Ask the Author: Janice Erlbaum
Answered Questions (7)
Janice Erlbaum
Liz, I'm sorry -- I didn't mean to take a year to answer this question! I haven't been on Goodreads in a while, and I just saw it today. :/
My favorite authors are Eileen Myles (especially her book CHELSEA GIRLS), Alison Bechdel, David Foster Wallace, Stephen Elliott, and...this is weird...Charles Dickens. I NEVER thought I would like Dickens, after being forced to read a little in high school, but I started really reading him in my 40s and I guess that's a better age to start with the whole Dickens thing.
My favorite authors are Eileen Myles (especially her book CHELSEA GIRLS), Alison Bechdel, David Foster Wallace, Stephen Elliott, and...this is weird...Charles Dickens. I NEVER thought I would like Dickens, after being forced to read a little in high school, but I started really reading him in my 40s and I guess that's a better age to start with the whole Dickens thing.
Janice Erlbaum
I got the idea for the new novel, I, LIAR, from a few sources.
1. My agent kept saying, "You should write a novel! You should write the next 'Gone Girl!'"
2. I'd been thinking about writing from the perspective of a liar/scammer for a while. My second book, HAVE YOU FOUND HER, was about being lied to and scammed by someone with Munchausen's syndrome (a compulsion to fake or cause illness to win attention). After writing the book, I thought, "You know, I bet HER side of the story is more interesting than mine." So that had been in my head for a number of years already.
3. One day over lunch, I asked my husband, "What should I write about next?" And he said, "Munchausen's. Obviously."
4. Two weeks later, I came across a news story about a woman who'd poisoned her son over many months so she could get attention and sympathy -- classic Munchausen's-by-proxy. I found her so interesting (and infuriating, and disgusting, and yet incredibly compelling), and I felt this immediate anxiety -- if I didn't write a book about someone like her right away, some other writer was going to get to it first.
At the time, I was writing a very painful memoir about my mother's death -- so painful that I'd temporarily put it aside. So the night I saw that news story, I thought, "Why not write that novel my agent keeps suggesting?" It'd be a lark, just for fun, no stakes. The exact opposite of the excruciating mom memoir. That's the night I started a new document, and this project was born.
1. My agent kept saying, "You should write a novel! You should write the next 'Gone Girl!'"
2. I'd been thinking about writing from the perspective of a liar/scammer for a while. My second book, HAVE YOU FOUND HER, was about being lied to and scammed by someone with Munchausen's syndrome (a compulsion to fake or cause illness to win attention). After writing the book, I thought, "You know, I bet HER side of the story is more interesting than mine." So that had been in my head for a number of years already.
3. One day over lunch, I asked my husband, "What should I write about next?" And he said, "Munchausen's. Obviously."
4. Two weeks later, I came across a news story about a woman who'd poisoned her son over many months so she could get attention and sympathy -- classic Munchausen's-by-proxy. I found her so interesting (and infuriating, and disgusting, and yet incredibly compelling), and I felt this immediate anxiety -- if I didn't write a book about someone like her right away, some other writer was going to get to it first.
At the time, I was writing a very painful memoir about my mother's death -- so painful that I'd temporarily put it aside. So the night I saw that news story, I thought, "Why not write that novel my agent keeps suggesting?" It'd be a lark, just for fun, no stakes. The exact opposite of the excruciating mom memoir. That's the night I started a new document, and this project was born.
Janice Erlbaum
When I'm working on a project, I write longhand in my notebook before I sit down to "work." It's just blather -- complaints, to-do's, fragments of dreams, banal observations (e.g., "It's sunny in here.") -- nothing of any literary merit whatsoever. I blather for 5 or 10 minutes, then I start writing about the work I want to do (e.g., "I feel like I need to start with action, not description, but I don't know what action to start with. Maybe description is okay?"). That revs me up and gets me going.
When I don't have a project, it's much harder for me to get inspired to sit down and work. What am I supposed to do, type aimlessly until I accidentally write a book? So I'm always looking for potential projects, and filing things away for those fallow times.
When I don't have a project, it's much harder for me to get inspired to sit down and work. What am I supposed to do, type aimlessly until I accidentally write a book? So I'm always looking for potential projects, and filing things away for those fallow times.
Janice Erlbaum
Flogging the latest book, I, LIAR. Have you read it yet? How about now?
Janice Erlbaum
Don't just aspire! Write! Practice writing as much as you can, even if it's for 5 minutes -- writing something is always better than writing nothing. Don't expect your work to come out perfect, don't set unreasonable goals for yourself, and don't let other people in on what you're writing until a draft is done.
Janice Erlbaum
Being a writer is the best thing, period. But to narrow it down a little: I love it when someone tells me something specific that they liked in a piece of mine. I love it when someone quotes a line to me. It's embarrassing how much I love it. I try to be casual, like, "Oh, thanks so much," but really I want to jump into the person's arms and cling to them like a starfish forever.
Janice Erlbaum
Writer's block has many causes and takes many forms, so one strategy isn't going to address all of them.
Sometimes I'm blocked because I don't know where to begin, so my strategy is to start in the middle -- dive in anywhere and start writing just to get the hands moving and hone the voice. I know that I probably won't use most of what I write verbatim, but it will be very useful in terms of getting me going.
Sometimes I'm stumped in the middle of a piece, and that's either because a) I'm trying to keep something in the piece that's just not working, but I love it too much to cut it (strategy: cut it), or b) there's something I don't want to mention, or some inhibition about telling this part of the story (strategy: write about why I don't want to write about it, see if that leads me to an answer).
Another strategy I employ when I'm stumped is to write an email to a friend, and tell them the story you're trying to write. "I'm writing about the time I took this cab ride with a female driver who was so much like a younger me. The reason I was in the cab in the first place..." This will almost always lead me somewhere new. Most of these emails don't get sent, but some do. My friends are used to it.
Sometimes I'm stumped because I don't have anything to write about. This is an excellent time to read a book.
Sometimes I'm blocked because I don't know where to begin, so my strategy is to start in the middle -- dive in anywhere and start writing just to get the hands moving and hone the voice. I know that I probably won't use most of what I write verbatim, but it will be very useful in terms of getting me going.
Sometimes I'm stumped in the middle of a piece, and that's either because a) I'm trying to keep something in the piece that's just not working, but I love it too much to cut it (strategy: cut it), or b) there's something I don't want to mention, or some inhibition about telling this part of the story (strategy: write about why I don't want to write about it, see if that leads me to an answer).
Another strategy I employ when I'm stumped is to write an email to a friend, and tell them the story you're trying to write. "I'm writing about the time I took this cab ride with a female driver who was so much like a younger me. The reason I was in the cab in the first place..." This will almost always lead me somewhere new. Most of these emails don't get sent, but some do. My friends are used to it.
Sometimes I'm stumped because I don't have anything to write about. This is an excellent time to read a book.
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