Ask the Author: Nathaniel Barber
Answered Questions (7)
Nathaniel Barber
I would visit Anne of Green Gable's Prince Edward Island. I would go there and buy the Cuthbert farm. I wouldn't take any of Marilla's crap. So, it would be a rough go at first. But eventually Marilla would see that I'm a hard worker and I run a tight ship and before you'd know it, we'd be old biddies together. Inseparable. To the extent of my abilities, I would keep myself out of the town's gossip and going's on. Matthew did a good job at that, and I plan to continue the tradition of his nonparticipant commentary. How will I do this? I refuse to own a good suit or even Sunday clothes. Done and done. If everyone knew you didn't have a good suit or even Sunday clothes, why would they ask you to any of their dumb garden parties or social teas? That way I could be left alone, for the most part, to tend to the Cuthbert farm, assist Marilla in her dotage and see to the cows. Those cows, after all, aren't going to milk themselves.
Nathaniel Barber
I've written for many years. Then, my friend, Scott developed a really attractive blog template and was giving it out for free to anyone who wanted. It was very simple, but clean and lent to the spare delivery I felt a lit blog should encompass.
My wife agreed to give me one writing prompt every week. These could be anything she wanted and spoke to my claim that everyone has a story about anything in the world, all they had to do is think about it and write it down. So the prompts were anything from 'chapstick' to 'red' to 'a mouse' and on and on. We had a good run with this. The prompts (and living up to my claim) actually turned out to be incredibly challenging. Yes, people have a story about everything, I stand by that claim, but that story is probably not very interesting. So, it was my exercise to tell the story, but to make it interesting.
Blogs cost money, and while we did have a good run putting these together, it came to a natural close. For starters: not a lot of people read the blog. If you think about it, why does one log on and browse? Usually for a quick distraction. Asking someone to gobble up a good sized short stories with dynamic characters, setting and such...it was a big ask.
So I shut down the blog, but held on to the stories to work them out into a book. It turns out, after the stories had time to sit in a blog for a while, and stew, revisiting them was a little horrifying. They were not very good and many of them required almost complete rewrites. The stories I've included in this book, nearly all of them, look nothing like their predecessors on the blog.
This is an interesting point. As a writer you get a front row seat to the transformation a story undergoes. The reader only gets the final product. So I wish I could show people the 'before' story after they've read the final version. But this too, is a big ask. Getting them to read even the final story is an audacious request already. Getting them to read the previous version, with all it's horrible mistakes and contradictions and typos just so they can see the journey the story took... maybe sometimes mystique is preferable.
My wife agreed to give me one writing prompt every week. These could be anything she wanted and spoke to my claim that everyone has a story about anything in the world, all they had to do is think about it and write it down. So the prompts were anything from 'chapstick' to 'red' to 'a mouse' and on and on. We had a good run with this. The prompts (and living up to my claim) actually turned out to be incredibly challenging. Yes, people have a story about everything, I stand by that claim, but that story is probably not very interesting. So, it was my exercise to tell the story, but to make it interesting.
Blogs cost money, and while we did have a good run putting these together, it came to a natural close. For starters: not a lot of people read the blog. If you think about it, why does one log on and browse? Usually for a quick distraction. Asking someone to gobble up a good sized short stories with dynamic characters, setting and such...it was a big ask.
So I shut down the blog, but held on to the stories to work them out into a book. It turns out, after the stories had time to sit in a blog for a while, and stew, revisiting them was a little horrifying. They were not very good and many of them required almost complete rewrites. The stories I've included in this book, nearly all of them, look nothing like their predecessors on the blog.
This is an interesting point. As a writer you get a front row seat to the transformation a story undergoes. The reader only gets the final product. So I wish I could show people the 'before' story after they've read the final version. But this too, is a big ask. Getting them to read even the final story is an audacious request already. Getting them to read the previous version, with all it's horrible mistakes and contradictions and typos just so they can see the journey the story took... maybe sometimes mystique is preferable.
Nathaniel Barber
I am skeptical of inspiration and very wary of the work it produces. That doesn't mean I don't get inspired. I certainly do get inspired and I am very grateful for when inspiration strikes, and I take advantage of that momentum to carve out great lengths of work at an abnormal and unsustainable pace.
