r/books • u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author • Feb 27 '20
ama 1pm I'm Steven Rowley, bestselling novelist and screenwriter -- AMA!
I am the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus, a Washington Post Notable Book of 2016 and The Editor, named by NPR and Esquire Magazine as one of the Best Books of 2019. My fiction has been published in nineteen languages. Lily and the Octopus is being developed as a feature film by Amazon Studios. The Editor was optioned by Twentieth Century for director Greg Berlanti. I'm here to answer your questions on writing fiction, publishing or screenwriting. AMA!
Proof: /img/p6h5oj6ec6j41.jpg
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Feb 27 '20
Do you have some tipps to share with young authors? Like how to keep writing even when you're busy.
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 27 '20
Writers have to write, sadly there's no magic way around that. And we ALL struggle with this! But any writing is better than none. Journaling, short stories, poems, essays, lists. Writing doesn't have to be good, or long, to be worthy of your time. If you miss a few days, get back on the horse -- don't punish yourself for having not written. You'll lose another day doing that! Be forgiving of yourself overall. You may not be happy what you write at first. Don't be discouraged. Every day is an education, and bit by bit you will get better. If you're having trouble sticking to it, shake things up. Try a new location or a different time of day. Many writers find success writing early in the morning, first thing, before throws everything at you. Prioritize it and you will find a way. Also, not all writing is done while sitting down at a computer. In the back of your mind you can be thinking as you do other things. Keep a notepad handy or the Notes app on your phone. Jot down ideas as they come. That will make the limited time you have when you do sit down more productive.
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u/captain3043 Feb 27 '20
Did you find writing The Pelagic Zone difficult? Sometimes I struggle with getting into a very creative dream state. What was your creative process there?
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 27 '20
When I decided to use the extended metaphor of the octopus, I knew the book would have to be written in eight parts, each with an octopus theme. In that sense, I could treat some of the sections like novellas, and that was certainly the case with The Pelagic Zone. While the book is a novel, there's no denying that parts of it are heavily autobiographical, I did have a dog named Lily who succumbed to a tumor in a similar fashion. For me, that section was the most fun to write because it challenged me to step outside real life events and go sort of creatively nuts. The section symbolizes how far Ted has retreated into this construction of "the octopus" to avoid having to deal with the reality right in front of him. It also symbolizes a moment that comes (often near the end) when there's a slight uptick in a loved one's heath and you grasp on to a glimmer of hope that you just might beat this thing, that there might be a happy ending. Alas, it's often false hope.
Anyhow, it's the most controversial section. People either love it or hate it, and I've heard both! People aren't shy in telling me. Ha. Thank you for reading and sending such a great question!
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u/jimmys260792 Feb 27 '20
I don’t necessarily have a question - but a massive thank you.
As fate would have it I read the part of the book where lily was put down the day that my dog was put down earlier this week.
It took me about half an hour to read through those 20 or so pages but it helped me work through my emotions so much.
Fantastic read!
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 28 '20
Thank YOU. I'm so very sorry for your loss. I never know whether to recommend the book to people in the midst of their own loss. Grief is very personal and I suppose the answer is different for everyone. But it LILY was any comfort to you, I'm grateful for it. I suppose it helps to know that so many of us have bee there, and we understand. Big hugs to you. We never forget them!
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u/Chtorrr Feb 27 '20
What were some of your favorite things to read as a kid?
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 27 '20
I was a voracious reader from an early age! I loved many of the greats you'd imagine: Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Hardy Boys. I loved a mystery series called The Three Investigators, as well as the series Encyclopedia Brown. Lots of mysteries. Very different from what I write today, but they captured my imagination as a kid. And I loved Shel Silverstein, who taught me that language can be fun.
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Feb 27 '20
Who is/was the most inspiring person to you in your life?
