{"id":7206,"date":"2018-04-17T07:59:59","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T11:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7206"},"modified":"2018-04-17T07:59:59","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T11:59:59","slug":"the-writers-essential-tool-curiosity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7206","title":{"rendered":"The Writer\u2019s Essential Tool: Curiosity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Question\"

photo: Barney Moss, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

Award-winning fiction author (and fellow U-Mich alumna) Danielle Lazarin<\/a>\u2019s recent Glimmer Train<\/a> essay tells how she probes the depths of her characters and their dilemmas by questioning everything, large and small, from the shape of a character\u2019s existential dilemmas to what she wants to be called and by whom. The scribbled questions that litter her writing notebooks, she says, \u201caren\u2019t signs of confusion or desperation but of sufficient curiosity on my part to propel a story forward.\u201d Curiosity that manifests itself as questions.<\/p>\n

In New York City recently, we took two tours. A robotic one that sounded as if it never deviated from the memorized script by so much as a syllable and one from a young guide at the Tenement Museum who was introducing her group to three post World War II families who\u2019d shared a specific two-bedroom apartment.<\/p>\n

She asked lots of questions. How did the Jewish couple manage to instill a sense of family tradition in their daughters, being the only ones left from their families? Why did the Puerto Rican mother insist her sons start the pot of beans on the stove when they got home from school? How did the four children of the Chinese family manage to all study (and graduate from high school and college) at the same tiny desk? While our first guide seemed notably uncurious, everything about those families\u2019 lives interested this second guide. She was a perfect illustration of the interrogatory mind-set Lazarin endorses.<\/p>\n

When a story idea seems too preposterous, Lazarin expresses it as a question, \u201ceasing myself into a space I\u2019m likely afraid of exploring.\u201d The question mark asserts her tentativeness toward the idea that makes it more comfortable. She can \u201csit with it and remain skeptical.\u201d That idea leads to further questions about the how and the why, as she excavates layers of meaning and the detail that make them real. Two-time Booker Award-winner Hilary Mantel has said that when she\u2019s having trouble capturing a character she imagines interviewing them.<\/p>\n

As I write, I compile a list of all the questions I believe the story has raised, large and small. Reviewing this inventory of questions from time to time may suggest where the story needs to go next, how different characters coming at the situation from their different perspectives\u2014and their own knowledge and, indeed, questions\u2014can interact, reinforce, or thwart each other in unexpected ways. When I reach the end, I check to make sure all the questions have been addressed.<\/p>\n

While stories generally answer the specific questions they raise, Lazarin says a story also asks a fundamental question of the reader that invites a personal response. Examples she cites are: do people require hope; how do we grieve; why do we continue to disappoint others? The author cannot \u201canswer\u201d that question without coming across as polemical; readers must arrive at their own, individual responses. Careful attention to all the questions integral to the story, Lazarin believes, can \u201ctake readers into a space where they can ask the big questions, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danielle Lazarin\u2019s book of short stories, Back Talk<\/em>, was released earlier this year to stunning reviews.<\/a>
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Award-winning fiction author (and fellow U-Mich alumna) Danielle Lazarin\u2019s recent Glimmer Train essay tells how she probes the depths of her characters and their dilemmas by questioning everything, large and small, from the shape of a character\u2019s existential dilemmas to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Writer\u2019s Essential Tool: Curiosity - question everything!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,40,174,29],"tags":[166,137,421,28],"class_list":["post-7206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-fiction","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing","tag-creativity","tag-man-booker-prize","tag-short-story","tag-writers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1Se","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7208,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7206\/revisions\/7208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}