Jackie Matey
asked
Jennifer Weiner:
So I've been reading a lot about the planning, structuring, and outlining of novels lately, and, to be frank, I've been incredibly intimidated in my own writing since then. When it comes to your books, especially those with three or four main characters, what does your pre-writing process involve? Scrivener? Index cards? Outlines? Character bios? Ritual sacrifices to the writing gods?
Jennifer Weiner
LOL. I always joke that there is a word for writers who have elaborate pre-writing rituals, and can only write in rooms cooled to precisely 67 degrees with garbage bags taped over the windows and a white noise machine in the corner, and that word is ‘men.’
When you’re a working mother, I have learned, there’s a large part of the world that sees the ‘mother’ part in all caps, and the ‘working’ part as a minor appendage. The school assumes that you’re there to cover the half-day pickup and be available on snow days. The men in your life, the ones with full-time jobs, assume that you can schedule the doctor’s appointments and dentist’s visits and the check-ups at the orthodontist, and you’ll get the kids there and back, and that you’ll manage the family’s social calendar, booking the vacations and the playdates, that you’re the one who remembers to schedule the gutter cleaning in the fall and the duct cleaning in the spring…basically, the stuff they call emotional labor, all the things that does not look like ‘work’ becomes your job. (I should note two things here: first, that the men in my life are very good about doing their part, and second, I have a LOT of help, in the form of a fabulous assistant who helps with the household stuff, and a woman who cleans my house and does the laundry four days a week).
Which is a very long way of saying that a lot of my rituals and processes have become, by necessity, internal.
I think about my characters while I am walking the dog, or waiting in the carpool lane, or driving to pick up my older daughter at her school, which is forty-five minutes away. I think about the plot while I’m in the shower, or waiting for my younger daughter at the orthodontist’s, or while I’m supposed to be thinking of nothing in yoga class. I definitely make outlines, which give me at least a rough road map for what’s supposed to happen, even if what actually does happen always ends up surprising me, and I have used notecards, when I’m dealing with three or four main characters and three or four decades of their lives, but, in general, I end up keeping it all in my head. Which means that when I can sit down to write – in my closet/office, or in a hotel room, or an airport – the characters and the story are all there, waiting for me.
In terms of specifics, I use Microsoft Word, which is what I’ve used since college. I write on an Apple laptop, because it’s portable and light. And, while I don’t make sacrifices to the writing gods, I like to write with my little rat terrier Moochie snoozing on the floor or on her dog bed, somewhere nearby.
When you’re a working mother, I have learned, there’s a large part of the world that sees the ‘mother’ part in all caps, and the ‘working’ part as a minor appendage. The school assumes that you’re there to cover the half-day pickup and be available on snow days. The men in your life, the ones with full-time jobs, assume that you can schedule the doctor’s appointments and dentist’s visits and the check-ups at the orthodontist, and you’ll get the kids there and back, and that you’ll manage the family’s social calendar, booking the vacations and the playdates, that you’re the one who remembers to schedule the gutter cleaning in the fall and the duct cleaning in the spring…basically, the stuff they call emotional labor, all the things that does not look like ‘work’ becomes your job. (I should note two things here: first, that the men in my life are very good about doing their part, and second, I have a LOT of help, in the form of a fabulous assistant who helps with the household stuff, and a woman who cleans my house and does the laundry four days a week).
Which is a very long way of saying that a lot of my rituals and processes have become, by necessity, internal.
I think about my characters while I am walking the dog, or waiting in the carpool lane, or driving to pick up my older daughter at her school, which is forty-five minutes away. I think about the plot while I’m in the shower, or waiting for my younger daughter at the orthodontist’s, or while I’m supposed to be thinking of nothing in yoga class. I definitely make outlines, which give me at least a rough road map for what’s supposed to happen, even if what actually does happen always ends up surprising me, and I have used notecards, when I’m dealing with three or four main characters and three or four decades of their lives, but, in general, I end up keeping it all in my head. Which means that when I can sit down to write – in my closet/office, or in a hotel room, or an airport – the characters and the story are all there, waiting for me.
In terms of specifics, I use Microsoft Word, which is what I’ve used since college. I write on an Apple laptop, because it’s portable and light. And, while I don’t make sacrifices to the writing gods, I like to write with my little rat terrier Moochie snoozing on the floor or on her dog bed, somewhere nearby.
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