Richard Russo on Writing

Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo (Empire Falls) visited St. Louis on Friday, June 4, 2010 at the St. Louis County Library Headquarters. Since he’s been published since 1986, and has had numerous novels turned into films (three starring Paul Newman), he’s also had the opportunity to write screenplays of his own work.

Due to the size of its market, St. Louis rarely makes anyone’s hardcover tour list, but catches top-flight authors on their paperback tours. Thus, Russo said he imagined most of the 200ish in attendance had probably read his latest title, so he chose a short selection from Old Cape Magic, because “most readers prefer Q&A.” This title, he said, was “about how hard it is to shut your parents up after they’re dead.” It was quite funny.

He said a lot worth sharing, so I will pass it on.

Writing

• His writing routine: he writes 2-3 pages daily. He spends a couple morning hours writing in longhand; in the afternoon he types and revises what he wrote in the morning.

• He writes novels and reviews and essays in longhand because he likes the feel of pen on paper. “It’s part of my process.” He writes screenplays on the computer because it is a “new habit.” Background noise is also essential, since he started serious writing when his daughters were young and noisy.

• His most valuable writing mentor told him, if you write 2-3 pages a day, every day, “at the end of a year you won’t have a novel, but you’ll have something the size of a novel.” This is a slight twist on the familiar adage that seems truer.

• Of all his novels, Straight Man was the easiest to write.

• On how he discovered he was a comic novelist: “The most difficult thing you learn as a writer is who you are going to be. Not who I am. Who I become when I sit down to write.”

• Comedy allows you to lead readers to dark places. (As in his own Bridge of Sighs.)

• “Generally books are over when the (central) conflict is resolved.” It has more to do with resolution than plot. Straight Man is about a guy eho must pass a stone—a kidney stone and otherwise. Once the stone is passed, the story is over.

• Most novels pose a question, “It’s a question the writer poses for himself.” For instance (from one of his novels), what happens when you’re 60 and you can’t work and you can’t not work?”

Reading and Writing

• On MFA programs: The most valuable aspect was he didn’t have to explain himself to anyone else (because they were writing also). He learned from peers doing the same thing more than from his professors and felt like ‘my writing apprenticeship was cut in half due to the MFA.’ His caveat: of course authors were writing for hundreds of years before MFAs were created, so an MFA isn’t absolutely necessary.

• When he was one of the 3 Hemingway Prize judges (for first novels), he had to read 65 books in four months.

• When discussing his characters (most often in Straight Man), he said of his real friends and acquaintances, “Everyone recognizes everyone else, but no one recognizes themselves.” Usually the person who comes up to him and says, “X character is so-and-so isn’t he?” is actually the character he most based it on.

• An audience member said, “I love your stories, but I love your characters even more.” Russo said thanks, adding, “I even love the characters I don’t like.” If you’re going to spend 5-6 years on a book, you don’t want to be bored. He doesn’t set tasks for characters, but listens to them because “what’s on their minds is what’s on my mind.”

• He neglects social media—"I don’t object. I think my life is cluttered enough.” Technology can isolate us, but avoiding it can isolate us as well.

Finding an Agent

He’s had the same agent since he was discovered via a short story in a small circulation magazine, so he admitted the advice mightn’t be completely fresh:

• You can’t send a full novel to numerous agents (simultaneous submission) because none will read it. However, send the first 50 pages to numerous agents. Keep a log book so when the first agent replies, you date the communication and send the entire “solicited manuscript” (& will become your agent if they want the novel). If/when a 2nd agent expresses interest, date their communication and contact the first that you have other interest if they decide to pass.

Novel as Screenplay

• Novels can adopt any structure, all screenplays (barring the rare exception) are 120 pages built on a 3 act structure. The first act is 25 pages, the last act is 20 pages and the 2nd act is 75 pages.

• Writing screenplays has forced him to think of structure earlier in his novels.

• Paul Newman loved writers.

• Russo found it “wonderful that talented actors found things in my lines that I didn’t know was there.”

• A friend told him: “Writing screenplays is hot sex. Writing novels is marriage.”

• He says he now purposely writes scenes in his novels that can’t be filmed.