Ask the Author: Mary Smathers
Answered Questions (7)
Mary Smathers
I feel that family history is a mystery for everyone.
I am very interested in searching back to my parents', grandparents' and even generations before to discover what their lives were like, what their hopes and dreams were. Those are the mysteries in my life that could become book plots.
I have been researching my own father's life for some time and have plans to someday put my search into a book--whether fiction or non-fiction or memoir is still a mystery to me!! Other book projects right now but this is one for the future!
I am very interested in searching back to my parents', grandparents' and even generations before to discover what their lives were like, what their hopes and dreams were. Those are the mysteries in my life that could become book plots.
I have been researching my own father's life for some time and have plans to someday put my search into a book--whether fiction or non-fiction or memoir is still a mystery to me!! Other book projects right now but this is one for the future!
Mary Smathers
I am not sure I totally buy “writer’s block.” I think writing is incredibly hard work. It takes enormous discipline and determination. It takes research and planning. Writing includes patience. Patience with yourself. Patience with the process. Patience with the story to form and grow. It involves revision, revision, revision. It is just a ton of work and so you have to be disciplined to sit down and work. Therefore, if you are having problems, you need to take some time to analyze why.
First, you have to be inspired. As I mentioned in the answer to the question about advice for aspiring writers you have to write from a place of deep emotion. If you don’t really care that much, if you don’t feel anger, passion, urgency, awe, compassion, grief, jealousy, desire, love or admiration, or some such gripping emotion, then it is going to be difficult to dredge up the will, the guts, the discipline to write.
The cliché of “write what you know” to me is a bit simplistic. I think it is more like write what you care about, what you know something about but also write what you are curious about and want to delve into more. You are going to spend a lot of time on the topic, the story, with your characters, so make sure you are writing about things you care enough about to spend time on.
Confront your fears. Fear, and the related insecurity, self-doubt and I’m-not-good-enough sentiments, which can overwhelm a writer, can be debilitating blocks.
SO, to deal with writer’s block, you’ve got to work hard. You’ve got to be determined and motivated by emotion and you’ve got to plow through fears and self-loathing. Ha! All way easier said than done.
Several key tricks to keep me going have been:
1. Read. A good writer is a good reader. Read everything you possibly like and admire. Read different styles of writing, different genre. Just read.
2. And then look at the quality, the language, the craft of what good writers are doing. When you don’t like a book or story or essay, take some time to analyze why. You have to remember your audience when you are writing.
3. Read craft books and essays to give you guidance and tips but don’t overdo that. Just be sure to include them in your reading. Read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Read Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. Listen to her podcasts, Magic Lessons. Read Lisa Cron's Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence. And there are many, many others, of course, but I have found these to be helpful ones.
4. Write. Sit in that goddamned chair and write something. Anne Lamott’s “shitty first drafts” are key. It won’t be good much of the time but you can’t revise on a blank page. You’ve got to accept that much of what you write will be crap. OK, fine. Then write it and then deal with the crap later, in the revising, rewriting and editing stages. But you gotta get some “shitty first drafts” down on the page before all else. Give yourself a pass. Face the fear head on and write. No one is perfect. Even Anne Lamott or Lisa Cron.
5. Finally, be real. In non-fiction, essays, history or biography, you have to get your facts exactly right. There can be no straying from the truth. But in fiction, you can make it up. Invent and imagine. But it has to ring true to the heart. If your reader doesn’t buy it, then you are sunk. A writer must be authentic above all.
First, you have to be inspired. As I mentioned in the answer to the question about advice for aspiring writers you have to write from a place of deep emotion. If you don’t really care that much, if you don’t feel anger, passion, urgency, awe, compassion, grief, jealousy, desire, love or admiration, or some such gripping emotion, then it is going to be difficult to dredge up the will, the guts, the discipline to write.
The cliché of “write what you know” to me is a bit simplistic. I think it is more like write what you care about, what you know something about but also write what you are curious about and want to delve into more. You are going to spend a lot of time on the topic, the story, with your characters, so make sure you are writing about things you care enough about to spend time on.
