“How Writers Create Their Fiction”: Curtis Sittenfeld

I uncovered this month-long NPR series “How Writers Create Their Fiction”, originally run in November 2006. I found many of the ideas presented by the various writers to be informative and inspirational, so we’ll be featuring one writer per day for the next few weeks.

Today’s writer is Curtis Sittenfeld:

Curtis Sittenfeld’s first novel, Prep, was a bestseller. Her second, The Man of My Dreams, was published in May. A winner of the Seventeen magazine fiction contest in 1992, she has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Real Simple, and public radio’s This American Life.

How she writes: “My goal is to write from 10 to 1 every day. This usually means I get started around 11:15, after checking email and various web sites. But I often write long past 1, eating lunch at 2 or 3. I try not to check email or answer the phone during this time, though I don’t always succeed, as this very email shows!”

Writer’s block remedy: “I don’t really believe in it. There are times I’m not in the mood to write, but I’m wary of romanticizing that. If I’m moderately not in the mood, I’ll reread what I’ve recently written to try to enter the fictional world, and I’ll give myself a manageable, very specific assignment, like writing a particular scene. If I’m really not in the mood, I’ll edit earlier work. If I’m really, really not in the mood, I’ll go read fiction by someone else. I don’t think it’s shameful to admit that some days your time can be better spent reading than writing.”

More writing wisdom tomorrow.

[Originally posted February 3, 2010]