The WELL: inkwell.vue.250: Marisa Silver, NO DIRECTION HOME

#67: surly guy in a tux (kurtr) Mon 15 Aug 05 01:17

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 01:17:00 PDT

So which characters resonate especially strongly with people here? Which seem especially well fleshed out? [Read entire topic]

#66: It's a new sun to me (nukem777) Sun 14 Aug 05 07:13

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 07:13:00 PDT

It was a great pleasure to have you here. You are very refreshing in your remarks and personal honesty as a writer. All the best in your new endeavors. [Read entire topic]

#65: Marisa Silver (marisasilver) Sat 13 Aug 05 18:01

Sat, 13 Aug 2005 18:01:00 PDT

And thank all those at The Well for inviting me to participate, and thanks ot all those who posted for their good and incisive questions. [Read entire topic]

#64: Howard A. Rodman (rodman) Sat 13 Aug 05 12:23

Sat, 13 Aug 2005 12:23:00 PDT

I have to thank Marisa for being articulate, honest, brave. I learned a lot about her process, and a lot about writing. If this were a dinner party, I'd invite her back next week.

Perhaps anyone who has more specific questions/comments about NO DIRECTION HOME can post them here, and perhaps Marisa will check in every once in a while to answer them with her customary elan.

To the INKWELL hosts, and to all who posted: largest thanks. [Read entire topic]

#63: Cynthia Dyer-Bennet (cdb) Fri 12 Aug 05 12:46

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 12:46:00 PDT

What a delicious conversation this has been, Marisa. I thank you and Howard for joining us for the past two weeks, it's just flown by!

Our virtual spotlight has turned to a new discussion, but that doesn't mean this one has to end. The topic will remain open indefinitely, so if you're able to continue, you're more than welcome to do so. Thank you! [Read entire topic]

#62: Marisa Silver (marisasilver) Fri 12 Aug 05 11:20

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 11:20:00 PDT

You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed the back and forth. [Read entire topic]

#61: Gail Williams (gail) Fri 12 Aug 05 11:10

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 11:10:00 PDT

Thanks for all this thoughtful insight into the process of writing fiction. [Read entire topic]

#60: Marisa Silver (marisasilver) Fri 12 Aug 05 08:39

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 08:39:00 PDT

That is another great question. It is very hard to clear your head for writing when you're thinking about reviews, publicity, touring around. And even if there is nothing specific to attend to, there is something about having the book out there in the world that is mentally distracting for a while that makes it hard to be in that very private space that is required for writing.

What I do is that when the book is being launched, I don't put a lot of pressure on myself to do a lot of writing, knowing that I am not mentally prepared to go into that quiet place. But after a while, it turns out that I get frustrated enough with not doing anything creative that I am ready to put the thoughts of the public life of the book out of my head and get back to work. It becomes a kind of balm to check out of the business part of the writing life and go hide for a while.

Of course, my "public" life as a writer is minimal compared to best selling authors, or authors of enormous reputation who are being asked to lecture or travel even between publications. So, the requirements of me are not that extensive or pressing. I do my book tour, do whatever publicity and press is required when my book comes out, deal with sporadic requests as they come up. But it's not so overwhelming that it isn't easy for me to pretty much close the book, as it were, on one project after all that business is done, and move on.

It would be interesting to know how such a writer deals with these issues. [Read entire topic]

#59: surly guy in a tux (kurtr) Fri 12 Aug 05 00:32

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 00:32:00 PDT

How do you balance time spent promoting your book and taking care of the other business aspects of writing with having the right situation for being creative? It seems like the two parts (promotion and creativity) have conflicting demands. [Read entire topic]

#58: Marisa Silver (marisasilver) Thu 11 Aug 05 21:51

Thu, 11 Aug 2005 21:51:00 PDT

The characters are not actually patterned on anybody I know personally. They are all very much invented characters who I invest with characteristics and personalities that I feel are true and accurate. Sometimes I draw certain aspects of characters from real life observations or interactions, but not all the time, and not usually.

I am a mother, yes, but Erlinda and Caroline do not represent what I feel like as a mother, they represent what THEY feel like as mothers.

The research I did for NDH had mostly to do with researching the world I was writing about in Mexico, and researching the border crossing issues and particulars.

The twins voices is a good and interesting issue to discuss. Writing children is a tricky thing. You can choose to write very much from their perspective in first person, in which case, unless you are writing about a terribly precocious child (which, you notice, a lot of writers do choose to do,) you are sort of stuck with the way they might be able to articulate their thoughts, which might not be all that articulate. Or you can write from a very adult POV, sort of a backward looking glance at the child so that you can imbue him or her with a lot of perspective and awareness that he or she would not necessarily have had at the time of their youth. I did something different from both of these choices. I chose to give the twins very age appropriate dialogue and actions, but I invested their interior life, which is told from a third person perspective, with a kind of richness that I believe children do have in their thoughts. They may not be able to articulate these thoughts as succinctly as an adult would, but I believe what goes on inside a kid is every bit as textured and thoughtful as what goes on inside an adult mind. So I made a little leap, perhaps, and, using the third person, allowed the narrative to open up this richness. [Read entire topic]