Off the Page: Writers Talk about Beginnings, Endings, and Everything in Between

by Carole Burns

Book Overview

How do writers approach a new novel? Do they start with plot, character, or theme? A. S. Byatt starts with color. E. L. Doctorow begins with an image. In Off the Page, authors tell us how they work, giving insight into their writing process. Gathered from some of today's best writers--Paul Auster, Martin Amis, Gish Jen, Dan Chaon, Alice McDermott, and many others interviewed on washingtonpost.com's "Off the Page" series--host Carole Burns has woven...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393330885
• ISBN13: 9780393330885
• Release Date: December 2007
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 234 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Pleasant information

I found the book very insightful as to how writers approach the process of writing. It is easy to move from topic to topic. The information is encouraging for the new writer.

Undeniably authentic in his honest portrayal of the authors' mission to write literature worth readi

Off the Page: Writers Talk About Beginnings, Ending, and Everything in Between is an anthology of interviews with a diversity of authors describing the creation process of a literary work. Joyce Carol Oates begins and ends her writing process creating and reworking the beginning of a book; A.S. Byatt assembles a novel from "blocks of color"; and E.L. Doctorow crafts a story from a specific and compelling image that often springs to mind without context. From the intersection of sex, love, and literature (Martin Amis insists that good sex is impossible to write about!) to the reader's part in the creative process (or at least, the effect that readers' imagined reaction has on the mind of the author), Off the Page runs the gamut of influences and effects upon the evolution of a book. Originally typed directly on interviewer Carole Burns' computer as she listened to the interviewees and posted in real-time on the Web, Off the Page is undeniably authentic in his honest portrayal of the authors' mission to write literature worth reading.

"Theirs is a rich and varied dialogue about writing and literature."

In 2003, Carole Burns began conducting a series of interviews with a variety of authors for the Washington Post's Web site. She later mined the best quotations for her collection, "Off the Page," an entertaining and thoughtful book that touches on "all the vital elements of fiction." Burns interviewed forty-three authors from Pulitzer Prize winners to first-timers, and she arranged their comments into thematic chapters. Some of the usual questions are addressed: What are your sources of inspiration? How did you come to be a writer? What is the importance of revision? What advice would you like to pass on to future generations of writers? In addition, the contributors weigh in on the differences between creating novels and short stories, how one knows when a novel is finished, what the author should keep in mind when inserting historical characters into works of fiction, and the role of sex and love in literature. The tone is delightfully informal, as if A. S. Byatt and Richard Ford were sitting in our living rooms chatting with us. The conversations include passages of lighthearted banter, touching revelations, and even profound wisdom. This is an engaging compendium that can be read from beginning to end or dipped into at random. In these pages, the authors reveal a great deal about their methods, their artistic vision, and themselves as people. "Off the Page" is not a handbook, but an intriguing glimpse into the minds of novelists who have brought events, places, and characters to life through the power of their skill and imagination. "There is no magic formula, no set way to write a book." The ways of approaching the craft of writing are many and varied: John Irving writes his last sentence first, Michael Cunningham starts with a particular character in mind, for Paul Auster, the story takes center stage, and E. L. Doctorow bases his creations on an evocative image that he wants to explore more thoroughly. Marie Arana states in her introduction that writing is one of the most difficult professions a person can undertake; therefore, "writers, having lived through the agonies of purgatory, deserve to climb straight to heaven." The remarks in this volume give a good sense of the many obstacles a novelist must overcome. He must create a narrative that satisfies him, find a publisher, and hold his breath until he learns whether or not the critics and the public embrace or reject his creation. This is not a task for the thin-skinned. Since "good writing looks so effortless," few of us truly understand the blood, sweat, and tears that go into this risky and frustrating undertaking. Reading "Off the Page" provides a fascinating window into the writer's exhilarating, fulfilling, laborious, and sometimes agonizing world, "filled with equal portions of desperation and joy."