Ask the Author: Art Bell
Answered Questions (5)
Art Bell
I like to tell stories about my life so I started writing memoir and my early efforts were about my life as a kid. When I happened to write a funny story about a lunch I had when I was working at Comedy Central, I was surprised at how much my writing group liked it, so I wrote a few more stories. These eventually became the beginning of my memoir, Constant Comedy.
Art Bell
After finishing my memoir about Comedy Central, I decided to work on writing short fiction. My current story in progress is a noirish mystery set in New York City about a current-day lawyer who gets embroiled in his sociopathic ex-wife attempt to escape from a bad guy she stole a valuable ring from years earlier. My approach to writing has always been to let the story evolve as I write it, but I'm finding that doesn't work so well when writing a mystery. I'm finding it helps to know the ending and work backwards.
Art Bell
Spending time with other writers has been my favorite part. I enjoy talking about books, reading, and writing with smart, literate and articulate people, all my writer friends have been a delightful and supportive group. Reading my friends' work, and having them read mine, is one of the ways I learn how to be a better writer. I understand now the appeal of being part of a literary group of friends and artists like the Bloomsbury Group (Virginia Woolf, et al) and the Algonquin Round Table (Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, et al). Because I like humor and reading and writing humorous work I wish I'd been at one of the those Algonquin lunches.
Art Bell
I've only been writing for five years and so far I haven't encountered anything called writer's block. I often come to a dead end or an impasse in my writing but I just put it aside and write something else for a while and then return to it. When a writer in my writer's group experiences writer's block the rest of us encourage them to sit down and write anything at all, like a letter to a friend or a famous person or their younger self, or even just a description of the place they're sitting; or even about the frustration of not being able to write. That often seems to be sufficient to get them going again.
Art Bell
I'm starting Wordslut by Amanda Montell based on my daughter Julia's recommendation and so far it's fascinating. I just finished Raymond Chandler's "The High Window" because I find it life-affirming to check in with Phillip Marlowe. I also read Daniel Silva's "The Order" and enjoyed the religious history central to the story. Looking forward to reading Michael Connelly's latest--his prose his always crisp and satisfying.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more