Confront your fears. Fear, and the related insecurity, self-doubt and I’m-not-good-enough sentiments, which can overwhelm a writer, can be debilitating blocks.
SO, to deal with writer’s block, you’ve got to work hard. You’ve got to be determined and motivated by emotion and you’ve got to plow through fears and self-loathing. Ha! All way easier said than done.
Several key tricks to keep me going have been:
1. Read. A good writer is a good reader. Read everything you possibly like and admire. Read different styles of writing, different genre. Just read.
2. And then look at the quality, the language, the craft of what good writers are doing. When you don’t like a book or story or essay, take some time to analyze why. You have to remember your audience when you are writing.
3. Read craft books and essays to give you guidance and tips but don’t overdo that. Just be sure to include them in your reading. Read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Read Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. Listen to her podcasts, Magic Lessons. Read Lisa Cron's Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence. And there are many, many others, of course, but I have found these to be helpful ones.
4. Write. Sit in that goddamned chair and write something. Anne Lamott’s “shitty first drafts” are key. It won’t be good much of the time but you can’t revise on a blank page. You’ve got to accept that much of what you write will be crap. OK, fine. Then write it and then deal with the crap later, in the revising, rewriting and editing stages. But you gotta get some “shitty first drafts” down on the page before all else. Give yourself a pass. Face the fear head on and write. No one is perfect. Even Anne Lamott or Lisa Cron.
5. Finally, be real. In non-fiction, essays, history or biography, you have to get your facts exactly right. There can be no straying from the truth. But in fiction, you can make it up. Invent and imagine. But it has to ring true to the heart. If your reader doesn’t buy it, then you are sunk. A writer must be authentic above all.
Mary Smathers
I, and my book, are completely a product of my upbringing and my work. I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area my entire life. I deeply love the state, the wide variety of people who live there and empathize with the difficulties many face living in a wonderful but also challenging place.
I worked in California public schools, and almost exclusively in low income communities, for 30 years. I was a high school teacher and administrator. I ran school district wide programs. I was a charter school co-founder and helped start several education companies where I worked with teachers, students and parents on a daily basis. I have literally interacted with thousands and thousands of California school kids and their families in the wide variety of communities that make up the state. The stories I heard, the families I observed, the colleagues I worked with inspired me every single day.
And because I always lived in the same part of the state, I have seen the place change, I have seen the magic of the innovation that comes out of Silicon Valley, I’ve seen the people and focus change. I have seen people who suffer terrible tragedy persevere to survive and even thrive despite enormous odds against them. California is a magical, fascinating and complex place. It is physically gorgeous with great weather and many, many activities that people can enjoy. People are hard-working and industrious, figuring out how to solve problems. But it is far from perfect.
A lot of people throughout American history have gone there with dreams and lofty goals in mind. Whether the Spanish coming north from Mexico, the priests who were setting up the Missions, and then independent Mexico expanding, people coming out west for the Gold Rush, or people fleeing problems in the South or after WWII, California has always been a beacon on a hill for Americans. But it isn’t all sparkly and gold. The dream is not always realized. There is poverty and income inequality, terrible homelessness, poor treatment of immigrants, segregated communities, discrimination, people struggling to keep up with the expensive cost of living there, the boom and bust economies which have persisted in the state for hundreds of years. And there is the land and what happens to it….its beauty and how people interact with it, how it is forgotten and also abused.
I find that complexity fascinating, and rich with material to write about. SO, I am interested in working people, just regular people, who deal with all kinds of issues and in many cases, are resilient, persistently don’t give up, keep working hard and are doing the best they can against forces way bigger than themselves.
I am interested in regular people who do heroic things and why. What drives someone who doesn’t have much, to look out for someone else with even less? What conditions lead to compassion? To resilience? Why doesn’t everyone just collapse under the weight of terrible unfairness or heavy problems? Not everyone does. And will that continue? Is California sustainable?