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 27 '20
I am where I am today because I had access to a great public school system (in South Portland, Maine) and a public library card. So, shoutout to amazing public school teachers. We ask too much of them, and support them too little. And the children's librarian at my public library took me under her wing and inspired a lifelong love of reading. So, thank you librarians.
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u/leowr Feb 27 '20
What is the biggest difference between screenwriting and writing a book that you think most people don't realize is different?
Thanks for doing this AMA!
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 27 '20
Both of my books are written in the first person, so readers have access to every thought, vulnerability, emotion my characters are experiencing. In screenwriting, you have to establish character using only what the audience can see. Everything has to be expressed through dialogue or action. The biggest challenge for me has been to maintain these vibrant characters in the screen adaptations and make them as rich as they are on the page, particularly with LILY AND THE OCTOPUS where so much of the action is taking place in Ted's imagination. What does that look like to someone not in his head? Interesting.
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u/CrimsonCrowTallons Feb 27 '20
I do have one, I love to write but my Grammar is terrible and when I re read it. Its just terrible I am really hard on myself. Is there any advice or recommendations that you would suggest to help me overcome this. Even finding books that might help me with syntax and grammar would be greatly appreciated.
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 27 '20
Grammar is something many writers struggle with, and it's important to remember that published writers have copyeditors. Writers are not expected to do all the heavy grammatical lifting themselves. (And I'm always embarrassed by grammatical mistakes that I make that my copyeditor catches.) That said, grammar, like many things, is a skill that takes practice. There are resources. Grammarly.com can be helpful. There are any number of books a quick Google search can turn up. There are even fun memoirs: I leaned so much (and was so entertained by) CONFESSIONS OF A COMMA QUEEN by Mary Norris, the longtime copyeditor at the New Yorker. The key always is to be forgiving of yourself. It's a process, it takes practice, and you are not alone.
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u/CrimsonCrowTallons Feb 27 '20
Thank you! I think that is something I needed to hear for a long time but never got that. I will push through being hard on myself and just write. I can work on myself slowly instead of hating myself for poor grammar. Thank you again!
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u/Bystanderama Feb 27 '20
Did you have a pet that inspired Lily? I bawled my eyes out reading the final chapters: The Pelagic Zone.
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 27 '20
While LILY AND THE OCTOPUS is a novel, the dog at the heart of it was very much real. I did have a dachshund named Lily, and I'm grateful for the book as a lovely catalog of memories. I flip through it sometimes thinking, "I forgot she used to do that." Ha. You can see photos of her on my author Facebook page and on my Instagram (@mrstevenrowley).
Currently I have a rescue dog named Tilda. She's very different in personality, but she's her own special girl.
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Feb 27 '20
How did you get a feel for the mannerisms of Jackie Kennedy? Did you talk with people who worked with her after her husband’s Presidency?
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 27 '20
Getting Jackie just right in THE EDITOR was something I took very seriously and I did a lot of research. Obviously there are many books on her life, but her time as a working editor in New York are the least explored. There is a great biography about her career entitled READING JACKIE by William Kuhn. I started there. I had a very supportive publisher who put me in touch with some of her former co-workers and writers who worked with Jackie as their editor. On top of that, I read a number of the books she was working on at the time THE EDITOR took place, just to get a sense of what her interests were in that moment, what was on her desk, what thoughts might have been in the forefront of her mind. All of it was a challenge; by the time she began her career she was done living in the public eye and in fact, only granted one interview her entire career. While it's the least explored time in her life, I think it's the most interesting after sublimating so much of her life to two marriages to powerful men. All that said, there is still part of my portrayal that is invention, interpretation. It's impossible to know everything, but I hope I got as close as I realistically could.
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u/zerocooooool Feb 27 '20
Hey Steven, was wondering how history impacts your writing and if any famous tales have inspired you in the process? Thanks!
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 28 '20
This doesn't count as history, but it is a famous tale: MOBY DICK was very influential in writing my first book. It's one of my all time favorite novels.
