactile feel of using a pen to strike out words, phrases, and sentences. Eventually, I know that if I do the work and stick to my laborious process, I will give myself the best chance to produce something that someone will tell me they love."
TIP OF THE WEEK
"Dialogue is the most intimate part of a scene—you’re not just watching what is happening from afar, you’re listening to a conversation. So, a little bit can go a long way."
This piece of advice comes from Greg Borowski, longtime watchdog editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Every Christmas for the last quarter-century, he has published a piece of short fiction keyed to the holiday. His stories are peppered with dialogue, an indispensable element of narrative whether it's true or, in his case, made up.
BOOKBAG
Cause for celebration: After a long hiatus, The Atlantic announced it will again be publishing short fiction. I've tried my chances several times with the magazine in the past, without success but with encouraging rejection letters from its legendary fiction editor, C. Michael Curtis. The Atlantic has a long history of publishing famous writers and those like Adrienne LaFrance whose stalled career was launched when the editors accepted one of her stories. At a time when fiction markets are sadly dwindled, this news is welcome for writers with short stories they hope to see in print.
Worth reading: From the very first line, a sense of foreboding permeates "What Really Happened to Malaysia's Missing Airplane." The story is a comprehensive investigation by The Atlantic's William Langewiesche of what happened to Malayasia Airlines Flight MH 370 which vanished on March 8, 2014 in the Indian Ocean. Langewiesche's expert, detailed analysis doesn't solve the mystery, but his account must be read to appreciate its investigative power, the closest we may ever get to solving the mystery of the missing plane.
"View of Shibaura"/Utagawa Yoshitora
CHIP IN YOUR EAR
"Attitude Adjustment"/Hank Williams Jr.
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