Chad Taylor

How did you become a writer? I started as a music journalist, reviewing music and films, and interviewing people. I wrote some short stories, and they got longer. I submitted my work to publishers and editors – this was in the days when you mailed paper copies of a manuscript to people. I believed in myself and I got a little lucky. Even if I'd had nothing published, I would still be writing. I like doing it.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). I read English and Fine Art at university. My art teacher was an abstract painter, Ken Robinson who introduced me to a way of working with images that continues to influence how I work with words. He was a Buddhist, very experimental. So although I've always loved pulp fiction and narratives that are plot-driven, my roots are in the avant-garde.

Growing up, I read everything that fell under my eye. When I was a kid I read *Doc Savage* novels and Yukio Mishima – the local library had a full collection of Mishima's work, in translation, so I read those cover-to-cover. I picked up science fiction (Philip K Dick) and 20th century lit (Anaïs Nin, Hemingway), Joseph Conrad, and lots of crime: Patricia Highsmith, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Jean-Patrick Manchette. I went very hard-boiled for a while. I like clear prose and good stories, and I do like a short novel. If a book's bad, you tell yourself "I can do better than this"; and if it's good, you think "I have to work harder". So anything can be an inspiration.

When and where do you write? I write very late at night, when it's quiet and everyone's in bed, or first thing in the morning, before the phone starts ringing. In the last few years I've gone back to writing by hand, which is slightly laborious, because I work on computers all day (as does everybody, now) and sitting down at a keyboard does not inspire me.

When I'm beginning a work I'm very precious about the pen or pencil that I use, or the pad, or the font on the machine but once the work is going I can write on anything. I think I have three good writing hours in my day: if I stay longer than that, I'm tempted to second-guess myself. When I enter the text into my laptop, I make revisions. It's important to let the work sit. My worst habit is to over-revise: I fight that constantly.

What are you working on now? A novel which I'm really, really enjoying working on. It's become quite surreal. I don't think anyone will publish it. I don't care. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? No, because I've never been on anyone's schedule. For screen and TV writers, writers' block is a very real thing. A novelist's schedule is self-imposed. If something stalls then it's a sign that I'm not interested in it enough – in which case, I wouldn't expect a reader to be – or that I'm still thinking about the last thing I was working on, which means it isn't finished.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? Finish the work. Finishing a work is the most important part of writing. Otherwise it will loiter in your imagination and prevent you moving forward. Hate what you've written? Put it aside and come back to it. Still terrible? Take the bad writing out. Cut it down to the parts that interest you. 

What’s your advice to new writers? Be practical. Avoid debt. Get a job. Write before you go to work and when you come home. Believe in yourself. Don't spread yourself too thin. Write what interests you. Never chase "the market" or what someone tells you "the market" is. 

You're going to be stuck with a novel for a couple of years: it's a relationship. Treat the ms as you would treat yourself: respect it and see where it goes.

A lot of people find it helpful to workshop ideas and share them online or in groups. I wish I could be like that. I work alone while telling myself "no one will ever read this". Fiction is a dark secret you share with strangers.

Chad Taylor is the author of Blue Hotel, Departure Lounge, Electric, Shirker, Heaven, Pack of Lies, The Church of John Coltrane, and many short stories . He was awarded the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship and the Auckland University Literary Fellowship. Heaven was made into a feature film and his novels and stories are in translation. He wrote the movie Realiti which was selected for Fantastic Fest. Blue Hotel was a finalist in the Ngaio Marsh Awards.

Jamie Harrison

How did you become a writer? Out of desperation! I’d lost my job as an editor and I lived in an area with extremely low wages—Montana—and didn’t want to move back to New York. I’d read mysteries all my life, and tried writing one, and managed to sell it as part of a series.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). My father was a novelist and poet and our house was full of books and talk of writing. I went to a tiny public school—most kids didn’t go on to college—but we had an English teacher who taught everything from Gilgamesh to Hamlin Garland, Goethe to Faulkner, and he let me spend study hour alone in the cafeteria, reading novels. There are too many writers to mention, but let me start with Louise Erdrich, David Mitchell, Edward Jones, Penelope Lively, Michael Ondaatje, James McBride. I’d also recommend Jane Alison’s Meander, Spiral, Explode and James Woods’  How Fiction Works.

