Richard Zimler – The Power of Myth
Richard Zimler was born and bred in New York. After a successful career in journalism he turned to teaching and then writing. He has now written some seven novels over the last twelve years. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists in 12 different countries and he has won a swag of awards over the years. His latest book is The Warsaw Anagrams, a mystery written about a series of murders that take place within the Warsaw ghetto.
Darrell - Can you describe a typical day of writing?
Richard - I usually wake up around 7 a.m. and eat breakfast with my partner. My partner leaves for work around 8 o’clock. Once I’m alone, I go upstairs to my work area and begin working. I start a page or two before I left off the day before, so that I can work myself back into the rhythm and structure of the book, and – above all – get back inside the head of my narrator. I try to always focus on both the quality of my sentences – their rhythm, in particular – and on moving the story forward. And I re-write constantly. If something isn’t working, I keep at it for as long as I have to until I get it just the way I want it. If I need to do more research while I’m writing – to add an historical detail, for instance – then I consult the books in my library or do a search on the Internet. I stop for lunch around noon and usually make myself a sandwich. While I’m eating, I watch a bit of television – maybe an NBA basketball game or an episode of CSI. Then I go outside and walk around my neighborhood. We live near the sea in the city of Porto – Portugal’s second city – so I often walk along the ocean. We have a kind of boardwalk in Porto, with cafes and restaurants. On a sunny day, with the ocean sparkling, it’s gorgeous. When I get back home, I make myself a cup of tea and go back to work. I usually quit around 5 or 6 p.m. When I was younger, I could go on longer, but now that I’m fifty-five years old, I don’t have the stamina. After about six or seven hours of writing, I’m done for the day. I’ve come to realize that pushing myself too hard only hurts the quality of my writing.
Darrell - You worked as a journalist and taught journalism prior to establishing your writing career. How has your journalistic writing helped or hampered your fiction writing?
Richard - I think it has mostly helped me. First, because writing articles trained me well in the mechanics of writing: in the need to pay attention to every word and to work toward a good rhythm in my sentences, for instance. Second, it got me used to sitting down and writing for a few hours every day. Third, it helped me see the value in finding the telling detail: the tone of someone’s voice, for instance. Fourth, it made me more observant and more aware of the importance of getting everything right in my descriptions of people, places and events.
On the other hand, training in journalism can also have negative effects. First, because reporters tend to write very quickly and, largely because of that, to become easily satisfied with mediocrity. I’m not blaming them, because there is usually so little time for developing a story, but it is an occupational hazard. That hasn’t been a problem for me, because I love working on the poetry in my prose, but I see it in other novelists – in those, for instance, who feel that they have to write a certain number of words per day. That seems to me a very negative concern. It’s more important to write five great sentences per day than five mediocre pages.
Also, journalists tend to think that there are hard and fast rules about how one should write. They become very limited in their approach to structure and rhythm. And they can easily lose sight of the poetry of language. They tend to become very judgmental about anyone who writes in a different style or who has a different approach – as if they are doing something wrong.
One journalist I would highly recommend is Ryszard Kapuściński. He is by far the best reporter I’ve ever read. He is observant and intelligent, and he brings an astounding wealth of knowledge and experience to his articles and essays. He is a wonderfully sensitive writer, and he shows an enormous solidarity with the people he writes about. I would recommend that potential writers start with The Shadow of the Sun. It brings together all his writings about Africa. It is a brilliant book.
Darrell - What do you think is the future for hard copy books as opposed to ebooks?
