Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘writers on writing’

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writing: how much do writers like doing it?

Weighing in on this question for the Guardian are authors A.L. Kennedy, Amit Chaudhuri, Hari Kunzru, John Banville, Will Self, Joyce Carol Oates, Geoff Dyer, Ronan Bennett, and Julie Myerson. I identify most with Hari Kunzru‘s take; yes to the freak-out and self-disgust but also the “spinning words like plates…”: I get great pleasure from writing, but not always, or even usually. Writing a novel is largely an exercise in psychological discipline – trying to balance your project on your chin while negotiating a minefield of depression and freak-out. Beginning is daunting; being in the middle makes you feel like […]


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recommended interview: Meeting House talks to Kelly Link

“I really loved reading books when, at some point, I got the feeling I wasn’t supposed to be reading them.” My love for Kelly Link just grows and grows. That quote is from a great interview with her from Meeting House, a self-described “weekly journal of New England Literature and the Arts” whose site I will definitely be returning to. Another Link-able quote: “I don’t trust people who seem trustworthy, at least not in fiction. I’ve read too many mystery novels. In real life I think I’m more often gullible than not, easily disarmed or charmed by people I shouldn’t […]


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Khaled Hosseini

Kathryn forwarded me this Washington Post piece by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Here’s an excerpt: I prefer to discuss politics through my novels, but I am truly dismayed these days. Twice last week alone, speakers at McCain-Palin rallies have referred to Sen. Barack Obama, with unveiled scorn, as Barack Hussein Obama…What I find most unconscionable is the refusal of the McCain-Palin tandem to publicly condemn the cries of “traitor,” “liar,” “terrorist” and (worst of all) “kill him!” that could be heard at recent rallies. McCain is perfectly capable of telling hecklers off. […]


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characters behaving badly

I know I’d rather spend time with Becky Sharp than with that drip Amelia Sedley. — Juliet Annan Juliet Annan offers this post on The Penguin Blog – Little Dorrit deserves a smack – on readers who whine about “unlikeable” characters, including those in Zoe Heller’s The Believers. I, too, am tired of hearing people say a character is “unsympathetic,” though at least the term is more nuanced than “unlikeable.” But who is at fault when a character is unsympathetic? If we have not a single way in — if said character has a heart of ash and no desires […]


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length matters

In this week’s NY Times Book Review, Stephen Millhauser waxes succinctly on the short story — its virtues and titanic ambitions: The short story — how modest in bearing! How unassuming in manner! It sits there quietly, eyes lowered, almost as if trying not to be noticed. And if it should somehow attract your attention, it says quickly, in a brave little self-deprecating voice alive to all the possibilities of disappointment: “I’m not a novel, you know. Not even a short one. If that’s what you’re looking for, you don’t want me.” Read the rest (and see what cut of […]


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recommended review: Erika Dreifus on How Fiction Works by James Wood

One of my favorite blogs is Erika Dreifus’ Practicing Writing, an offshoot of her larger site The Practicing Writer, originally referred to me by Celeste. One day I’ll have to devote a long entry to the awesomeness of the many rich resources and services Erika provides to writers–most free of charge–but for now I’ll just link you to her astute review of James Wood’s How Fiction Works, a book that I’ve been both savoring and smacking against things this fall. How Fiction Works will be FWR’s next Discussion Review. If you’d like to join the conversation — I’m getting in […]




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