Ask the Author: Craig Nova
Answered Questions (6)
Craig Nova
I handle it this way.
I will do my 5 to 7 pages a day, no matter what. They could drop the A bomb and I will do the pages. Sometimes, of course, or many times, I will throw what I write away.
Here is a link to my desk in the Atlantic Monthly.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...
You have to scroll down to see the pile of paper, but it is there.
I think, too, that the key to writing is the ability to tolerate imperfection. Most writers I know who give up can’t stand the idea that for many drafts a book will be a mess. They want it to be clean, clear and polished right away, and the only way that happens is by revising. Cold comfort, but there you have it.
I handle it this way.
I will do my 5 to 7 pages a day, no matter what. They could drop the A bomb and I will do the pages. Sometimes, of course, or many times, I will throw what I write away.
Here is a link to my desk in the Atlantic Monthly.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...
You have to scroll down to see the pile of paper, but it is there.
I think, too, that the key to writing is the ability to tolerate imperfection. Most writers I know who give up can’t stand the idea that for many drafts a book will be a mess. They want it to be clean, clear and polished right away, and the only way that happens is by revising. Cold comfort, but there you have it.
Craig Nova
This is going to sound strange, but the best thing about being a writer is writing. Those hours when you are in that private world are just a delight. No kidding. I have known many writers, and the ones who are the best like, and I mean really like, the work.
I remember saying to a friend that a writer should be particularly generous to a spouse, since the spouse has to put up with a lot but doesn’t get to write…
I remember saying to a friend that a writer should be particularly generous to a spouse, since the spouse has to put up with a lot but doesn’t get to write…
Craig Nova
The first thing that goes into being a writer is being a good reader, and so I think that reading is the way to begin. William Maxwell, a great writer (So Long, See You Tomorrow), says in a Paris Review interview that his influences are always in what he writes, although no one notices.
My own idea about this is that your influences, that is, other writers, put you in touch with what you want to write about.
The first thing that goes into being a writer is being a good reader, and so I think that reading is the way to begin. William Maxwell, a great writer (So Long, See You Tomorrow), says in a Paris Review interview that his influences are always in what he writes, although no one notices.
My own idea about this is that your influences, that is, other writers, put you in touch with what you want to write about.
Craig Nova
A book called Double Solitaire, which is about a man who takes care of trouble that famous people get into. In the book, the main character faces a very serious crime, and, at the same time, falls in love with a woman he has just met. Somehow, in a way I don’t really understand yet, the attraction a cheerful, moral woman and being in love help the main character understand what is the right thing to do, the moral thing to do, in an exceedingly dangerous and corrupt world. I should add that I grew up in Hollywood, and even attended Hollywood High.
Craig Nova
Until I was about fourteen, I was desperate to be a doctor, and I had even gone to our family physician and got his books from medical school. THEN I read the Stranger by Albert Camus, and that was it. Bang. The notion of being a doctor vanished. I have been writing ever since.
In fact, I go to a sort of rough and tumble restaurant in Paris, which was a place that Camus liked.
Until I was about fourteen, I was desperate to be a doctor, and I had even gone to our family physician and got his books from medical school. THEN I read the Stranger by Albert Camus, and that was it. Bang. The notion of being a doctor vanished. I have been writing ever since.
In fact, I go to a sort of rough and tumble restaurant in Paris, which was a place that Camus liked.
Craig Nova
It really is hard to say where an idea for a novel comes from. I know this since the ideas for the 14 novels I have published have come from different places. Sometimes, in a way I don’t understand, I will see something like a picture. For instance, for a book called Tornado Alley, I saw a dusty street in a small town in the central valley of California. For a book called Cruisers, I was interested in what was known as the Colebrook Incident, in which a man shot a number of people in northern New Hampshire and Vermont. For the Good Son, my father in law, a fighter pilot who spent three years in a German prison camp in WWII, told me many stories about this experience.
The short answer is, I don’t know. But I can say this, when one appears, I recognize it when I see it.
The short answer is, I don’t know. But I can say this, when one appears, I recognize it when I see it.
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