I am skeptical of inspiration because I believe writing is a commitment to the long game. It is the lasting, and boring, work-a-day habit that is going to get the job done, rather than the few, fevered jags we seem to long for so terribly.
Also, the writing I've accomplished while in the throes of inspiration have most always turned out to be complete dreck. Inspired writing requires the most editing, by a long shot. So while I may be inspired and writing a whole lot, I cannot help but be disheartened to know the mass of text I'm setting down is also saturated with typos, contradictions in voice and context, unbelievable or phony dialogue and on and on and on. If there's anything good about inspired writing, it is that it's a larger body of work from which a larger body of edits can be distilled. First writings are, after all, only jumping off point, to a much longer and technical bout of edits, from which (ideally) something worth while may eventually emerge.
I am skeptical of inspiration because I believe writing is a commitment to the long game. It is the lasting, and boring, work-a-day habit that is going to get the job done, rather than the few, fevered jags we seem to long for so terribly.
Also, the writing I've accomplished while in the throes of inspiration have most always turned out to be complete dreck. Inspired writing requires the most editing, by a long shot. So while I may be inspired and writing a whole lot, I cannot help but be disheartened to know the mass of text I'm setting down is also saturated with typos, contradictions in voice and context, unbelievable or phony dialogue and on and on and on. If there's anything good about inspired writing, it is that it's a larger body of work from which a larger body of edits can be distilled. First writings are, after all, only jumping off point, to a much longer and technical bout of edits, from which (ideally) something worth while may eventually emerge.
Nathaniel Barber
In the meantime, I'm working on marketing this book. It seems to be all I have time for. Luckily, I have been a writer for a very long time, so I have a number of works that only need a final edit.
My Favorite Color, and Other Grown Up Poems for Children is one I've all but finished. Seeking illustrations, or just drawing them myself is the next step here. The book is as the name implies, a book of poetry, the larger theme is simply a long form rhyme and meter poem about my favorite color, with poems in-between to mix things up. Imagine Shel Silverstein commenting on current events, that would pretty much sum up the tone.
Childish Poems for Grown Ups, started as a companion to 'My Favorite Color' but eventually became so large, it is now it's own piece. There is no larger theme for Childish Poems, just more grown up themes delivered as you would to someone who is a grown up brat. That is not to say my audience is a bunch of grown up brats, but that adults as a whole are grown up brats. Admirers of Roald Dahl's writing will likely know what I mean by that.
Finally, there is another, much larger book of nonfiction, mixed with some fiction on the way. It is very important that I didn't publish this work first, since I believe a writer must first seek permission to create larger, more sprawling works without them becoming inherently indulgent. Luck Favors the Prepared, is kind of like asking permission to write more work. Work begets work.
Lastly, there's a couple novels kicking around in there. Those will come out a number of years down the line.
My Favorite Color, and Other Grown Up Poems for Children is one I've all but finished. Seeking illustrations, or just drawing them myself is the next step here. The book is as the name implies, a book of poetry, the larger theme is simply a long form rhyme and meter poem about my favorite color, with poems in-between to mix things up. Imagine Shel Silverstein commenting on current events, that would pretty much sum up the tone.
Childish Poems for Grown Ups, started as a companion to 'My Favorite Color' but eventually became so large, it is now it's own piece. There is no larger theme for Childish Poems, just more grown up themes delivered as you would to someone who is a grown up brat. That is not to say my audience is a bunch of grown up brats, but that adults as a whole are grown up brats. Admirers of Roald Dahl's writing will likely know what I mean by that.
Finally, there is another, much larger book of nonfiction, mixed with some fiction on the way. It is very important that I didn't publish this work first, since I believe a writer must first seek permission to create larger, more sprawling works without them becoming inherently indulgent. Luck Favors the Prepared, is kind of like asking permission to write more work. Work begets work.
Lastly, there's a couple novels kicking around in there. Those will come out a number of years down the line.
Nathaniel Barber
Since I am, and will always be an aspiring writer, the best bit of advice I could offer to other aspiring writers is to never take any advice from someone who calls themselves an accomplished writer.
For your practice, find a time that you work best (Early morning? Lunch break? Late at night?), and commit that time to your work. Even if you spend that time looking at a screen, writing nothing. It's okay if that advice sounds dumb, but I counter: one of the best things about the process of writing, is that very few experiences are wasted on a writer. Even if you make a habit out of staring at your work, and being unable to come up with anything, eventually you will, and all that time you spend not coming up with anything will speak volumes in the work you do produce.
