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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot — The struggle to change the world in & outside your head
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Hunter
@eriktorenberg CRap. Now I need to remember them all. But see for some info I have a very low retention rate. Like Books I've Read. They swirl around me, and I can spot their spines at twenty paces. But I have little recall of the plots an characters within. I can tell you what I read recently that knocked my socks off: The Mark and the Void, by Paul Murray. Also Coup de Foudre by Ken Kalfus
Hunter
@eriktorenberg I mean there was DFW, but I guess that was a while ago. I was 22. I will not read IJ again. Let it stay there.
Hunter
@eriktorenberg Peter Mathiessen (Lost Man's River trilogy), Tillie Olsen, Ambler/Le Carré/Ludlum/Forsyth. Kesey. Cheever. Joanne Beard. and recently Jenny Offill (sp?) . And on and on
@jaycreal @eriktorenberg did you see the movie? what did you think of it?
I just saw it and don't know yet how to feel, but I liked it. Huge DFW fan, he would have been totally uncomfortable with it.
Hi David! I'm a blogger and in the middle of writing my first book now—I wish someone warned me about how different blog and book writing are! I know one of the best ways to publish a book is to get in a writing routine. Many of the most prolific writers, like Stephen King, have very specific daily schedules (and write 7 days/week).
(1) What's your daily routine?
(2) What's your approach to writing when you're having a day where nothing ("good") is coming out on paper?
Hunter
@melissajoykong I have shitty work habits. Self-berating etc. I flee the desk easily. 2K words an excellent day. But you can juke those stats if you need to. The only thing that helps: find a place that doesn't have the internets
It is my pleasure to introduce David Shafer for an AMA today at 2PM PST. DS was born and raised in New York City and educated at Harvard and Columbia. Despite all that, he remained a shiftless dreamer through much of his twenties and thirties. While still essentially a shiftless dreamer, he now must get some work done, as he has two children and they need shoes. It took him seven years to Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. He is very proud of it, but also, when he reads it, he has the strange sense that it was written by another man. Which it was of course. Never the same river twice. Anyway. Ask questions in advance.... :)!
The three protagonists in WTF were absolute standouts. They are fully formed humans with all the weird eccentricities we all have hidden away within us. Many thrillers have characters that seem one dimensional. How did you dream up and write the characters? Did you profile them in advance or just dive right into the action and see how they would grow and change?
Hunter
@eriktorenberg I think it helps to be embarrassed. Seriously. Like very aware of the ridiculous positions we put ourselves in
Hunter
@russfrushtick that the world is stranger and more charmed than we - I - can usually make out. That this is a good thing. That there is something menacing slouching toward google or whatever. That truth is at least as strange as fiction. That sometimes you can hang on through a psychiatric event and sometimes you need to pull the emergency cord. That love and friendship still trump all. That you may yet be offered a chance to change the direction of things.
Hunter
@eliotpeper I may have just stopped working on a novel. Or put it aside anyway. A better one has presented itself, with a smaller scope. Maybe 2 years instead of 10. Dunno yet. Anyway, yes I'm working. But see above shitty work habits
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