The way Tayari Jones gave inflection to her reading made the story come alive. I could picture everything happening as plausible. Though I couldn’t relate much to any of her characters, I didn’t mind much because they were interesting to hear about. After she’d finished reading, I found myself wondering what happened next.
I liked how she said that it didn’t matter what your writing process was. If you ended up with a book at the end, then than was the way to do it. She admitted that she usually deletes two thirds of what she wrote in order to come up with the right story, which is encouraging to me. Sometimes I feel that if I have to spend too much time with a piece, and the words don’t flow from the pencil like magic, I’m doing something wrong, or the story isn’t any good and I should just delete the whole thing and start again with something fresh. But sometimes that’s just the way it works.
Even though the book is fiction, she included things that happened in her own life, like putting paper between her teeth, or her father giving her mother a carving knife for their anniversary. I’ve often wondered how writers come up with quirky details like those to make the characters seem more real. When I read fiction, I tend to think that everything is made up.
I’m glad she mentioned how reading aloud helps her edit dialogue. I admit it – I hate reading my writing out loud. Especially formal essays. I can see how it would help, though. It’s much easier to tell if my writing is stuffy, corny, or nonsensical if I listen to it. That’s probably why I hate doing it. The stupidity that jumps out is so obvious that I despair of ever turning it into something worthwhile. If I want to improve, though, I should probably start proof-reading out loud.
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