A Conversation With:
TERRY McMILLANCopyright
(C) 1994 Off the Shelf all rights reserved
Excerpts from an interview with Terry McMillan
When you started teaching writing, how did that experience affect your
own writing? What was it like: the experience of sitting down with students
and talking about writing and working with them to improve their writing
Well, the thing that I really like about teaching is I try to give them
what I would have hoped to have gotten, had I taken more creative writing
classes; because I hear all the horror stories about students whose teachers
just basically tell them they can't write, they don't like their stories,
or ?you can't do this, you can't do that.?h And I said I will never be
one of those, I knew that. And so, the experience I've had is that I take
my students very, very seriously. I don't care what it is they're writing
about, I try not to pass judgment on it.
I get a lot of different kinds of people in my classroom, and so I tell
them up front, "I don't care if you're gay, lesbian, whatever you
are, whatever you feel, write about it. No holds, barred, okay? I mean,
let's not bullshit ourselves here. Come on out." And I try to get
them to write honestly. I tell them, "pretend as if you were telling
this story to a good friend, and don't leave anything out. But make sure
we see it. I'm not interested in what you think, I'm only interested in
what you feel, and what you see. That's what you write."
Is it hard to get people to do that?
No, they love it.
It's sort of freeing for them?
Yeah, (I tell them), "pretend as if no one will ever read this but
you." A lot of times they get really excited about that. You can
tell when they're being self-conscious, and that's what I'm there for,
to help point that out. Going here and going there. But I try not to pass
judgment on their work. I just try to help them dig a little deeper, and
to let them know if I don't believe something. If I don't really care
about what's happening to their characters. We have a roomful of people.
We don't attack each other. I don't allow the students to attack. Like,
"I couldn't stand your character," or "I hated that!"
or "you can't write," or "I was bored to tears."
When we criticize each other it's very constructive, and I give them
my rules up front. You can't say, "hated it." Unh, uh, we don't
go for that. If you have a problem with something, you say, "I had
a problem with . . . and then you explain, and you have to be able to
back it up. And whatever criticism you give, it should be helpful to the
writer. We're trying to help each other here, that's what this is about.
If everybody knew how to tell a story, no one would be here.
Have you been happy with the success that you've had? Has it changed
your life ways that you either didn't want or expect?
No, because all of this has just happened in the last couple of weeks,
really. I haven't had time to even think about what has happened. Even
when I get I home, I'm not going to sit there and think, "Oh wow,
Terry, you're just this hotsy-totsy writer now. Oh, you're a best-selling
author on the New York Times (best-seller list)." I'm not
going that route. I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing.
The only part of this that I don't like is. . .everybody likes to have
a little fuss made over them, but this is a little much. (laughs) It's
a little overwhelming. You want your work to be appreciated, you want
people to read it, you want people to love your work, just like you want
people to think your baby's cute. It's the same thing.
But it's. . . I don't like the idea of thinking about being a success.
I don't like the term. I call it being appreciated. It's nice to be appreciated,
it's nice to get respect, which is what I think everybody wants (laughs),
regardless of what they do, right?
Is it hard though, when writing is something that's personal, and that's
very close do you, to be honest and direct in your writing, knowing that
a lot of people are going to read it? Is it hard to balance that out?
Have you ever found yourself saying, "Well, maybe I don't want to
be that personal or that direct?"
No, because when I'm writing, I'm not thinking about my audience. I'm
not thinking about critics. I mean, that's where the fun is. The best
part of this whole process is writing. That's why I do it. But then you
have to let it go, just like when your kid turns 18 and goes away to college.
You've have to let them go. That's part of the risk. That's why writing
can be. . . it takes a certain amount of courage to do this. My mother
helped give me that. I have to give her credit. She told me, "If
you're scared all the time, you're going to be scared all the time. You'll
never know what youy?Nre capable of." She basically taught me that
it's okay to be scared, but do it anyway. You'll find out that life isn't
as terrifying as you think it is. A lot of things aren't as terrifying
as we think they are. That's what I'm finding to be true. Everybody's
not going to like my books. I can live with that. That's not going to
ruin me, it's not going to destroy me. There are people who don't like
me. I can still survive. I don't expect everybody to love my books. But
there are people out there who do appreciate them, and those that do,
I appreciate them. And that's all you can hope for. I can't please everybody.
And I'm damn sure not going to try to start.
What can fiction do for readers? When people sit down to read a book,
what are the most positive things that it can do for the person that's
reading?
What it can do for me, what it has done for me, what a lot of books have
done for me. . . I get a rush sometimes, like being in love, or like I
just took a shower. It can clear my head up, make me feel excited, make
me feel like I have every reason in the world to want to live. I get the
zest. I start thinking about things that I maybe haven't thought about
in a long time. I start developing a different appreciation for little
teensy-weensy things that I may have let go by. It depends on the writer,
which is why I try to read as many different writers as I can. Because
they all do different things. Anne Tyler really makes me appreciate family,
so much, and how we can get on each other's nerves. It helps me appreciate
my mother when she gets on my nerves. (laughs) But fiction can take you
a lot of different places that you may not go, or may not have an opportunity
to go in your own life. Sometimes, there are places that we need to go,
and sometimes there are places we don't want to go.
What about for the writer? What can fiction do for you as a writer when
you've finished a book, or finished a short story, or an essay, or something?
It makes me realize that, number one, I'm not perfect. It helps me figure
out what my concerns really are. Because a lot of times I don't know.
I don't articulate it all the time. I do with my friends, but for the
most part I get a chance to really dive a little deeper and question a
lot of things that bother me. And I get to explore, and sort of do this
investigation of why it is this stuff is bothering me. I just do that
by putting my characters in certain situations where I have to question
a lot of things. I don't necessarily come up with answers, but a lot of
times I come close enough so that I just reach a different level of understanding,
one that I just didn't have when I started the book. That's how I know
that I've gone someplace else. If I feel the same the way when I end a
book or a story as I did when I started, I haven't done my job. I haven't
gone far enough. And that's how I know, because I feel this incredible
relief. It's almost indescribable, that I've just arrived somewhere that
I've not been before. And that's a wonderful feeling, it's a wonderful
feeling.
Well, Terry, thanks a lot for taking the time to join me today. I appreciate
it.
You're welcome. Thank you.
Interview 1994 by Steve Moore, Off
The Shelf Productions. Printed here with kind permission.
Kaye Gibbons || Ruth
Rendell || Isabel Allende || Alix
Kates Shulman
Terry McMillan || Helen Caldicott || Doris
Lessing || Kate Clinton || Sara
Paretsky
|
|
