In today’s episode, I’m joined by Joan Leegant to discuss her new short story collection, Displaced Persons. Joan shares insights into her writing process, including how she often begins stories with no preset idea and allows stories to emerge from a first sentence.
Good for you, Joan! I also find that not having to know what you're going to write often leads to the best results. If anyone is interested in exploring that, check out our book WRITE WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW and imaginativestorm.com
Allegra -- as a nonfiction writer, this felt at first counter-intuitive. But the same premise holds. One can have a general idea of what you want to say, or where one wants to go, but clearing one's mind and making space for intuition is my favorite part of writing. Thanks for the comment -- your book looks wonderful!
thanks! I really first began to understand this when I was writing nonfiction - a memoir. I use it all the time when writing Substack pieces; I know my topic but not really what I want to say--and I try not to think about it much before I sit down to write. And I think the concept is still useful even for more fact-based nonfiction, such as history and biography (as an editor, that's mostly what I work on). Stories come alive with vivid description and unexpected turns of phrase, and often it's hard to "think them up". You do have to make space for intuition! I love that phrase.
Good for you, Joan! I also find that not having to know what you're going to write often leads to the best results. If anyone is interested in exploring that, check out our book WRITE WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW and imaginativestorm.com
Allegra -- as a nonfiction writer, this felt at first counter-intuitive. But the same premise holds. One can have a general idea of what you want to say, or where one wants to go, but clearing one's mind and making space for intuition is my favorite part of writing. Thanks for the comment -- your book looks wonderful!
thanks! I really first began to understand this when I was writing nonfiction - a memoir. I use it all the time when writing Substack pieces; I know my topic but not really what I want to say--and I try not to think about it much before I sit down to write. And I think the concept is still useful even for more fact-based nonfiction, such as history and biography (as an editor, that's mostly what I work on). Stories come alive with vivid description and unexpected turns of phrase, and often it's hard to "think them up". You do have to make space for intuition! I love that phrase.