CHARLES BAXTER, interviewed by Jennifer Levasseur and Kevin Rabalais:
How do you balance the seemingly simple desire to discover characters and the more complex issues of craft to complete a novel?
I don’t think about structure and form when I write. I don’t think, “Now I’ve got to avoid an epiphany, and I’ve got to bring in a counterpointed character.” Nothing that I’ve thought abstractly, as far as craft is concerned, is much help in the first drafts. I try to see the characters, hear them and get them into some kind of interesting trouble. It’s only in the revisions and the rewriting that those techniques help. Paul Auster [The New York Trilogy] has said that in his first drafts he just feels his way. In many cases, the writer’s eye is almost entirely on the character, on what that person is moving toward, and he tries to find suitable language and feeling for the story. Writing first drafts is the experience of not knowing how to do something and persisting at it until it begins to feel right.
BAXTER, Charles. Novels: The Soul Thief (just out from Pantheon), Saul and Patsy, Shadow Play, The Feast of Love, First Light. Short-story collections: A Relative Stranger, Through the Safety Net, Believers, Harmony of the World. Books on writing: Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction and The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot.
MARY GORDON, interviewed by Charlotte Templin:
Can you say something about your choice to focus on story? You said earlier that you are not a great fan of metafiction.
Story is one of the basic human impulses. Every child wants a story told to them; we all like to sit around the campfire and listen to stories. Non-narrative, really non-narrative fiction—a lot of post-modernist fiction that is so self-referential—is not of great interest to me. As human beings, we want to make contact, and the impulse to story is very great. Sometimes I feel dorky, like I'm not cool, which is painful. That's why it's very important to be rooted in other writers. You look at older writers and think, "What do I really want to do?" And doesn't that matter more than who's the queen of the prom, which is a strong impulse? I would like to be the queen of the prom, and I'm not gonna be the queen of the prom if I write the way I want to write, but I think self-referential, metafictional writing is a less human and less rich way to write. I've had to make a decision. If I'm gonna do it the way I do it, I'm gonna be considered a little retro and a little uncool.
GORDON, Mary. Novels: Pearl, Spending, Final Payments, The Company of Women, Men and Angels, The Other Side. Novella collection: The Rest of Life. Short-story collection: Temporary Shelter. Essays: Good Boys and Dead Girls. Biography: Joan of Arc. Memoirs: The Shadow Man, Seeing Through Places. Barnard College.