Richard - I think that readers who are under 25 years old have a different relationship with technology than readers like me, who are older. They grew up with sophisticated personal computers, cell phones and computer games. So they like being able to store 50 books on a small device and carrying it with them wherever they go. They like having access to email everywhere they go. They don’t see it as odd. And they probably don’t mind reading a 400-page novel on a screen. In general, for someone my age – fifty-five – that would be nearly impossible. After about twenty pages, my eyes get tired and I long to have a hard-copy book in my hands. I like the feel of a book. I like to see their covers. I like to browse in bookshops and search through the stacks in the library without knowing what I’m after. So I think that for at least the next 20 years or so, until my generation of readers is in its 70s, physical books will still dominate. After that, ebooks will probably take over, at least in the developed world – in Western Europe and America – where high-tech devices are easy to purchase and affordable to the middle class. What all this will mean for countries that are less developed, or ones that are developing quickly – like India and Brazil – I haven’t a clue. Perhaps all this will lead to a more egalitarian world, in terms of access to books and other forms of cultural transmission. That would be wonderful. But if the gap between the rich and poor remains huge, unequal access to books and information may remain a big problem and may only be exacerbated by the advent of ebooks.
On a more personal note, “The Warsaw Anagrams” is currently #8 on the Kindle bestseller list at Amazon.co.uk, so it seems as if the advent of ebooks is helping my novels find new readers! I’m grateful for that, of course.
Darrell - What advice would you have for someone trying to succeed as a writer?
Richard - I have two possible answers. If what you mean by “success” is the possibility of selling a lot of books, then I would suggest to any aspiring writer that he or she only write a novel after first becoming famous. Celebrity almost always guarantees success in terms of sales, because famous people who write books get a great deal of publicity. In Portugal, for instance, the novelists whose books sell the most originally became famous as newscasters and television personalities. Unfortunately, their novels are abominably written, and they have virtually no talent. In addition, their novels are usually “clones” – re-worked versions of books that were successful in America or Great Britain, such as the bestselling novels of Dan Brown. But they get coverage in all the newspapers and magazines and sell extremely well.
If becoming famous seems unlikely, then the next best bet for an aspiring writer who wants a lot of worldly success would be to write superficial books about trendy topics – novels that don’t require readers to have much experience of the world. Also, it would be best to write for a target audience of readers between 15 and 30 years old.
If, however, you measure success in terms of the quality of the book, then I have a different answer. In that case, novelists who want to write great books they should read all sorts of books, and both fiction and non-fiction. They should read great storytellers like Doestoevski, Faulkner, Henry Miller, Philip Roth, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. They should read works from many different countries, since there are widely varying styles and traditions of storytelling. They should sample a bit of everything: historical novels, science fiction, love stories… They should read anything and everything that is well written. And they should read poetry. That way, they will develop their sensibilities and they will come to see that there are the infinite possibilities for their own writing. They will feel invigorated by the great books, as well. And they will come to feel part of a community of writers all over the world.
They should also write every day. They shouldn’t wait for inspiration. Carpenters don’t need inspiration to make a table. It’s their profession. If they waited for inspiration to hammer in a nail or sand a plank of wood, they’d never make anything. The same holds true for writers. The aspiring writer needs to sit in front of his or her computer and start writing, no matter how he or she feels. The amazing thing is that a kind of magic occurs when writers are working – they get inspired by their own characters and sentences! The secret is this: inspiration is to be found in one’s own writing, in a wonderful sentence or a great metaphor or a surprising character! I suspect that for carpenters it’s much the same – they get inspired by the beauty that they create.
I would also suggest that aspiring writers avoid thinking about selling their book while they are writing. Their only goal should be to write the best novel they can. That is hard enough to do! If they are telling a story that they feel passionate about, then that passion will carry them through to the end of the project, even if it takes five or more years. So novelists should only pick a topic – or characters – that they feel passionate about.
Once a writer has finished a novel, he or she can then start thinking about selling it. First, they should try to get a good literary agent. And by “good,” I mainly mean someone who understands their work and loves it. There are many places to find lists of agents. It may help to identify the agents of your favorite writers and approach them. After all – in theory, at least – those are the people who share your taste.
Which leads me to the last attribute any potential novelist needs: patience. It can take one, two, three years or more to write a great book. And it can take another couple of years or more to find a publisher. And there is no guarantee that once it comes out it will be reviewed in the media or stocked by the best bookshops. And no guarantee that it will sell well – which means that almost no author can count on his or her publisher wanting the next book. There is very little loyalty these days. So all writers need to develop an enormous amount of patience. Otherwise, they tend to become nervous wrecks!
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