Interview with:Robert Lamb [boblamb]
WRITING
 | What did you first read? How did you begin to write? Who were the first to read what you wrote? One reads first what one is able to read, i.e. Mother Goose, children's stories, fairy tales, elementary primers, etc. I trace my love of books and of reading to listening to such rhymes and stories at my mother's knee when I was four or five years old. I don't remember who my first readers were, but I recall being encouraged when classmates enjoyed listening to things I wrote. |
| What is your favorite genre? Can you provide a link to a site where we can read some of your work or learn something about it? |
| What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write? I don't have a creative "process." That sounds too methodical for me. I simply write, though I'm mindful of the adage: "Apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair, and write." |
| What type of reading inspires you to write? I highly enjoy writing that sees the universal in the particular. IMHO, too much modern writing, especially poetry, concerns itself only with the writer's ego and/or sensibilities, and is, for that reason, merely self-indulgent. The good writer, IMHO, seeks to show how his sensibility connects to the human condition and to mankind in general. |
| What do you think are the basic ingredients of a story? I confess to you and to my students that I'd be hard-pressed to define "story." But I do know that a good story leaves me feeling that something important, or at least significant, has been resolved by the story's end. |
| What voice do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Depends entirely on the story to be told. Perhaps more important than selecting a POV is finding the voice that wants to tell the story. The Self is not monolithic, I believe, but, rather, layered. Sometimes a part of the self that's rarely heard from wants to have its say. |
| What well known writers do you admire most? I assume you mean fiction. They include Hemingway, Proust, Austen, Capote, Steinbeck, Maugham, Dickens -- but my all-time favorite novelist is Thomas Hardy. |
| What is required for a character to be believable? How do you create yours? Some of literature's most intriguing characters were so because they were NOT believable, i.e. the unreliable narrator. But, generally speaking, a character is believable when their sensibilities, good or bad, confirm our experience of that kind of person. Most of my characters are thinly disguised people I have known. I defy anyone to create, for instance, a believable drunk if he or she has never really known one. |
| Are you equally good at telling stories orally? I think I am, though I have no wide reputation as a raconteur. |
| Deep down inside, who do you write for? I can honestly say that I write for me -- but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate readers. |
| Is writing a form of personal therapy? Are internal conflicts a creative force? I've known -- and proclaimed -- for a long time that writing is therapeutic. I'm not aware of internal conflicts, but I am sharply aware of life's more puzzling aspects, and I'm sure that I try to work out those puzzles in my writing. |
| Does reader feed-back help you? I tend to doubt that it does. Though like anyone else, I appreciate a compliment, I blush to say that I really don't give a damn what others think of what I've written. My writing is between me and my Muse, me and my Self. That's not to say that no remark or comment could ultimately be beneficial to me, but so could an overheard remark or conversation having nothing to do with me. |
| Do you participate in competitions? Have you received any awards? I participate in competitions from time to time, and, yes, I've won an award here and there, but I see myself as my main competition, by which I mean that I strive to get the best I can out of me. More to the point, perhaps, I feel a kinship with anybody who tries to write. That's different from feeling competitive. I also learned long ago that truly talented people respect each other and admire each other's work; the less talented were the envious ones. |
| Do you share rough drafts of your writings with someone whose opinion you trust? Sure. |
| Do you believe you have already found "your voice" or is that something one is always searching for? I don't believe that I have only one voice. The CEO in the brain of each of us is perhaps one's main voice, but I repeat: sometimes you have to find the voice that wants to tell the story. At other times, you simply need the appropriate voice. I was well past 17 when I wrote Striking Out, my first (published) novel. It took me a while to get that voice, and I knew I'd better continue writing that story while I had that voice. Pool shooters know that to keep your stroke, you have to shoot pool every day. That's what keeping the voice reminded me of. |
| What discipline do you impose on yourself regarding schedules, goals, etc.? I'm self-motivated. That's not to say I haven't wasted gobs of time over the years, but once I'm into a story, I stick with it. Persistence is a valuable characteristic. My journalism training helped, too, I'm sure. But it you want a specific motivator, try this: give yourself a quote of words to average producing daily. Count the words at the end of each writing session. Enter the day's production on a calendar-like grid, then draw a line under that number; beneath it, keep a running total. It's like giving yourself a gold star at the end of each day's work. |
| What do you surround yourself with in your work area in order to help your concentrate? I don't need that kind of help. |
| Do you write on a computer? Do you print frequently? Do you correct on paper? What is your process? I do create, and correct, on the computer. The word processor is a godsend to writers. I don't print pages frequently. Each day, before I begin to write anew, I re-read what I wrote the day before, tweaking as I go. After that, I'm good to go. |
| What sites do you frequent on-line to share experiences or information? I use email, google, and Wikipedia, all a great deal. |
| What has been your experience with publishers? They are too varied to recount here. I've had good ones and bad ones. I believe fully, however, that today the mainstream publishing industry, by which I mean Publishers Row, is broken. |
| What are you working on now? My latest novel, titled All Things Reconsidered. I've also been writing short stories, some of which are posted on www.fictionaut.com, a site for writers. |
| What do you recommend I do with all those things I wrote years ago but have never been able to bring myself to show anyone? That's up to you. |
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664 visits Whohub
Robert Lamb
Columbia, S.C.
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