Another theme I am really interested in is why the Silicon Valley area is such a hotbed of innovation. What has shaped that place’s culture? What influences have, and continue, to make it one of the most uniquely productive and innovative regions of the world right now. When we were kids we had to study the Fertile Crescent area of the world, as I am sure you did too, a cauldron of new developments, new farming technology and innovation thousands of years ago. Well, I don’t want to overstate the importance of Silicon Valley (because it already takes itself way too seriously in my view!), but it does have some of that same coalescing of people, forces, industry, brainpower as at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates millennia ago.
And why is that? What led to that? I find that fascinating. One of my theories is that the Gold Rush had a huge impact on the area and actually is one critical factor in the type of person, attitude and hutzpah, if you will, that exist there to this day.
If you left everything you had back in Connecticut or Virginia and got on a boat to travel around the bottom of South America to get to California, or you got on a horse and travelled 3,000 miles across the plains and mountains of the US with no idea of what you would encounter along the way, or when you got there, I think you would have to be a very certain type of person to do that. Gutsy, brave and a bit thrilled by danger. You’d be a risk-taker and you’d be darn tough. You’d be hard working, persistent and a problem-solver or you would never survive. And you’d have to have quite a bit of hubris to think you’d even survive the journey and get rich in California. So I think those kinds of people and that kind of attitude influenced what the area became, even way beyond the very short lived Gold Rush. I find that historical significance and influence just incredibly fascinating and teeming with rich material to write about.
I worked in California public schools, and almost exclusively in low income communities, for 30 years. I was a high school teacher and administrator. I ran school district wide programs. I was a charter school co-founder and helped start several education companies where I worked with teachers, students and parents on a daily basis. I have literally interacted with thousands and thousands of California school kids and their families in the wide variety of communities that make up the state. The stories I heard, the families I observed, the colleagues I worked with inspired me every single day.
And because I always lived in the same part of the state, I have seen the place change, I have seen the magic of the innovation that comes out of Silicon Valley, I’ve seen the people and focus change. I have seen people who suffer terrible tragedy persevere to survive and even thrive despite enormous odds against them. California is a magical, fascinating and complex place. It is physically gorgeous with great weather and many, many activities that people can enjoy. People are hard-working and industrious, figuring out how to solve problems. But it is far from perfect.
A lot of people throughout American history have gone there with dreams and lofty goals in mind. Whether the Spanish coming north from Mexico, the priests who were setting up the Missions, and then independent Mexico expanding, people coming out west for the Gold Rush, or people fleeing problems in the South or after WWII, California has always been a beacon on a hill for Americans. But it isn’t all sparkly and gold. The dream is not always realized. There is poverty and income inequality, terrible homelessness, poor treatment of immigrants, segregated communities, discrimination, people struggling to keep up with the expensive cost of living there, the boom and bust economies which have persisted in the state for hundreds of years. And there is the land and what happens to it….its beauty and how people interact with it, how it is forgotten and also abused.
I find that complexity fascinating, and rich with material to write about. SO, I am interested in working people, just regular people, who deal with all kinds of issues and in many cases, are resilient, persistently don’t give up, keep working hard and are doing the best they can against forces way bigger than themselves.
I am interested in regular people who do heroic things and why. What drives someone who doesn’t have much, to look out for someone else with even less? What conditions lead to compassion? To resilience? Why doesn’t everyone just collapse under the weight of terrible unfairness or heavy problems? Not everyone does. And will that continue? Is California sustainable?
Another theme I am really interested in is why the Silicon Valley area is such a hotbed of innovation. What has shaped that place’s culture? What influences have, and continue, to make it one of the most uniquely productive and innovative regions of the world right now. When we were kids we had to study the Fertile Crescent area of the world, as I am sure you did too, a cauldron of new developments, new farming technology and innovation thousands of years ago. Well, I don’t want to overstate the importance of Silicon Valley (because it already takes itself way too seriously in my view!), but it does have some of that same coalescing of people, forces, industry, brainpower as at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates millennia ago.
