Ask the Author: Robin Foster
Answered Questions (4)
Robin Foster
I'm going to borrow a quote from one of my favorite writers, Annie Dillard. I'd ask an aspiring writer, "Well, do you like sentences?" Because that's really what it boils down to.
Robin Foster
I think it has to hit you, or not. I don't know how other nonfiction writers do it, but after the bulk of the research is done on my project, I mostly "sit with it" for a matter of days, weeks, maybe a month or two, while all of those facts and stories and tidbits mull together in my brain. Literally, one morning, the inspiration will strike, and I'll start writing a chapter. I work best in the early morning hours; 6 am - noon is the best time to write, I think. Sometimes 5 am. The first twenty minutes or so might feel like a slog, but then it starts flowing. But, truly, I don't think you can force the inspiration. I think the reader would sense that tension immediately.
Robin Foster
I am currently working on a biography of one of the twentieth century's great men of letters, Carl Van Doren. Van Doren wrote literary criticism, essays, and books across the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, which was truly a golden age of literary life in this country. I love that world, that time when the Intellectual was absolutely a known entity. Van Doren's writing was crisp, clean, direct. I admire that.
Robin Foster
The best thing about being a writer is constantly being surrounded by books. Being a writer means you live in the world of books, 99.99% of which are written by other writers. The second best thing is the fact that the act of writing for me is purely enjoyable. I love to go back and re-read a sentence, or a paragraph, that I just wrote and think, hmmm, did I just write that? Or was it a muse?...
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