I'm actually doing more things in London than I could have possibly done in other circumstances. London has such an amazing offer in culture and now it is all online. A has been sending me links to all kinds of interesting things happening. This is how, this month, I subscribed for courses in self-publishing and bookbinding at City Lit. And last week, at Southbank Centre, I attended an online conversation between Diana Evans and Raven Leilani about her first novel Luster.
Here a few thoughts that I liked. How do you come upon an idea to write a novel?
"I did want to write what I wanted to see. I think that is sort of the advice that writers are often given, if there is a story you want to see out there, then you should be the one to write it. For me, when I started, I wanted to write about a black woman in a way that allowed her the space to be messy, to make mistakes and I wanted to write a story where she is grappling with problems that are more modern, what it looks like to try and meet those questions in an age where you are kind of up against, you know, both sexism and racism, but also this massive arm of capitalism, which manifests in a kind of an absurd way in this context."
The importance of language was another topic. Leilani first wrote poetry and this shows in her fiction. In the writing of her novel, she was interested in conveying the "physical feel of a thing." Leilani mentioned the skin of her character, how to write up close like that.
She also intended to create a story that moves quickly: "How do I keep it moving so that this person (the reader) stays with me?" To do so, she made the writing as compressed as it possibly can be. She leaned into the motion and rhythm: "How to make a thing like time?"
There was also a question from the audience about vulnerability in writing:
Speaking of hiding, when I'm being invulnerable, when I'm being too scared, when my guard is up, what I find myself doing is hiding behind language, making a simple thing a convoluted thing. ... it's funny that you know how to hide from yourself on the page. ... I write what I'm trying to say in plain words, it doesn't have to be good, it has to be the most clear expression of what I'm trying to say.