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| Hearsay: |
As an author who is currently touring to packed houses of screaming fans (ladies, AND gentlemen, please, my suitcase is full of underwear already… I have room for about five more, but only thongs), I hate the Q&A portions of events, should they be built in. Mostly because I subscribe to the “never apologize, never explain” school of poetry. Meg Rosoff ponders her least favourite audience/reader interactions here.
When we get to the Q&A, however, both groups nearly always ask me the same question. Some authors (I’m told) get “how much money do you make?” (no one’s ever asked me that), many get “where do you get your ideas?” (that occasionally comes up), but I get “who’s your favourite author?” with terrifying regularity, or its variant, “what’s your favourite book?” You’d think after the first four hundred and eighty five times, I’d have a prepared answer, but there simply isn’t one. I don’t have a favourite book, or a favourite author. I have fifty, but not one.
Sometimes I name the last book I’ve read. Or the book that changed my life back when I was fifteen. Or twenty five. Or forty. Other times I fall back on Pride and Prejudice because it’s as close as I can come to a genuine answer and I do think it’s the perfect novel, but recently I’ve arrived at a much better solution.
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October 2nd, 2007 at 11:40 am
As a readings host, the question that always makes me groan (inwardly, of course – I’m very polite) is:
“What is your writing process?”
ie. “Will writing from 6am-10am in an old wooden chair on a manual typewriter just like Stephen King make me into Stephen King?”
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:22 pm
I must admit that I have asked a variant of the favourite book/author question, although it’s normally more like “who do you read?” or “what are you reading now?”
I love writing process questions, although if the first place you go as far as answers go is to thing like what sort of pen you use or where you position your desk, then I’d hate to be in the audience. I’m far more interested in if you approach various drafts with specific goals in mind, or if you do certain things to keep yourself organized and motivated. Those are basically my biggest problems as a writer; approaching second/third/later drafts without being overwhelmed by the idea of all that re-writing, and staying organized/motivated (I find one heavily influences the other). I’m always looking for techniques I can adapt that will help with that end of it. Quality and ideas are issues I have no desire for help with, nor do I need a writer to tell me that it’s better to work at a keyboard than to write longhand (I compose all first drafts in longhand).
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I kind of like the process questions, too.
October 2nd, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I’m big on the process questions as well.
I used to ask what an author’s preferred sexual position was, but then someone answered and that, my friends, was the end of THAT.
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:55 pm
I know who answered.
Someone once asked me, “What advice would you give to inspiring young authors?” I answered, “If they’re young and inspiring, they don’t need advice from me.”
October 6th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
I’m not an author, but I read a lot. Often when people find out I’m a bibliophile, they too ask me, “What’s your favorite book?” or “Who’s your favorite author?” On the surface, it seems like a reasonable question, but for someone who reads as obsessively as many people do it’s almost absurd to ask them to pick one favorite out of so many.
I find it funny that, for some, when I tell people that I don’t have a favorite author or book, I can see in their eyes they’re thinking I must not read that much. : )