Writing Your Own Process: Stuart Pennebaker
Alumni share their experiences and insight on polishing the craft and finding their own voice.
How has your writing changed throughout the years? What has surprised you the most?
SP: This is a hard question! I’m not sure that I can say exactly how my writing has changed, it’s such a slow and gradual process that it’s not quite perceptible to me just yet. I hope I’m at the beginning of a very long writing life so maybe ask me again in twenty years? 🙂 I do think I’ve started to accept that, to my surprise, so much of writing is editing, taking the time to revise until every word is doing something.
What do you enjoy about writing the most? The least?
SP: I absolutely love making sh*t up. Isn’t it kind of magic that our job is to invent characters, weave whole worlds out of nothing? I hate revision, it’s like writing geometry, but it’s where most of the good stuff happens.
Who have you been reading lately? How have they influenced your writing or inspired you in any way?
SP: I read The Stranger by Camus and New People by Danzy Senna back-to-back last weekend…sheeeesh! Two very different but economical books that were a good reminder to be rigorous, that so much can happen in such relatively short space. Hmm, what else? The most unputdownable stories I read last year seemed to mostly come from Ireland, I really enjoyed Bee Sting and Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, Close to Home by Michael Magee, and Colin Barrett’s Wild Houses. So much story happens in all of those books.
My own characters tend to be reflective, maybe a little too drawn inward. I don’t write a lot of dialogue because I’m not good at it and I like to let them really linger in a setting. I think I took that tired old adage, show don’t tell, a little too seriously. But as it turns out, you’ve gotta tell sometimes, too! Something has to happen! To that end, I’ve been making an effort to read more short stories.
It’s been fun to discover Mary Robison’s archive. Antarctica by Claire Keegan made me gasp, still feels like it’s following me around. And my friend Helena Grande published The Guest at Work last summer, which is pretty much a perfect short story. Helena is one of those writers who is effortlessly experimental—she doesn’t let form inhibit her, the worlds she creates feel visceral and urgent. I think about those matching black tracksuits all the time!
How did completing an MFA help you find your style or purpose in your writing?
SP: The best thing about the MFA is that it forced me to get out of my comfort zone in many ways, starting with the big move to New York. Moving here and meeting other writers and artists from all over still feels like such incredible luck. This new community is so special to me and has made me take myself seriously as a writer. I’m still figuring out what my purpose is but having (generous, kind, brilliant) writer friends sure does feel like it’s helping me find the way.
What piece of advice would you give to current students who are in the process of crafting their first novels/collections?
You do not have to write every single day. We need a little breathing room every now and then. Don’t write everyday, read as much poetry as you can, ask lots of questions, and you’ll be just fine.
Stuart Pennebaker is a writer living in the East Village by way of South Carolina. She works and teaches at Gotham Writers Workshop. You can preorder her debut novel, Ghost Fish, here.
This interview series is produced by Camilla Marchese Gonzalez.