Ask the Author: Nicole Chung
Answered Questions (7)
Nicole Chung
- Give yourself deadlines. If you can't, make someone else give you deadlines.
- I personally always think you should write the thing that feels most urgent to you RIGHT NOW. This may sound obvious, but as an editor it is surprising to me how often I am pitched several ideas at once and find that only one comes across with true urgency. As a writer, you know what's there, always tapping you on the shoulder, haunting your thoughts and keeping you up at night. You know the thing that gets you most excited to return to your writing each day or each week. Try to write THAT thing, and don't worry if it's not the most marketable thing or the thing that gets everyone else excited. You'll write it well and do it justice, and then everyone else will catch up.
- Find people who appreciate and believe in your work—one and then another and another. Great if they're also smart readers, smart critics, but make sure the people you routinely turn to/share with understand what you are trying to do and want you to succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
- Put yourself out there and seek opportunities to be edited well, by someone who cares and wants to help you improve, as often as you can.
- Be kind to yourself, always.
- A teacher said this to me once, and now I say it to every class and anyone else who asks: Don't be afraid to follow the fun sometimes. I know that might sound a little weird because I wrote a super serious book. But it WAS fun to write. It was what I WANTED to write. And a lot of my other writing is just about what I find amusing or interesting. We all have a tendency to write about things that hurt us—for good reason—but don’t forget to follow the joy, too.
- I personally always think you should write the thing that feels most urgent to you RIGHT NOW. This may sound obvious, but as an editor it is surprising to me how often I am pitched several ideas at once and find that only one comes across with true urgency. As a writer, you know what's there, always tapping you on the shoulder, haunting your thoughts and keeping you up at night. You know the thing that gets you most excited to return to your writing each day or each week. Try to write THAT thing, and don't worry if it's not the most marketable thing or the thing that gets everyone else excited. You'll write it well and do it justice, and then everyone else will catch up.
- Find people who appreciate and believe in your work—one and then another and another. Great if they're also smart readers, smart critics, but make sure the people you routinely turn to/share with understand what you are trying to do and want you to succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
- Put yourself out there and seek opportunities to be edited well, by someone who cares and wants to help you improve, as often as you can.
- Be kind to yourself, always.
- A teacher said this to me once, and now I say it to every class and anyone else who asks: Don't be afraid to follow the fun sometimes. I know that might sound a little weird because I wrote a super serious book. But it WAS fun to write. It was what I WANTED to write. And a lot of my other writing is just about what I find amusing or interesting. We all have a tendency to write about things that hurt us—for good reason—but don’t forget to follow the joy, too.
Nicole Chung
This month:
THE GOLDEN STATE, by Lydia Kiesling
FRIDAY BLACK, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
HEAVY, by Kiese Laymon
ANAGNORISIS, by Kyle Dargan
and, of course, BECOMING, by Michelle Obama!
THE GOLDEN STATE, by Lydia Kiesling
FRIDAY BLACK, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
HEAVY, by Kiese Laymon
ANAGNORISIS, by Kyle Dargan
and, of course, BECOMING, by Michelle Obama!
Nicole Chung
This answer changes every time—which I guess is its own answer, in a way: I clearly do not remember a particular day or moment or month when I made the decision. I had written a few essays about adoption, and gotten a lot of interesting feedback and questions from readers, many of whom told me they hadn't read a transracial adoptee's perspective on adoption before. It surprised me because I had come across these narratives, but it's true that adoptee perspectives hadn't—maybe still haven't—gone "mainstream" in the way they really should.
Eventually it became clear that I couldn't do justice to the issue, to the story, to every person involved, to every complication and nuance, writing 1000- and 2000-word essays here and there. A book would allow me to lay everything out, tell the full story, but I also hoped it would have a kind of impact on the culture—maybe help start some conversations, help keep them going—that a short-form piece wouldn't or couldn't. Also, from a purely selfish standpoint: I felt as though this book would be there, tapping me on the shoulder, until I tried to write it. It was almost as if I had to try to make some kind of place for myself in a literary landscape where people like me and experiences like mine were and are scarce. Which is maybe a burden I should not have felt, and not every writer of color or adoptee of color would or should feel that way, but I did.
Eventually it became clear that I couldn't do justice to the issue, to the story, to every person involved, to every complication and nuance, writing 1000- and 2000-word essays here and there. A book would allow me to lay everything out, tell the full story, but I also hoped it would have a kind of impact on the culture—maybe help start some conversations, help keep them going—that a short-form piece wouldn't or couldn't. Also, from a purely selfish standpoint: I felt as though this book would be there, tapping me on the shoulder, until I tried to write it. It was almost as if I had to try to make some kind of place for myself in a literary landscape where people like me and experiences like mine were and are scarce. Which is maybe a burden I should not have felt, and not every writer of color or adoptee of color would or should feel that way, but I did.
Nicole Chung
My adoptive parents and all the birth family I'm in contact with have read it, yes. I wrote a little about sharing it with my parents here.
I always knew I wanted to share it with them, and that I wanted to do so well before publication—and at the same time I was a little anxious when the time came. But they were all incredibly supportive. My parents liked it and told me they found it truthful and powerful. My birth father told me he was proud of me. My sister said she felt represented and honored by the story, and that meant everything to me—because this is really our story, not just mine, and she generously allowed me to share it.
Since my adoptive father passed away unexpectedly earlier this year, I've been especially grateful that part of my parents' story together, including my dad and his love for me, is preserved and memorialized in this book. It is of course not the only way I will remember my dad or how much he loved me, but it's one way, and I really treasure that now. I am so glad I got to share those sections in particular with him before he died.
I always knew I wanted to share it with them, and that I wanted to do so well before publication—and at the same time I was a little anxious when the time came. But they were all incredibly supportive. My parents liked it and told me they found it truthful and powerful. My birth father told me he was proud of me. My sister said she felt represented and honored by the story, and that meant everything to me—because this is really our story, not just mine, and she generously allowed me to share it.
Since my adoptive father passed away unexpectedly earlier this year, I've been especially grateful that part of my parents' story together, including my dad and his love for me, is preserved and memorialized in this book. It is of course not the only way I will remember my dad or how much he loved me, but it's one way, and I really treasure that now. I am so glad I got to share those sections in particular with him before he died.
Nicole Chung
In second grade we were all given an assignment to write a fairy tale—I remember cramming double the sentences on that sheet of elementary-school super-wide-lined paper, writing above the dashed line *and* below so I could fit a longer story. My teacher read it and told me she thought I could be a writer. I didn't quite believe it was possible for me (and wouldn't for about twenty more years—partly a function of not being able to find or read many Asian or Korean American authors when I was growing up), but from that year onward, I knew it was something I wanted.
Nicole Chung
Right now I'm working on a novel that will probably take me ~ten years to write :D and I'm also starting to work on a collection of essays!
Nicole Chung
Finding community. I love that moment when you share your story and you aren't alone anymore. It's been so fun to hear from, meet, and talk with readers!
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