Ron Carlson Writes a Story

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, host of Writers on Writing, welcomed writer Ron Carlson to her podcast this morning. Ron is the director of the MFA/Fiction Program at the University of California, Irvine, and was one of our workshop leaders at the Squaw Valley Writers’ Workshops this summer. Barbara and Ron discussed his new book, RON CARLSON WRITES A STORY.

During the interview, Ron said stories are created in the dark, and that we as writers must tolerate their ambiguity and trust our instincts when putting words to paper. He also said it’s important that writers stay with the writing, even when it feels substandard – a challenge he too finds daunting. He illustrated this point by stating when he gets stuck, he sometimes gets up from his chair and leaves the room, then wanders into another room – invariably the kitchen – to pour a cup of coffee and pray a sentence will emerge. Better to sit tight and work it out, he maintains -- dance with the desk what brung ya.