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Passion on Paper

Three Connecticut-based authors talked to Zoe Roos about their work, their literary process, and the trials and triumphs of being an author in the digital age.

Susan Strecker

Strecker is the author of Night Blindness and Nowhere Girl. She is in the process of revising her third novel, One Foot on the Path, hopefully due out in 2019, and is working on her fourth novel. In addition, Strecker is an editor and writing coach and holds writing workshops across the shoreline.

What first drew you to writing?

My passion for writing began when my family would go on vacation doing things like deep sea fishing and visiting foreign islands. I loved making up stories about our adventures as a way of carrying family memories with me. The writing bug stuck with me throughout school as I encountered the "toughest" English teacher in middle school - I would not be where I am without him.

What do you most enjoy about writing?

I think it's having the privilege of allowing my characters to tell their story through me. I'm just a typewriter, a word processor. My characters have their own tales to tell and they've chosen me to help them. I love not knowing where a book is going until I open my laptop every day.

In your experience, how has publishing changed in the last few years? Is the change helping or hurting authors?

With the invention of e-readers, the world has opened up to a whole new facet - digital books... Also, with the newish addition of self-publishing, many more authors are gaining a platform. Self-publishing is an option for writers who don't have the inclination or option to query literary agents in hopes of getting their book sold to a traditional publishers. Only about one in 100,000 books submitted to agents get published by a traditional house. So, it can be daunting.

What would you say to any person considering getting into professional writing?

Do not try to do it alone! Writing and getting published is a group effort. Every book ever written needs to be edited and that needs to be completed by a professional editor. In addition to being a novelist, I am also an editor and writing coach. But, I always have all of my books edited by another professional.

James R. Benn

Benn is the author of the Billy Boyle WWII mystery series. With 12 books already published in the series, Benn is set to release the 13th in the series this September.

What first drew you to writing?

I have always enjoyed writing. In high school and college I worked part-time and summers at a daily newspaper and learned the value of fast typing, fast thinking, the rhythm of words, and a hook to interest the reader. I gravitated to the world of libraries in my day-job life, so my interests have always revolved around words and the place of literature in our culture. But it took me a long time to summon up the discipline to tackle the writing of book-length fiction.

Tell me about your creative process - What do you most enjoy about writing?

I love the process of discovery through the act of writing. Although I know what I want a book to be about, in terms of theme and the mechanics of the mystery, I don't outline. I rely on my characters to guide the way, and often when I see no clear path forward, I just write to see what happens. Something always does...One reason that approach works for me is the immersive research I try to do with each book. I read on a subject until I feel it seep into my bones, and I am a part of that historical event. That's what allows the characters to move through the story with confidence.

In your experience, how has publishing changed in the last few years? Is the change helping or hurting authors?

It took a while for the publishing world to wrap their minds around e-books and the whole pricing issue, but I think a lot of that angst is behind us. One thing I do see is more small presses which allow for traditional publishing avenues for writers who may not be a fit for the large publishing houses. I am fortunate to be published by Soho Press, a small and fabulous independent press. The unseen work of editing, manuscript preparation, publicity, and distribution are keys to success. People who promote self-publishing often overlook that, especially distribution. It's not enough for a book to be listed online; it has to be put into the hands of booksellers who will champion titles for their customers.

What would you say to any person considering getting into professional writing?

Read. Read about writing. Read books that are complex and inventive, then deconstruct them to see how they work. Make literature – in whatever genre interests you – part of your life. Follow writers on social media and engage with them. Review books on any of the many available platforms. Attend workshops and conferences on writing. Immerse yourself. Get into a writing group and make it a priority. Then let the words come.

Wally Lamb

Lamb is the author of six New York Times best-selling novels: I'll Take You There, We Are Water,　Wishin' and Hopin', The Hour I First Believed,　I Know This Much is True – which is currently in development for HBO -, and　She's Come Undone. In addition, Lamb edited Couldn't Keep It to Myself and I'll Fly Away, two volumes of essays from students in his writing workshop at York Correctional Institution, a women's prison in Connecticut. He just finished editing a third volume of essays from the women at York entitled You Don't Know Me.

What first drew you to writing?

When I look back at my childhood I didn't like to read or write all that much but I loved to draw and I was sketching and drawing all of the time, making my own comic books and that kind of thing. When I went to college I was planning to become an art major but then literature kind of took me over. When I look back at the long arc of my life I think all of that drawing was just doing warm-ups for what I wanted to be. I have a very visual orientation and when the writing is going really well for me I can see the story happening, almost like a movie.

Tell me about your creative process.

I think I was around year eight or nine in my teaching career – the exact same time when our first kid was born – and I sat down that summer in 1981 and started writing a short story and I liked doing it. I started with a character that I didn't really know that much about. It was a teenage character and so little by little, I think I was on my third or fourth short story when I started writing about a troubled girl who was obese and having a lot of problems in high school. I just kept writing and writing and that turned into She's Come Undone.

I don't write fiction after having mapped it out. It sort of comes to me as it comes to me. I can feel envious of the novelists who have the whole thing outlined before they start chapter one but it doesn't work that way for me.

What do you most enjoy about writing?

I can tell you my least favorite part of it. I am just starting a new novel and the beginnings of novels are really hard for me. I get scared, I get insecure, all of that kind of stuff. Once I have a firm grip on who the main character is and I get the voice of that main character - because I always write in first-person voices - then it gets easier as it goes along.

What I love the best I guess I would say is the opposite of that. Coming into the finish line of the first draft because now I have all of this raw material that I can begin to play with and craft. I know what the story is. I know pretty much where the story has gone, who this character is and so forth...I love revision and I hate first drafts.

What led you to share your love of writing, specifically through the York Correctional Institution workshop program?

I have been a teacher all my adult life but I have never worked with students who are so eager to learn, and so willing to revise, and help one another...my impulse at first was just to do somebody a favor, that's how I started there – I thought I was only going one time – but I really appreciated the fact that the women appreciated I was there and were willing to work hard. It has been a really nice symbiosis – I've taught them some things and they have taught me some things.

What would you say to any person considering getting into professional writing?

I would tell them write to explore their truths – no matter the genre and humble themselves to the process. Chase out all fantasies about writing a best seller and just know that it is hard but honest work and that the real work comes in revising what you have. I think more than anything else it takes patience – sometimes I forget that myself.

Writer's Note: Some responses have been edited for length or clarity.