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Tayari's Blog: Learn to Love It

Posted by TayariJones on May 30, 2008 09:10 AM
Filed under Writing

When I am on the road, I'm asked quite a bit about my process. Lately, I've been saying "Your process is like doing your hair." Then, I sort of catch myself because I am a woman writer who wants to be taken seriously, so the impulse is not to say something so girly. I have tried and tried to find a more "neutral" or "universal" metaphor, but I can't find one and who cares? I have deciphered more than my share of sports analogies, so this is just a little karmic correction.

So, on to the issue of process. When you ask a writer about her process, it's kind of like asking her "How do you do your hair?" (It's actually another question I get quite frequently.) On the hair issue, I explain that I am usually wearing a twist out and I set it with Miss Jessie's. If I have the time I explain about the blow-dryer miracle. The person can then go home, try the products and maybe it will work for her. And maybe it won't. Or maybe she ends up incorporating the blow dryer, but the Curly Pudding makes her itch. And regardless, her hair will never look just like mine, but it can still be really cute on her. Or cuter. You get the idea. Everyone's hair is different. I can tell her what I do, but I can't guarantee the outcome when she tries it in her own bathroom.

Process is like that too. Sometimes, I'll explain my revision process. (It's pretty radical. I call it clear-paper revision. Basically, I rewrite the whole thing using the first draft as a reference book.) Someone listening will always say "Such-and-such famous writer doesn't do it that way!" My response is always a polite, "So what." It's going to be different for everyone.

So, on to the next girly metaphor.

You have to learn to accept your process, just as you have to learn to accept your body.

Any woman who has ever looked at a magazine has self-diagnosed everything that is wrong with her body. She knows she's an apple, a pear, or whatever. She has words at her disposal like muffin-top, saddle bags, all the destructive language. Some of us have a complex about our skin tone, our hair texture. You can spend your whole life worried that you don't look right and spend all your precious energy trying to fix it. Although it is easier said than done, you just have to learn to enjoy the body you have.

Here's how this relates to writing: My process goes something like this. I write a hundred pages. I feel great about them. I think I am on to something. I end up keeping about ten pages. Carlson used to tell me that I "write my way into a story." This means, I figure where the story is by writing. And this can take weeks. Once I find the story, I am good to go. I used to mourn for all those wasted pages and all that wasted time.

I am now at the point that I understand that this is just how I do it. I have learned some tricks along the way that help me get to the story a little faster, but I still write for a year on a novel before I find it's heart. If I am going to be happy as a writer, I have to embrace the process. All of it. It's just how I roll. It's just how I am.

May 30, 2008 11:37 AM

May 30, 2008 01:37 PM

June 2, 2008 07:09 PM