As part of the Wisconsin Book Festival, seven-time novelist Curtis Sittenfeld sat down to answer questions about her writing career and her latest release, a collection of short stories called “Show Don’t Tell.”
On March 12, one of the first spring evenings where daylight extended to 6:30 p.m., novelist Curtis Sittenfeld spoke with fellow writer and co-founder of the Madison Writers’ Studio Susanna Daniel, sharing her bright and dynamic and authorial genius with a room full of mostly of women in their thirties and older who’d come to the Central branch of the Madison Public Library for this popular event hosted by the Wisconsin Book Festival.
During the hour-long Q&A to promote Sittenfeld’s newest collection of short stories, “Show Don’t Tell,” the two touched on five essential pieces of advice for up-and-coming writers.
Their tips were as follows:
Show until you can’t, and then tell.
Writers are often bombarded with one rule:“show don’t tell.”— in fact, Sittenfeld heard the directive often enough to make it the title of her new book. Both writers agreed that using dialogue and scenarios to convey information, although a valuable strategy, can’t do all the heavy lifting every single time. Once “showing” has been exhausted, then you can tell.
“It’s okay to tell sometimes,” Daniel said. “But do it powerfully, do it well.”
Schedule a time to write, and stick to it.
Writing is a career reliant on self discipline, which can be tough to develop, according to Sittenfeld. She suggested nailing down a time in your calendar for writing and only writing. And how might one resist the temptation to complete other tasks during this allotted time? Sittenfeld suggested grabbing a pen and paper, making a to-do list of all of the other things you have to do, and then staring at it; this will make you a lot more excited about ignoring those things in favor of recreational writing, she said.
Never start writing a book knowing that you’re actually capable of writing it.
Writing a story outside the bounds of what you believe you can achieve is the key to pushing yourself, Sittenfield said, crediting the idea to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan.
“There are certain novels that I think would have very conventional structures, very conventional characters and a very conventional plot that I could probably write pretty quickly, but I think I would be incredibly bored writing them,” Sittenfeld said. “I would rather spend a year decluttering my house than writing that novel.”
It’s okay to write and fill in gaps with research as needed—for works of fiction, at least.
Responding to an audience question about balancing research with writing, Sittenfeld revealed her strategy: writing until she doesn’t know. For example, when creating her latest novel, “Romantic Comedy,” which takes place at a “Saturday Night Live”-esque comedy show, Sittenfeld wrote until she encountered questions like“what kinds of equipment would be around?” Or, “which crew members would be on set?” Then she switched to doing research to fill those holes.
Confidence is an important part of any creative work.
Sometimes, according to Sittenfeld, confidence can feel impossible, and you’ll spend your days writing drafts that you’d be ashamed for anyone in your life to read, but trying to trust yourself and the process is key in accomplishing your writing dreams.
“I definitely have not figured out life, or how to be a person, but I have actually figured out how to write books,” she said. “It’s not a feeling of invincibility. It’s a feeling of ‘I can do the research,’ and ‘I can revise, like, 19 times.’”
This confidence in your ability to write is directly linked to your success and enjoyment of writing. According to Daniel, “There is no upside in letting your confidence fall – so just don’t do it.”
This Q&A was just one of many literary events hosted by the Wisconsin Book Festival. Visit their website for more information on upcoming events and programs.
