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Kia Orion's avatar

Love these life posts. Always stoked to see them come through.

Question for you this month about the artist life: How did you navigate that decade between Drown and Oscar? Would love some insight both in terms of emotionally (any mantras that kept you going, useful beliefs, books, etc) and also (if you're willing to share) what that looked like for you life/work wise. Were you a "dead end job I'll scrape by however and keep writing" kinda guy? Or did you have some semblance of a life/career + plan if the writing never fully took off? Been wrestling with some existential ideas around this at the moment and would love any insights on how you navigated it! Thanks again for the great resource, been learning a ton 🙏

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Ada Austen's avatar

I’ve been writing novels and working on learning the craft for several decades. I’ll always write novels, but lately I’m having ideas for short stories. So, I bought the 2023 short story collection you recommended recently.

My question - What’s up with dialogue? Is it considered a disdained part of the craft now? I see barely any dialogue in most of the stories considered the best of 2023. Also, I’ve seen a few (two) agents on Substack mention in passing how too much dialogue is a sign of a beginner.

This concerns me a bit. I think of dialogue as my writing strength. I love listening to people talk and I love working on a conversation until it’s full of nuance, meaning, and sounds authentic. I hold onto Walter Mosley as champion of how dialogue can move a novel. So, if dialogue isn’t in style, it doesn’t matter to me as far as the writing goes. I write for the story, not the market. I’ll keep writing dialogue. But, it sure would be good to know before I try to sub a story to lit mags. I’m assuming dialogue is still ok in novels, as I see it in writers like James McBride, but maybe I’m wrong?

I would love your thoughts or if my observation is off, would love to know from the community. Maybe dialogue has always been disdained in literary market?

Thank you for all your honest, real advice here. Btw, I’m Jersey (Asbury Park) and put 2 kids through Rutgers, one, the artist of course, housed in Demerest. The other, home for a visit last week, stole my copy of Oscar Wao saying he opened to a random page and the portrayal of two roommates was so exactly like two guys he knew, and so hilarious, he kept reading until he was totally hooked and then started page 1. Proof to you that your characters are timeless and you are on Rutger’s mind too.

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