Ask the Author: Keith Scribner
Answered Questions (6)
Keith Scribner
The working title for my new novel is MOTHERLAND. It's set mostly in Ukraine, where I visited in March 2018 for research and to give a couple lectures and readings. I've been fascinated by Ukraine for over 20 years, and when I finally was able to travel there, the people, culture, music, architecture food...everything really!....exceeded my expectations. There's been a huge renaissance in art and music happening there since the Euroaidan Revolution of 2014. Such an exciting place. I can't wait to get back.
Keith Scribner
1. Read, read, read.
2. Write, write, write.
3. Read some more.
4. The only difference between a writer and a non-writer is that non-writers don't write. (This might be paraphrased from Tobias Wolff, and if not, he's got a lot of other good advice for aspiring writers.)
5. "'Keep a low overhead. You're not going to make a lot of money.' And the next thing I say: 'Don't live with a person who doesn't respect your work.' That's the most important thing..." —Grace Paley
2. Write, write, write.
3. Read some more.
4. The only difference between a writer and a non-writer is that non-writers don't write. (This might be paraphrased from Tobias Wolff, and if not, he's got a lot of other good advice for aspiring writers.)
5. "'Keep a low overhead. You're not going to make a lot of money.' And the next thing I say: 'Don't live with a person who doesn't respect your work.' That's the most important thing..." —Grace Paley
Keith Scribner
Nabokov writes that great fiction affords him "aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with the other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm." It's really a privilege to spend a good portion of my days engaged with art and creating art, doing my best to live a life where "curiosity, tenderness, kindness [and] ecstasy" are "the norm."
Keith Scribner
I find that a writing discipline, a regular and strict routine, is the best practice for fending off writer's block. If I show up at my desk everyday, preferably at the same time, my body and unconscious and imagination will come to recognize the signal to get cracking. When I'm in the middle of writing a novel, a daily word count is really useful. If I can't get up from my desk until I've written 500 words, and I have to leave for work in 10 minutes but I've put down only 300 words, it's amazing how quickly the remaining 200 will come. I might throw out most of them the next day, but almost always there'll be a surprising image or scrap of dialogue or even one good word that I wouldn't have come up with had I quit before hitting my goal.
Keith Scribner
I really believe in whatever's working at the time! It's a cup of coffee and a piece of toast. It's mountain biking and meditation. It's reading good books. Riding my motorcycle to the coast. Meditation. Living as rich a life as I can, full of love, friendship, family, art, good movies, and paying attention....As Wallace Stegner writes: "Be open, be available, be exposed, be skinless. Skinless? Dance around in your bones."
Keith Scribner
I've always loved Joan Didion's essay "On Going Home" and knew that one day I'd write a "going home" novel. Maybe it's my age, but the time finally seemed right to begin a novel with a man returning home, returning to his past and all that he left behind. Over the course of thirty years Cole Callahan has convinced himself that he'd moved on, but he discovers that the ghosts of his past are waiting for him. I'm very interested in how the past is alive in our present (and our future, too). OLD NEWGATE ROAD explores that collapsing of time throughout our lives.
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