Writing: Doing the Novel

 Alexander Chee offers writing advice in the interview Alexander Chee on How to Write a Novel.

Alexander Chee is the author of two critically acclaimed (and beautifully written) novels, Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night, as well as the essay collection How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. Chee was a 2021 United States Artists Fellow and a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in nonfiction, and has also won a Whiting Award, NEA Fellowship in prose, among other honors. Chee is also an all-around literary mensch, working as an editor, professor, and critic, as well as simply one of the best writers to go to for advice. Check out his Twitter, website, and books here.

I had to write longhand while im prison but I find it easier than with computer or typewriter. Something about the interface bogs me down. I am waiting on my PO to approve my laptop. Then I will will transform the longhand into digital text.

Chee says this about drafting longhand:

I saw a study about this a long time ago, and there have been several more over the years about the benefits of handwriting. The first is: you use more of your brain. You calm down. You enter a space that is much like when you speak extemporaneously and the knowledge in your brain transforms as you talk.... And for moving a little more slowly than I can when I type, a compression builds. Also, typing something on a computer makes it look book-like right away. That’s not always to our best advantage as writers. Drafting by hand, I give myself the permission to be messy. And in a first draft, I need that.

sch 5/7/22