AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and
this week on Wordmaster: we continue our conversation about creative
writing with a self-described "addicted, compulsive reviser."
RS: Chitra Divakaruni has written four novels; her newest, "Queen of
Dreams," was just published. But when she's not writing books, she's
helping future writers as a professor at the University of Houston.
CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Fortunately, in some ways, writing is not a
totally logical process. At some point if you start thinking 'I have
to do this and this and this,' you're overwhelmed by the task. But when
you begin to write, intuitively a lot of this comes to you. Because,
with my students, and certainly I think many of our listeners, we've
been readers all our lives. We know what works in literature from the
point of view of the reader."
AA: "Now here's a technical question for you: Where do you stand on adjectives and adverbs?"
CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Well, I think each story has its own rules. Some
stories will require a minimalistic writing where you cut back on those
adjectives and adverbs. And some stories, the style that will bring
that story out most fruitfully will require a lot of description, a lot
of detail. And therefore you need to bring in adjectives and adverbs
and powerful verbs as well. Sometimes we forget that verbs can be so
very descriptive. And we have to try. And if it's not working, there's
always revision."
RS: "You're both a writer of fiction and a
teacher. Those are two very different worlds. How do you jump from
one to the other?"
CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "That is very
difficult. It's a real juggling act. My situation at the university
is, I teach one semester and then I get the rest of the year off. And
it's really when I have time off that I do most of my writing, because I
find when I'm writing I have to enter the fictional universe of my
stories.
"For example, when I was writing 'Queen of
Dreams,' much of that story is set in India, where the mother is
undergoing training as a dream interpreter and she's living in a
community of dream interpreters. And I really for days had to just be
in that world. Otherwise I couldn't write it. And it's very disruptive
when you have to get out of that creative mode of thinking and that
imaginative mode of thinking and you have to move to the critical mode
of thinking, which is where I am when I am teaching."
RS:
"What kind of advice would you give to our listeners, those who speak
English as a foreign language who might want to write in their native
language or perhaps someday in English?"
CHITRA DIVAKARUNI:
"Well, one of the things that I always say to my students, and I think
this applies to everyone, because it has been very helpful for me as
well, is to read a lot, and to read as a writer, which is different.
Because when you read as a writer, now you're reading much more slowly,
and you're reading with a pen or pencil in your hand and you're marking
things that you really admire. And as you admire these things, you're
trying to figure out the technique of the writer. ‘Well, here I really
like how the character relates to another person, I can really
understand the feelings. What did the writer do to create this?’ So
that kind of reading I think is very, very helpful. And it's often
something that we don't do when we're just reading right through a
book."
AA: "Well, I imagine you must write a great essay.
[laughter] Actually I was wondering if you have any advice for a
student out there who had to write an essay either to get into school or
something -- "
RS: "What advice would you give to my son
who is applying for the university right now and has to write these
college essays?"
AA: "Do you stick to the dreaded five-paragraph essay, or what's your advice?"
CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Well, what I would first say is read the
directions very carefully [laughter] because directions will often give
you a sense of what they're looking for. And we want to work with
language in these essays. We want to use exact descriptive phrases that
will stay in the reader's mind. And then, of course, I think what's
really important is being honest, being truthful and writing something
you're passionate about.
"A lot of these essays will ask
you to say something that is special about yourself, to describe
something that has had meaning in your life and has taught you
something. Now sometimes students will take the easy path and they'll
write about an experience that isn't risky, that's pretty much along the
beaten path. And what I say to my students, and what I tried to do in
'Queen of Dreams,' is to take risks. I think good writers take risks,
and they're not afraid to open themselves up for their readers."
RS: Novelist Chitra Divakaruni is a professor of creative writing at the University of Houston.
AA: And now for a programming note: Wordmaster will move to Wednesday,
with a repeat on Saturday, starting next week. We will put the exact
times on our Website at voanews.com/wordmaster.
RS: And you can always write to use at word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.
(Source: VOA/WORDMATER)
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