Ask the Author: Chris Manno
Answered Questions (3)
Chris Manno
That's pretty simple, and it's a twofold answer: write, read, and study both. Reading good writers is key--experience the work of Toni Morrison, J.M. Coetzee and other Nobel laureates who will teach you more about the craft than all the genre, formula-hugging and sadly, popular writers of the marketplace. Read oppositional writers like Sherman Alexie, Cormack McCarthy; colorists like Cristina Garcia and Derk Walcott. Study reading and writing: how does this rhetoric work, how does this narrative engage the heart and mind? The aspect of "studying" both reading and writing is what prompted me to visit the local university (Texas Christian University, for me) English Department and ask about grad programs--I emerged seven years later with a doctorate in English and a better understanding of the writing craft, which I now teach at Texas Wesleyan University. Finally, and simply: WRITE. It's what writers do.
Chris Manno
It sounds hokie, but I have to say that there's a dimension of immortality to writing: your words, if they're meaningful, if they engage readers, will endure long after you're gone. Beyond that, there's the shared aspect, same as I feel with my cartoon work--if a reader lives your story, feels the characters, embraces the work, that's an enduring reward.
Chris Manno
That's never been a problem, but I may approach writing in a way that prevents "writer's block:" first, I never force the issue. That is, if there's nothing creatively moving with one writing project, I switch to another. There's the second important part: I always have an array of writing projects underway--fiction, non-fiction (I contribute freelance often to several publications, plus I write academic papers), poetry, short stories. I don't think there's any way to power through a "block"--I just shift to another writing project and return to the original when it feels right.
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