I write to give names to those extremes, to let my insides keep up with the outside world. Chaos is uncomfortable, and writing makes sense of the chaos.
Would you please tell us a little about your writing process?
I like to finish it from the start. I know it sounds counter-productive, but the biggest struggle I’ve always had is when I start something and don’t finish it immediately. The first draft is usually discombobulated and rambling and needs an insane amount of edits, but if I walk away halfway through, it’s rare I find that state of mind again. I can’t get back into the story or essay, and then it falls apart. I pour it all out there, and then I reread it approximately one billion times, cutting and rearranging and rewording over and over again, until at some point I have to walk away from it. Then it tends to sit for a week or two, and then I go back with completely fresh eyes, and start reworking again when the deep attachment isn’t there anymore. Then I have to convince myself that it’s okay to send it off somewhere even though I’m sure I could find something else to tweak.
What motivated / motivates you to write?
I’ve always had an incredibly hard time finding “calm,” whether that’s a happy or sad or anger or excitement kind of calm. My inner dialogue is always spiraling, at least a little, and when I was younger I found myself flipping out on a diary or journal so that I could get it out of me. I write to give names to those extremes, to let my insides keep up with the outside world. Chaos is uncomfortable, and writing makes sense of the chaos.
What is the best piece of advice you have received? Or, what is the best piece of advice you would offer an aspiring writer?
Keep going. When I was in my first high school creative writing class, my very abrupt and honest teacher kept a wall of rejection letters that his current and previous students would get and then give to him. He just kept telling us that everybody gets them. Sometimes it’s because it just wasn’t the right publication to submit the piece to, sometimes it’s because it wasn’t ready to be sent somewhere, and sometimes it’s because the whole thing was bad. Either way, every single rejection letter had a purpose, and knowing that you’re not the only one that’s ever gotten one is so, so important. My Submittable account has so many “Declined” boxes in it it’s shocking. But those “Accepted” boxes, those emails that say “You won,” or “Congratulations,” they’re coming. It took longer than I wanted, but that teacher showed me that the cheesiest piece of advise, “Keep going” is so important.
Which books is it most important for an aspiring writer to read?
I love this question. I always recommend Anais Nin and Stephen King’s journals; they’re wild, and introspective, and give so much insight into how their minds work. But as I get older, I just hate the pretense that there is a certain “kind” of book that’s best. I like to read. I read smut, I read best sellers, I read historical fiction, I read Jane Austen over and over again – and all of it has given me inspiration in some form. Not everything has to be so very heavy and intellectual. Sometimes it’s important to remember that you’re writing for people to read it, and not everybody sits down with a James Joyce tome after work to decompress. People want to feel connected to what they’re reading, or escape through it, or to learn something, or sometimes just to laugh. Read everything. Even if you hate it, you’ll learn something from it.
Where are the best places to live / visit as a writer?
Home. I write so much about the places I’ve lived, even when, at the time, they seemed insignificant or typical, they ended up being such a huge part of shaping me that it seems insane that I could think so little of them at the time.
As for the travel: my girlfriends and I used to do a trip every summer. Lots of times it wasn’t even exciting. We had a thing for “Roadside America” posts and loved finding really weird stuff, like the world’s largest penny (very lame, made of clay) and the Mudder Museum (not for the faint of heart, but absolutely thrilling). The one thing we’d always do is have a nice dinner the first night, and then ask the server where the waitstaff drinks. Then we’d go there. We’d spend hours buying drinks for locals and getting to know the few people who actually live on Mackinac Island year round. We’d end up getting recommendations on where to eat that no one’s heard of, the best places to rent bikes – once we got a ride to a Philly’s – Cubs game in an Audi A8 because we were nice to the concierge. Travel anywhere, even little road trips, and talk to the actual people. It’ll change the way you see the world and give you new stories you never even dreamed of.
What is the role of the writer in society?
To say the quiet parts out loud. To make everybody realize that we’re all a little “off,” that we’re all sad and happy and that we spiral and we feel things the same way, even if it seems like we all feel them incredibly differently. To show people their insides are mushy and gross and that we all have the mushy, gross parts. To show people the mushy, gross parts are the most innately human. And, of course, to be the pretentious know-it-alls who claim to like Infinite Jest. (I kid.)
Lindsay Wheeler is a 30-something that lives in Northern Idaho but grew up in Northern Illinois. She is married with two dogs and constantly being disappointed by Chicago sports teams and reading books and using writing to cope with things she doesn’t understand.