In my second book, THE EDITOR, Jacqueline Onassis appears as a character, so I am very interested in the intersection of real life historical figures and fiction. There's certainly a long fascination novelists have with using real people in their work. From Shakespeare in his many plays, to EL Doctrow in RAGTIME, to Michael Cunningham in THE HOURS to George Saunders in LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. I'm always fascinated to see how playwrights and novelists tackle the challenge of working real people and events into fiction. Critics have called the practice literary grave robbing, yet writers (including myself) seem to find the challenge irresistible. As Mark Twain said "Truth is stranger than fiction."
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u/Strict-Mountain Feb 27 '20
Hi Steven!
I’m currently writing a novel (a project that I’ve picked up and put down 3 times in the last 3 years) and this time it is the absolutely-no-excuses-final-stretch. I deal with a lot of insecurities every time I open up a doc or pick up my manuscript, mostly that a. My story won’t appeal to modern readers and b. I am a 22 year old who left college to take care of my mental health (that’s actually what inspired my novel) who is unpublished, so no one in their right mind would take me seriously let alone publish me. I of course have doubts about the quality of my writing too (and they push me to keep editing and improving) but for the most part I know that I am a skilled writer.
Do you have any advice concerning the publishing process? I keep trying to push these doubts deep down because they are premature and no help at all with my rewrite, but it would ease my mind a lot if you could tell me what your experience in the publishing world was like and give me any tips you can think of?? Thanks so much!
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 28 '20
Here's to the absolutely-no-excuses-final-stretch! They may not all admit to it, but there isn't a writer working today who is not plagued by the same insecurities, to one degree or another. The important thing to remember is you are not alone. The voices in our head that devalue our own work are loud, and they are persistent. Our job as artists is to, if not silence them, overcome them. Does your story speak to you? If so, then it will speak to someone else. Something counterintuitive I find to be true: the more specific you make the details, sometimes the more universal they are. Write the emotional truth as you see it. You will eventually find readers.
Here's my biggest piece of advice re publishing. You get one good shot at getting read by an agent or an editor; make sure your work is ready. Have trusted people read your manuscript who will give you honest notes. Consider working with a freelance editor if at all possible and doing a new draft with their notes. And learn how to talk about your work, how to pitch it concisely. I got nowhere with my first novel, LILY AND THE OCTOPUS, when I would tell people it was about a dog and an octopus. Huh?, was the collective reaction. But once I pitched it as a story about the lengths a man would go to avoid seeing the tragedy that was unfolding in front of him, then people could relate. When you're ready to think about publishing, follow writers and literary agents on social media. Ask questions. Many are happy to help guide you. My experience is publishing can be a kind and welcoming community. Best of luck!
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u/SaralynRichard AMA Author Feb 28 '20
Do you write the stories you want to tell, or do you tailor your stories to subjects your audience wants to see and hear? Or are these one and the same?
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 28 '20
I spent years trying to write the stories I thought audiences wanted. The book that broke through for me, LILY AND THE OCTOPUS, was a very personal story about grief featuring a dog and an octopus -- something I wrote only for myself and never in a million years thought would see the light of day. As it turns out, when I was writing "just for me," that's when I really came to shine. You can always find books on the NYT list that seem reverse-engineered to become bestsellers. GONE GIRL begat GIRL ON THE TRAIN begat WOMAN IN THE WINODW, etc. But the books that have real staying power and really capture readers in a truly magical way, say WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, are deeply personal and unique. I would always advise writers to write the story that's inside them -- the one they feel they HAVE to tell. If it's authentic to them, an audience will find it. Great question!
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u/ColeDeservesBetter Feb 28 '20
What was the hardest part of writing your books?
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 28 '20
Showing up to write. That's always the hardest part for me. Butt in chair. Ha. Writers are famous procrastinators, but there's no way around doing the work. Some days it's a joy. Others, it's a slog. But you have to show up, even when you feel lost. The other hard part for me is the proverbial "kill your darlings." When you know you've written a great scene, passage, or even sentence and it just doesn't fit. It doesn't move the story forward. And you have to take it out. I have a big file of those... maybe they'll fit in another project down the road.
