Ask the Author: Rebecca Cook
Answered Questions (6)
Rebecca Cook
I don't. When I can't write, I can't write.
In the past, I would muddle around in despair when I had dry spells. Now I know that when I'm not writing, my brain is perking and buzzing away and the time will come when all of that stuff just pours out.
Some writers must write every day and advise other writers to do the same. I am not one of those writers. I write when I hear the voices in my head. If I force myself to write, the results are forced and I never love those pieces.
In the past, I would muddle around in despair when I had dry spells. Now I know that when I'm not writing, my brain is perking and buzzing away and the time will come when all of that stuff just pours out.
Some writers must write every day and advise other writers to do the same. I am not one of those writers. I write when I hear the voices in my head. If I force myself to write, the results are forced and I never love those pieces.
Rebecca Cook
Nailing the dismount--that feeling that you've just done it! and it's really really good and you can't wait for someone to read it.
Rebecca Cook
Read. Read. Read. Learn what good writing is. By good writing, I don't just mean literary writing. Good writing can be anything, but you have to study the craft and listen. When I teach, I always stress the importance of reading all of your work out loud to yourself. Always. And to just listen. You have to develop your "ear" if you want to bring your characters to life.
Rebecca Cook
I am lucky, very lucky, to write well and publish in all genres. But this is also a sort of curse because it is often difficult to concentrate on just one project at a time. I have this same problem with reading. I will often be reading several books at once.
I am working on short stories, trying to pull a collection together, and I am always working on poems and lyric essays. My next poetry collection will be my God work, poetry as worship and reflection. I have ideas for a couple of other books, another novel and a book of lyrics. I have too many ideas!
I am working on short stories, trying to pull a collection together, and I am always working on poems and lyric essays. My next poetry collection will be my God work, poetry as worship and reflection. I have ideas for a couple of other books, another novel and a book of lyrics. I have too many ideas!
Rebecca Cook
Most of the time, I write because I hear the words in my head. Characters will start speaking to each other and I can see and hear them having their conversation in the cafe.
Almost always, with poems and lyric essays, I hear the first line of a poem or a lyric essay, and the rest just pours out. This does not mean that I don't rework and pound on many of my poems and lyrics, but the process of poetry and lyric essays flows in a different way than short stories or straight up/head-on essays.
Almost always, with poems and lyric essays, I hear the first line of a poem or a lyric essay, and the rest just pours out. This does not mean that I don't rework and pound on many of my poems and lyrics, but the process of poetry and lyric essays flows in a different way than short stories or straight up/head-on essays.
Rebecca Cook
I published a story, "You Girls Have the Loveliest Legs," in New England Review in 2008. I was a fiction scholar at Bread Loaf the next summer and I heard the first line of Click, which was, "She was the bird, of that she was certain." The line haunted me and that's what led to this novel. The main character of the short story, Ronnie, needed a book to tell the rest of her story.
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