Also, so many writers incorporate drugs or alcohol as a companion to their writing process. I would never endorse this practice. Aside from being vastly unhealthy, drugs and alcohol are immensely misleading. They routinely trick you into believing the work you're creating is very very good, when in fact it is likely rubbish. But for those who are insistent, I would suggest they write high and edit sober.
For your practice, find a time that you work best (Early morning? Lunch break? Late at night?), and commit that time to your work. Even if you spend that time looking at a screen, writing nothing. It's okay if that advice sounds dumb, but I counter: one of the best things about the process of writing, is that very few experiences are wasted on a writer. Even if you make a habit out of staring at your work, and being unable to come up with anything, eventually you will, and all that time you spend not coming up with anything will speak volumes in the work you do produce.
Also, so many writers incorporate drugs or alcohol as a companion to their writing process. I would never endorse this practice. Aside from being vastly unhealthy, drugs and alcohol are immensely misleading. They routinely trick you into believing the work you're creating is very very good, when in fact it is likely rubbish. But for those who are insistent, I would suggest they write high and edit sober.
Nathaniel Barber
Finishing writing. Hands down.
I realize this is odd, that the best thing about being a writer is ending what you do. But to stand back from a piece that has seen numerous transformations, that has been edited and edited and edited until, at last, it is almost no longer something you've created, but it's own living and breathing organism, and see it walk out into the world (for better or worse), it is immensely gratifying. Also, the process of first creating and then editing is harrowing, for a number of reasons, so it is only natural seeing them come to a close is an incredible relief with a staying power that is unusually evergreen.
Also, life is fleeting business. It's so very valuable, like gold dust. No matter how banal. To be a writer is to reach out and gather up great swaths of the stuff and, even if only for a short while (in the universal perspective), set it to record.
I realize this is odd, that the best thing about being a writer is ending what you do. But to stand back from a piece that has seen numerous transformations, that has been edited and edited and edited until, at last, it is almost no longer something you've created, but it's own living and breathing organism, and see it walk out into the world (for better or worse), it is immensely gratifying. Also, the process of first creating and then editing is harrowing, for a number of reasons, so it is only natural seeing them come to a close is an incredible relief with a staying power that is unusually evergreen.
Also, life is fleeting business. It's so very valuable, like gold dust. No matter how banal. To be a writer is to reach out and gather up great swaths of the stuff and, even if only for a short while (in the universal perspective), set it to record.
Nathaniel Barber
I can't remember the exact quote, so I'll have to paraphrase. Showing up is 9/10th the work. The writing will come after.
I like that quote a lot because it turns something as intangible as writers block, the notion that there just isn't anything to write about, or you're just not imaginative enough to create anything interesting, and turns it into a very real, very tangible barrier. The tangible things keeping you from writing. Whether that is outright laziness keeping you from your work, or crippling standards that won't allow you to put anything down or an attachment to what you've written so severe it is impossible to call it 'done' and move on. Essentially, this quote implies there is no such thing as writer's block.
There's one wild card there, of course. Since writing is a privilege, there is the very real barrier all privileges encounter, there just isn't any time to write. And that, I will give a pass. Some people are just strapped. It is insulting and hurtful to tell those who aren't privileged enough to write that they just aren't trying hard enough.
For me, there is only hard work. I realize...
...right now is a good example of that wild card, as my daughter is screaming at me to make her breakfast. So there it is.
I like that quote a lot because it turns something as intangible as writers block, the notion that there just isn't anything to write about, or you're just not imaginative enough to create anything interesting, and turns it into a very real, very tangible barrier. The tangible things keeping you from writing. Whether that is outright laziness keeping you from your work, or crippling standards that won't allow you to put anything down or an attachment to what you've written so severe it is impossible to call it 'done' and move on. Essentially, this quote implies there is no such thing as writer's block.
There's one wild card there, of course. Since writing is a privilege, there is the very real barrier all privileges encounter, there just isn't any time to write. And that, I will give a pass. Some people are just strapped. It is insulting and hurtful to tell those who aren't privileged enough to write that they just aren't trying hard enough.
For me, there is only hard work. I realize...
...right now is a good example of that wild card, as my daughter is screaming at me to make her breakfast. So there it is.
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