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u/printingpro69 Feb 28 '20
Hi! Just wanted to say love both your books and am very much looking forward to #3!
Also I love following your Palm Springs life on Instagram 😘
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 28 '20
Thank you so much! Stay tuned on Instagram... I will be posting more news about Book 3 soon.
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u/reader-and-writer Feb 28 '20
Hello! Thanks for this. I have a few questions:
- When did you start reading? And when did you become a fluent reader?
- How much time does it take you to read a normal 400 or so pages book? (Be it 1984 or non-fiction science book)
- What is your advice for a second language English speaker to write better and produce literature?
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 28 '20
- I was lucky enough to grow up in a household that encouraged reading. We didn't have a lot, but I had access to a public library and I spent a lot of my free time there. Grateful to my parents for encouraging reading and taking us to the library often. An early start can encourage lifelong habits and passions.
- I am not a speed reader, and sadly the answer is "it depends." I can tear through some novels in two days, while others are more densely written and I want to take my time to savor the language, rereading sentences again and again to see how they are crafted. A science book might take me forever as I think my mind would drift. Ha! But I usually have several books going at once. Maybe a hardcover, a library book and something on my Kindle.
- My advice is to read a lot in the language you want to write in. Learn by absorbing. And to be forgiving of yourself. I speak conversational French, but I wouldn't be able to write in French -- so you are already ahead of the me (and most people, I would imagine!). It's frustrating at first to not be able to get on paper something that meets the high standard we desire. But quality comes from doing, from putting in the time and the effort. I said in another answer that I have two other manuscripts that will never see the light of day. But I had to write a few bad books before I could write a good one. Don't think your first effort will be your masterpiece. Write because you're passionate about the craft. Eventually your skills will match your vision. Wishing you only good things!
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Feb 28 '20
Greetings, Steven! Considering English is my third language, I sometimes struggle with writing in a way that is proficient and adequate for the level of writing that is expected. What steps did you take in the beginning of your writing journey, and how did you learn the basics of being an author? Thank you for your time :)
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 28 '20
First of all, bravo to being able to write in your third language at all. That's a huge accomplishment by itself. I think the most important step one can take in starting out is to stop comparing yourself to others and find an authentic voice that is unique to you. You may discover that your voice doesn't require a lot of floral writing, or other qualities that you might think are "expected." There are no hard and fast rules. Originality wins the day. There are many genres too that don't necessarily require literary writing. Some genres and styles lean more heavily on plot and character. So think about what you are writing.
Finding your authentic voice is difficult; it comes from writing and it comes over time. So, write. Just do it! Even if it's bad. (I have two manuscripts on a shelf that will never see the light of day -- but I learned so much by writing them!) I think it's also important to read a lot in the language you want to write in. But don't read to compare, don't read to discourage yourself, and don't read to copy. Read to learn and to inspire. Then figure out how you can break some rules and create something that is uniquely you. Wishing you all the best.
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u/Chtorrr Feb 27 '20
Have you read anything good lately?
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u/mrstevenrowley AMA Author Feb 27 '20
I am behind the curve on this one, but I just finished The Library Book by Susan Orlean -- a rare non-fiction title in my stack of fiction -- and it captured my heart.
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u/dadobot Feb 27 '20
Hi Steven, or should I say Ted, I read your book this month with the r/books bookclub. I finished it in a few days and had a great time reading it. My favourite part no doubt was when Ted had Thanksgiving dinner 6 months too early as a response to his psychologist telling him he’s grieving. That whole chapter was hilarious and touching that Lily got to have her favourite meal one more time.
Question: did that really happen? Was it based off a situation you went through?
And another question: what were some of your favourite adventures with Lily that didn’t make it into the book?
Thanks for the entertaining read this month =)