When and where do you write? Anywhere and anytime I can, but I usually start with a block of time in the morning, back in bed with coffee. When the weather is good (as I mentioned: Montana), I try for the picnic table. My office is currently a mound of paper.

What are you working on now? Another Jules Clement novel and an essay. I’m touring off and on, and because my work time is fragmented, I’m also letting my head float around another book linked to The Widow Nash.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? No. The problem is always distraction or avoidance, or simply not knowing how to approach a scene or an edit.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? I can’t remember any one perfect and succinct line, but here’s a couple that work: Reading makes you a better writer, and when you’re stuck, reading will free you up. Take time away from your manuscript for the sake of perspective, and embrace edits. Less is almost always more.

What’s your advice to new writers? Work through different ideas on top of the novel, and try to avoid I.

Jamie Harrison is the author of The Center of Everything, The Widow Nash, and five mysteries in the Jules Clement series, most recently The River View. She’s the winner of the Reading the West Award, a finalist for the High Plains Book Award, and a Ucross fellow. Before writing, she worked in food and magazines, and was the editor of Clark City Press. She lives in Livingston, Montana.

Nicola Twilley

How did you become a writer? I have always loved reading. I used to create newspapers as a kid, illustrating and handwriting every story. I didn't think writing was going to be something I made a living doing, but then, when I was in my twenties, my husband, writer Geoff Manaugh, started a blog. I thought what he was doing looked like fun, so I started a blog of my own, and built a career from there.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). Geoff has been a huge influence. Michael Pollan has been a mentor and supporter as well as an inspiration. I have learned an enormous amount from brilliant editors like Leo Carey at The New Yorker and Anthony Lydgate, who is now at Wired. I love reading novels—a few of my favorite authors are Hilary Mantel, Ali Smith, Rachel Cusk, Tessa Hadley, James Meek, and Gwendolyn Riley.  

When and where do you write? I write at my desk, on my laptop connected to a large monitor. I have a tendency to hunch over my screen otherwise, and the large monitor helps me put my shoulders back and breathe. I write in the morning and the evening, but that's mostly because I'm working on my podcast, Gastropod, all day.

What are you working on now? My most recent book, Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves, came out a couple of months ago, so I'm writing a few articles and short pieces connected to that. I'm also working on a new New Yorker feature, and I'm beginning to tinker with a couple of new book ideas. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? Not really. I do procrastinate, which has a lot to do with not wanting to ruin the illusion of what my brilliant book/article/essay aspires to be with the disappointments of reality. (This quote resonates through my mind on a regular basis: "A book is whittled down from hope.") I also do a lot of preliminary reporting, research, organization, and structuring, which can feel like procrastination, but I've found that until I know what I want to write, I can't sit down and write it. It will likely change as I'm writing it, but I need the sense that I have a map to get started.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? Michael Pollan told me I'd have to go back and rewrite the first chapter of my book after I finished it. He was right (though it took Helen Thorpe to help me figure out how to do it). Geoff Manaugh, my husband and co-author for my first book, Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine, helped me see that I can't just build an argument and let the reader arrive at the conclusion on their own, I need to cap it off with a sentence that feels like a polished nugget, to hold the insight.

What’s your advice to new writers? Read as much as you can, and make sure you read good writing. I sometimes see journalists only read other journalism, or science writers stick to science writing, and I think that's a mistake. Literary fiction might seem irrelevant, but it's not: stepping into an imaginary world filled with fully realized characters and stakes is not only deeply enjoyable, it's also giving you the chance to absorb the rhythms, structures, and language that are necessary to bring nonfiction to life, too. 

Nicola Twilley is author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves(Penguin Press, June 2024), and co-host of the award-winning Gastropod podcast, which looks at food through the lens of history and science, and which is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network in partnership with Eater. Her first book, Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine, was co-authored with Geoff Manaugh and was named one of the best books of 2021 by Time Magazine, NPR, the Guardian, and the Financial Times. She is a contributing writer at The New Yorker and the author of Edible Geography. She lives in Los Angeles.