And why is that? What led to that? I find that fascinating. One of my theories is that the Gold Rush had a huge impact on the area and actually is one critical factor in the type of person, attitude and hutzpah, if you will, that exist there to this day.
If you left everything you had back in Connecticut or Virginia and got on a boat to travel around the bottom of South America to get to California, or you got on a horse and travelled 3,000 miles across the plains and mountains of the US with no idea of what you would encounter along the way, or when you got there, I think you would have to be a very certain type of person to do that. Gutsy, brave and a bit thrilled by danger. You’d be a risk-taker and you’d be darn tough. You’d be hard working, persistent and a problem-solver or you would never survive. And you’d have to have quite a bit of hubris to think you’d even survive the journey and get rich in California. So I think those kinds of people and that kind of attitude influenced what the area became, even way beyond the very short lived Gold Rush. I find that historical significance and influence just incredibly fascinating and teeming with rich material to write about.
Mary Smathers
I have a two part answer for this question. One answer is about the inspiration. And the other answer is about the practical, actually sitting down to write part of the process.
For fiction, I think you need to be inspired. I am highly motivated by people I know who do great things or people I met or heard about who dealt with incredible hardship and persevered. You have to feel strongly about something in order to tell a story, I think. So passion, compassion or anger or awe—those are great, strong emotions to have within you when you write.
Sometimes when I read my own stories out loud as an editing technique, I cry. When I read the part about Connie, who struggles with constant money problems in The Great Stagnation, being recognized by her entire community for the dignity and competence with which she does her job, year after year, I cry. I love my characters deeply. I admire them and their struggles. I applaud their achievements, no matter how little. So my work comes from a place of strong emotion. You have to really care. You have to find beauty in the smallest things and be determined to represent that to your audience.
I hope others admire Connie and think about what people like her endure and maybe have greater compassion toward a Connie in their life in the future. To me, Connie is a hero. She comes to work everyday with dignity and pride and determination to help others, despite her own struggles. And with a spirit of grace. She finds artistry in what to many people is a very mundane, unimportant, undervalued job. She never complains, never blames others, even though there are many things beyond Connie’s control which make her economic struggles just not right. But such is the way for many. I have met many people like her through my life and work and I have always admired such people.
The second part of getting ready to write has to be very practical. Don’t read your email, surf the internet for travel deals, cruise facebook, try to write and then go back to email. My content editor, Rachel Howard, gave me great advice on this. She said if you are doing your to do list and emails, then go garden or something different before you start writing. She also recommended reading some really wonderful writing you love for at least 20 minutes before you begin writing. Great advice. It helps your brain set the stage for going into a place of writing with calm, beauty and inspiration. Read before you write.
And give it focused, dedicated time. Don’t just try to fit it in with all your other menial tasks. If you value writing, you have to make a place for it in your day, in your life.
For fiction, I think you need to be inspired. I am highly motivated by people I know who do great things or people I met or heard about who dealt with incredible hardship and persevered. You have to feel strongly about something in order to tell a story, I think. So passion, compassion or anger or awe—those are great, strong emotions to have within you when you write.
Sometimes when I read my own stories out loud as an editing technique, I cry. When I read the part about Connie, who struggles with constant money problems in The Great Stagnation, being recognized by her entire community for the dignity and competence with which she does her job, year after year, I cry. I love my characters deeply. I admire them and their struggles. I applaud their achievements, no matter how little. So my work comes from a place of strong emotion. You have to really care. You have to find beauty in the smallest things and be determined to represent that to your audience.
I hope others admire Connie and think about what people like her endure and maybe have greater compassion toward a Connie in their life in the future. To me, Connie is a hero. She comes to work everyday with dignity and pride and determination to help others, despite her own struggles. And with a spirit of grace. She finds artistry in what to many people is a very mundane, unimportant, undervalued job. She never complains, never blames others, even though there are many things beyond Connie’s control which make her economic struggles just not right. But such is the way for many. I have met many people like her through my life and work and I have always admired such people.
