Ask the Author: Robert Chansky
Answered Questions (3)
Robert Chansky
Writer's block nearly always (at least with me) means that I want two or more things that are incompatible. I come up with this great idea for a scene--Don Quixote the robot wrestles an animal for entrance into the animal's tribe, gaining permission for him and Sam to live on the planet with the animals--and oh, I'm going to have it be narrated just like a wrestling match, with fourth-wall breaking and on and on! and I'm so enthused I'm writing it out already, in violation of first-draft rules. (Don't polish anything in your first draft until you've gotten to the end, because you may have to delete that scene).
So then I realize that I can't have Quixote wrestle the animal. it doesn't fit. I try to make it fit. I get despondent and petulant. I want that scene. That's the best scene I ever wrote. Why can't I have that scene? I go over the draft and see what I can change to make the scene fit. It doesn't. Petulance for me is like a force of nature, I have to let it run its course. Eventually I back up the draft, start at that point, and the writing keeps going. I'm sad to lose that scene, but there it is. That's what they mean by 'killing your darlings,' folks.
You know how people talk to themselves and it's supposedly okay? I mean, I think it is. I write to myself when I'm in this jam. I produce pages of notes, my thoughts slowing down to typing pace so that once thought, they are really thought, and I can move on. None of this shifting and circling like the wind as my thoughts normally do when I'm not writing them down.
So, when this goes on, I'm stuck in that the book isn't advancing, but I'm also not stuck, in that I'm writing notes. I'm never not writing.
I'd advise an aspiring writer to do a ton of writing this way. If you made notes and no book, let that be okay. That's still moving forward. When you've gone the wrong way, backtracking *is* progress.
So then I realize that I can't have Quixote wrestle the animal. it doesn't fit. I try to make it fit. I get despondent and petulant. I want that scene. That's the best scene I ever wrote. Why can't I have that scene? I go over the draft and see what I can change to make the scene fit. It doesn't. Petulance for me is like a force of nature, I have to let it run its course. Eventually I back up the draft, start at that point, and the writing keeps going. I'm sad to lose that scene, but there it is. That's what they mean by 'killing your darlings,' folks.
You know how people talk to themselves and it's supposedly okay? I mean, I think it is. I write to myself when I'm in this jam. I produce pages of notes, my thoughts slowing down to typing pace so that once thought, they are really thought, and I can move on. None of this shifting and circling like the wind as my thoughts normally do when I'm not writing them down.
So, when this goes on, I'm stuck in that the book isn't advancing, but I'm also not stuck, in that I'm writing notes. I'm never not writing.
I'd advise an aspiring writer to do a ton of writing this way. If you made notes and no book, let that be okay. That's still moving forward. When you've gone the wrong way, backtracking *is* progress.
Robert Chansky
I was adopted, and we adopted our daughter Sophia from China, so adoption is kind of an underpinning of my life.
At the time we adopted our girl, I had zero knowledge of Chinese culture. But being immersed into several parts of the country for a few weeks while the adoption process continued was life-changing. We sort of felt adopted by China, ourselves.
Partly that was the old ladies. We'd stroll her into the park past the formations of elders doing Tai Chi and one elder lady after another would come up to us and say, "You good people. But she too cold. More clothes!" It didn't matter how warm it was outside or how many clothes we put on her until she looked like a puffball, she was never bundled up enough for them.
At the time we adopted our girl, I had zero knowledge of Chinese culture. But being immersed into several parts of the country for a few weeks while the adoption process continued was life-changing. We sort of felt adopted by China, ourselves.
Partly that was the old ladies. We'd stroll her into the park past the formations of elders doing Tai Chi and one elder lady after another would come up to us and say, "You good people. But she too cold. More clothes!" It didn't matter how warm it was outside or how many clothes we put on her until she looked like a puffball, she was never bundled up enough for them.
Robert Chansky
The sequel, of course, to Hundred Ghost Soup. In Thousand Dream Thief, Meiren now works for the Bureau for Eternal Prosperity. But someone is stealing the dreams of the Politburo, and it's up to him to find out who, and what the Dream Thief wants.
Also I'm working on a new novel, SF this time, called The Manchegan Candidate. Young Sam is shipwrecked on an empty planet with a few lifeboats containing injured passengers and crew. His only companion is a robot programmed to think he is Don Quixote. To Sam the robot seems programmed to drive Sam up the wall. The lifeboats' batteries are running out, the local animals are dangerous in ways Sam hasn't imagined, and the aliens that destroyed the ship are hunting them. And to make it worse, rescue may not be rescue at all, but doom. Going crazy seems like the only option available.
Also I'm working on a new novel, SF this time, called The Manchegan Candidate. Young Sam is shipwrecked on an empty planet with a few lifeboats containing injured passengers and crew. His only companion is a robot programmed to think he is Don Quixote. To Sam the robot seems programmed to drive Sam up the wall. The lifeboats' batteries are running out, the local animals are dangerous in ways Sam hasn't imagined, and the aliens that destroyed the ship are hunting them. And to make it worse, rescue may not be rescue at all, but doom. Going crazy seems like the only option available.
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