Ask the Author: Sean Murphy
Answered Questions (5)
Sean Murphy
I have two projects I’m working on: one is a novel I spent the middle part of the last decade agonizing over; it’s just about done so now begins the unromantic phase of working with an editor and making sure it is as perfect as it can be. I also have another memoir I started on last year, some of which uses material that didn’t make the final cut of this memoir. (That’s another bit of advice for any aspiring writer: sometimes the work you feel best about or actually does contain your best writing is not right for a particular project: you need to be willing, and able, to leave that out even though it can be excruciating.) In a sense, by ascertaining which sections I couldn’t use for this story, I realized I had an entirely different story to tell. I also look forward to assembling the best essays, reviews and blog posts I’ve published in the last decade; I’ve got about 300,000 words of material to cull through.
Sean Murphy
I’ve always envied the discipline of writers who have a set routine: waking up before sunrise, cranking out a thousand words or so before breakfast. Or the lucky (and talented!) authors who are able to sustain themselves through writing and have time to set aside each day. For me, it’s always been a frenetic balance between work, life, sleep, reading and human interaction. But any writer understands early on that there are myriad distractions and excuses: in order to get writing done one has to write; often and badly. The moments one lives for are when you get obsessed by an idea and see it through to fruition. These are the times when sleep, socializing and even eating become secondary. For a longer project, like my memoir –which took several years to complete—it necessitates a different type of discipline; a more marathon than sprint mentality. That said, my response to people when they ask how often I write or how I’ve managed to write so much, is simple: I seldom watch TV.
Sean Murphy
I don’t trust any writer for whom writing comes easily. The hardest part, aside from the struggle to make time for it, is the ceaseless self-doubt and insecurity that accompanies almost any writing endeavor. Even when I write an 800 word music review –albeit one that will be published—I always have to gear myself up for the task: I need to ensure I know as much about the topic at hand as possible, have done my homework and do the subject justice. For personal writing, including essays and fiction (and, of late, memoirs), there is often the concern of being able to translate what you see in your mind onto the page. So often scribbled words, however eloquent, seem such a pale approximation of the vision or idea that occasionally inspires the story.
Sean Murphy
First and foremost: read and write all the time. It’s the most basic and ostensibly simple advice, but it’s crucial. I meet aspiring writers all the time who talk about what they want to do (or will do) “eventually.” Writing material that aspires to connect in a meaningful way with a broader audience involves hours and years of hard, often unfulfilling work. Don’t quit your day job, but treat your writing like it’s your life. Seek to execute sentences and scenes you haven’t encountered, even in books you admire. Work toward cultivating a unique style and ways to convey familiar –and unfamiliar—themes with honesty and originality. Turn off the writing involves lots of long, lonely hours. If you aren’t feeling it with all of your being, how can you hope to engage a potential reader? Above all, trust yourself and love yourself: writing is necessarily a solitary endeavor, but you are connecting yourself with a community of special human beings who have made our world demonstrably better. Celebrate the idea of contributing something of yourself to that tradition.television, shut off your phone, and understand the real dirty work that results in quality
Sean Murphy
For me writing is always an act of communication, an attempt to initiate a dialogue—even an internal one. Being able to share ideas or thoughts or emotions with people (friends, family, strangers) and hear from them that you’ve managed to describe something they can relate to, or a feeling they thought they alone held, is supremely gratifying. The act of seeing a longer project through from conception to execution is something any writer should be proud of. As someone who possesses an active imagination and a sensitivity that occasionally is too acute by half, it’s wonderful having an outlet that helps me interrogate the thoughts, fears and passions that fuel my life; to think anything I write can have a positive impact on anyone else is the best gift I could give or receive.
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