ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
You may have a karaoke song that you love belting out at the top of your lungs, but writer Elizabeth McCracken is definitely not someone who wants to grab the mic and get up on stage. So, Elizabeth, before we start, I was wondering if you could sing us the song "A Hundred Pounds Of Clay."
ELIZABETH MCCRACKEN: (Laughter) No.
SCHMITZ: Come on.
MCCRACKEN: I can't possibly.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A HUNDRED POUNDS OF CLAY")
GENE MCDANIELS: (Singing) He created a woman and a lots of lovin' for a man.
SCHMITZ: Her karaoke fiasco is one of the many anecdotes found in her new book, "A Long Game: Notes On Writing Fiction." And as McCracken points out, total humiliation can be a valuable lesson when it comes to writing.
MCCRACKEN: I was at drag queen karaoke, and for some reason, I had the idea that I would sing "A Hundred Pounds Of Clay," which is a very old, sexist, retrograde song. And I am the person who could not make it past two sentences of it. And even the drag queens let me go without comment, which is really saying something at drag queen karaoke.
SCHMITZ: You know it's bad (laughter).
MCCRACKEN: You know it's - you know you cannot sing. I have no stomach for failing at karaoke, but one of the reasons why I'm a writer is I have a pretty good stomach for failing as a writer. And I'm so glad we're leading into this with stories of abject humiliation...
(LAUGHTER)
MCCRACKEN: ...'Cause I think it's important thinking about a writing life.
SCHMITZ: So your book is a book about writing fiction, and it is broken up into more than 200 short lessons or notes. And one of my takeaways from reading this is don't listen to anybody's advice about writing. So why then did you want to write a book about writing fiction?
MCCRACKEN: It's a good question. It's an entire book about how you shouldn't take anybody's advice, and it's crammed full of advice. I wanted to because, you know, I've taught writing for a long time, and my feeling as a teacher is that I can't teach anybody to write the work that only they can write. And that's what any writer should be writing is the work that only they can write. But I want to help them think the most interesting thoughts that they can. And so I hope this book helps any writer, whether they're a beginning writer or further along, to think those interesting thoughts so that they can write their own work.
SCHMITZ: I really enjoyed when you recounted the self-loathing that you endure when it comes to writing. I'd like you to talk a little bit about that, how you would procrastinate all day rather than put words on the page, and then you would just, like, work through the night.
MCCRACKEN: Yes. I'm now a little more diurnal, as opposed to nocturnal in my writing. But the self-loathing is the same, I have to say, after a few decades. I don't get anything done unless I swing between delusions of grandeur and absolute self-loathing. And that means the way that I get work done is I think about how much I'm going to hate myself if I don't. And then I travel back to the current moment and think, you can avoid that feeling. And that is honestly the only way I get anything accomplished at all.
SCHMITZ: It works.
MCCRACKEN: Yeah.
SCHMITZ: And when it comes to writing, I'm wondering how else do you get into that zone where you are - things are just started to spill out?
MCCRACKEN: Well, to prime the pump, I go to museums. And for me, that's the place where my mind just keeps finding things to write about. And I think any writer has a different place where that happens. It could be a museum, a concert hall, nature. And then when I - it's time for me to actually write, I have to turn off the internet. I just love the internet so much that if I have access to it, I won't write anything. I need to try to make my workspace as distraction-free as possible.
SCHMITZ: At the heart of all writing is, of course, failure and things that maybe don't work out. You know, you mentioned you've got a few unpublished novels but that you never think of those efforts as wasted.
MCCRACKEN: Oh, I think no writing is wasted. And part of it is just that I figured out things when I was writing those failed books - how to develop characters in a way that I hadn't before. But I also learned how not to throw good effort after bad. I knew that I could walk away and be tough and go on to the next thing. And I may go back to those books. I probably won't. I sometimes mind them for sentences, but mostly, I know that they made me the writer I am now.
SCHMITZ: I was reading one of the notes that you had in the book about one of your unpublished novels. And you were talking about reaction from somebody that had read it, and you said the person's reaction was so lukewarm that it still hurts, which just is - that is the worst type of criticism, is something that's lukewarm. I mean, you'd rather be blasted out of the water than have a lukewarm reaction, right? And I'm kind of curious, you know, what's the worst criticism that you've ever received?
MCCRACKEN: That might be it. And the reason that it was the worst is because it was true...
SCHMITZ: Yeah.
MCCRACKEN: ...That the book was all right, and I never want to write something that's only all right.
SCHMITZ: I know that this is a book of many different pieces of advice, but I'm just curious if there is one single word of advice that you would give an aspiring writer, what would it be?
MCCRACKEN: It's to make friends with the hardest-working and kindest writers that you can. And you will work to keep up with them, and you won't be torn apart by their reactions to your work.
SCHMITZ: That's Elizabeth McCracken. She's author of "A Long Game: Notes On Writing Fiction." Elizabeth, thanks for joining us.
MCCRACKEN: Thank you so much, Rob. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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