Ask the Author: Jessica Grose
Answered Questions (7)
Jessica Grose
Hi Sam, That is a great question! From Jezebel and Slate, I took a work ethic. When you're publishing daily, you can really push through writers' block (and I also took the idea of working at a website for Sad Desk Salad). I'm not sure yet what I learned from podcasting. That's something I probably have to think more about. Thank you for writing!
Jessica Grose
Hi Melissa! Sorry for the delayed response, somehow I am JUST seeing this! I was inspired by working at Jezebel, and also feeling like no one had captured what it was like to work at a website particularly accurately in fiction at that point.
Jessica Grose
Great question, Nina! I think journalism and fiction are, at their heart, both just storytelling. So I think being able to tell a moving, concise story is something that working in journalism taught me. I also learned a lot about structure from being a journalist. Nonfiction articles can't just meander, they have to be structured straightforwardly so that they are understood.
Craft-wise, I find writing fiction is freeing in a way, because I can just make things up! I also get less blocked writing fiction, because I can include whatever details I think are best. With journalism, you usually have limited space, and you do more research than you could ever put in a piece, so you have to pick and choose sometimes what you can feasibly include. That teaches you a certain cold discipline--if something isn't working in the narrative you must discard it, which is also useful in fiction. But in fiction I don't have to be as cold with my favorite details.
Craft-wise, I find writing fiction is freeing in a way, because I can just make things up! I also get less blocked writing fiction, because I can include whatever details I think are best. With journalism, you usually have limited space, and you do more research than you could ever put in a piece, so you have to pick and choose sometimes what you can feasibly include. That teaches you a certain cold discipline--if something isn't working in the narrative you must discard it, which is also useful in fiction. But in fiction I don't have to be as cold with my favorite details.
Jessica Grose
Writing things that genuinely entertain or inform people.
Jessica Grose
Don't get discouraged! I had years of rejection before I established myself as a journalist, and then, years of false starts before I could actually finish a novel.
Jessica Grose
I am working on a new book called The Closest Marriage. It's in drafts right now and with my editor, so I should have edits for it in the not-too-distant future. I am also busy with journalism, writing for Slate, some women's magazines, and elsewhere.
Jessica Grose
I usually wait to write fiction until I have an idea I think would sustain a full-length project. I map out the plot before I sit down to write each chapter. I try not to wait for elusive inspiration, because it doesn't always come, and I have limited time to write. So once I have the plot, it's just butt in chair, whether I like it or not!
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