A Conversation with Lisa Wingate
A writing tip, book recommendation, and other great insights from Lisa that were not covered in our on-air interview, which you can WATCH or LISTEN to now!
For any aspiring writers out there, would you please share a short bit of writing advice?
Treasure the early part of your writing career, before book contracts, before anything is published, before seeing your book in a store or online. There’s something magical about the purity of that time when it’s just you, the story, and the characters. It’s your chance to find out who you really are as a writer and how a story comes alive in the seclusion of your mind. After your first book is published—however it happens—that state of being alone with your writing never again exists in quite the same form. Along with the story and the characters, the writing space in your life is filled with other concerns. Editors, deadlines, book reviewers, financial considerations, contracts, marketing, and so forth all factor in. Those are wonderful things, but like most of what we obtain in life, we trade something for it.
What is the last book you raved about and what did you love about it?
Ariel Lawhon’s latest, The Frozen River. I read it in a mountain cabin while winter storms howled and the wind chased snow into drifts. That made the experience especially atmospheric, but Ariel’s skillful retelling of the story of Martha Ballard, a midwife caught up in a murder trial in the colonial US, would be a gripping read anytime.
What can you tell us about your work-in-progress?
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