The second part of getting ready to write has to be very practical. Don’t read your email, surf the internet for travel deals, cruise facebook, try to write and then go back to email. My content editor, Rachel Howard, gave me great advice on this. She said if you are doing your to do list and emails, then go garden or something different before you start writing. She also recommended reading some really wonderful writing you love for at least 20 minutes before you begin writing. Great advice. It helps your brain set the stage for going into a place of writing with calm, beauty and inspiration. Read before you write.
And give it focused, dedicated time. Don’t just try to fit it in with all your other menial tasks. If you value writing, you have to make a place for it in your day, in your life.
Mary Smathers
Right this moment I am trying to learn all about publishing, marketing and selling my book. I’ve given myself until the end of the year to focus on learning about what is a brand new industry for me. I am in a whole new career here so there is a lot to learn. Then in January, I plan to go back to the novel I’ve wanted to write for years. I have notes and research and about 35 pages of it hanging around. I’d like to really dig into that project in the new year.
I also have another short story about half way done that I’d like to complete and then publish as a short. Not sure yet but I like the characters and the premise and what I have so far, so I need to finish it. The working title is LAX. That’s all I can say for now!
I also have another short story about half way done that I’d like to complete and then publish as a short. Not sure yet but I like the characters and the premise and what I have so far, so I need to finish it. The working title is LAX. That’s all I can say for now!
Mary Smathers
I have been an aspiring writer my whole life. So for me to actually move to a new phase where I have produced a book and actually call myself a writer is super new and just huge. It is very exciting and there were many times I didn’t think I would get here. A common trap for aspiring writers is to just think about it, dream about it, read about it, and never write. I was like that for years and years.
Number one, if you want to be a writer, is to write. And all the writers on writing books I have read pretty much say that too. They also have lots of other good tips and tricks. But you have to actually put your butt in the chair and write. Number one.
Another huge trap for many is getting caught up in the self-doubt and fear of failure that can consume many of us. “I can’t write. I’m not good enough, smart or creative or clever enough.” Self talk like that is definitely an enemy, a trap for any aspiring writer. I found the book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert and her related podcast Magic Lessons very helpful on this topic of fears and self-doubts.
One of my all time favorite books by a writer about writing is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Brilliant. I highly recommend it for any aspiring writer. Anne has a whole chapter on what she calls “shitty first drafts.” Everyone writes them, including her and all other professional writers. You have to accept that you are going to write some crap but then keep on writing. And use those drafts to edit and sort out your ideas and think through what you really want to say. But “shitty first drafts” was a huge relief for me. Read the book. She is hilarious and has lots of other very specific good advice for writers.
Number one, if you want to be a writer, is to write. And all the writers on writing books I have read pretty much say that too. They also have lots of other good tips and tricks. But you have to actually put your butt in the chair and write. Number one.
Another huge trap for many is getting caught up in the self-doubt and fear of failure that can consume many of us. “I can’t write. I’m not good enough, smart or creative or clever enough.” Self talk like that is definitely an enemy, a trap for any aspiring writer. I found the book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert and her related podcast Magic Lessons very helpful on this topic of fears and self-doubts.
One of my all time favorite books by a writer about writing is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Brilliant. I highly recommend it for any aspiring writer. Anne has a whole chapter on what she calls “shitty first drafts.” Everyone writes them, including her and all other professional writers. You have to accept that you are going to write some crap but then keep on writing. And use those drafts to edit and sort out your ideas and think through what you really want to say. But “shitty first drafts” was a huge relief for me. Read the book. She is hilarious and has lots of other very specific good advice for writers.
Mary Smathers
Just that I finally am one and finally have the confidence and credibility to actually call myself a fiction writer. I have been dreaming about doing that for my entire life. It is exhilarating to finally have completed a collection of short stories and really feel that I am a writer.
Even though I’ve done some journalistic and technical writing as needed throughout my education and business career, I really wanted to become a fiction writer.
Even though I’ve done some journalistic and technical writing as needed throughout my education and business career, I really wanted to become a fiction writer.
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