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couple of weeks rereading and annotating them with a highlighter, marking those parts I wanted to include. My next step was to set the notes aside and try to imagine what the chapters of the book would look like. The notes are unmediated experience, and now it is time to mediate it, give it a structure. I have to decide what I’m going to do with my experience. With Newjack, I knew I’d have a chapter about my training at the academy. And that it should come at the beginning of the book. I also knew I’d have a chapter about New Year’s Eve and the fires that the inmates set in the cell blocks, which would come toward the end. I knew that somewhere past the middle of the book I’d write about the day I was slugged in the head and spit on. That was the point at which I began to hate all the inmates, and it was an important point in my personal story. Once I have a few of these fixed points, I use them to figure out where to put everything else. Have you always been so organized? No, when I was a beginning writer the structure often became apparent to me only after I’d begun writing—sometimes after I’d written a lot. I’d start without a plan and see where my interests took me. But that method wasn’t very efficient. I wasted a lot of time on dead ends. Once you’ve sketched a rough outline, or list, do you start writing the text in a linear fashion? No. Next I try to fill in that list a little. I open up separate documents on my computer: “Chapter 1 notes,” “Chapter 2 notes,” etc. Then as I revise the notes I create subsequent files: “Chapter 2 notes 1.1,” “Chapter 2 notes 1.2,” etc. I go through revisions of the notes for each chapter in much the same way that I’ll later revise the chapters themselves. Do you do all your work on the screen of your computer? No, not always. If something’s really hard, I might write it out by hand first. Also, I’m not smart enough to keep track of all that information while it is still in the computer. I print things out frequently—it really helps me to have hard copies. So what does your desk look like when you start to write? On the day I begin work on, say, Chapter 2, I have the latest hard copy of “Chapter 2 notes” in front of me. To my left, I have my original five hundred pages of single-spaced notes, which I’ve annotated and marked up. To my right, I have the books I imagine I’ll quote from or refer to. Then I do the actual composing on the computer. How many drafts do you typically go through? Anywhere between five and ten. Do you write quickly? I write more quickly about my personal experiences than I do when I am writing discursively about
history or policy. Or than when I’m making an argument. Do you write straight through a project, or do you stop and start, reading over and editing the work as you go? I try to write a book in sequence. I used to start each morning by reading from the beginning of whatever I had written, but I don’t do that anymore because I’m more confident of my voice, or more sure of my progress, or . . . you know, I really don’t know why. But there are points when I just can’t stand to look behind me; I’ve got to focus on what’s ahead. Now I’m more likely to write through to the end of a section before I let myself read what I’ve done. Once you’ve started writing, how do you organize the rest of your day? I seldom spend more than a couple of hours at my desk without taking a walk or a run, doing errands, etc. In a productive day I may have three two-hour periods when I’m actually writing. How do you end the day? At the end of each day I type myself a brief note at the end of the manuscript, using capital letters, describing what I want to do the next morning. I’m always nervous that I’ll lose my train of thought, though I almost never do. I guess I’m superstitious. Is there any physical place you need to be in order to write? I don’t need to be at my own desk. In fact, sometimes that is the worst place to be, because of all the distractions, like bills and phone calls. One thing I’ve learned is that a room with a view is not necessarily a good thing for writing. The most productive I’ve ever been was when I was using the upstairs of a neighbor’s garage to write Coyotes. My desk had a view of a blank wall, which is really what you want: no distractions. Any time of day you especially like to write? I tend to get going in the late morning and am usually tired by late afternoon. I seldom write at night. I don’t write in the early morning unless I have a tight deadline and have to. Almost everything you’ve written has been in the first person. Could you imagine writing as, say, a third-person, omniscient narrator? I’m in the middle of writing a novel in the third person. I’ve written many articles that are third person, or just lightly first person, because those were cases where I didn’t think my presence added much to the piece. But the first person is how I best tell a story. Because my persona is so often that of the “witness,” not using the first person would make me feel like a left-handed person who was forced to use his
- Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Title Page Dedica
- Page 5 and 6: To Helen
- Page 7 and 8: Acclaim for The New New Journalism
- Page 9 and 10: Preface I had neither studied nor t
- Page 11 and 12: perceived as bizarre tribes one stu
- Page 13 and 14: work is the spirit with which he pr
- Page 15 and 16: for a movement than an advertisemen
- Page 17 and 18: and reporting (the latter developme
- Page 19 and 20: Crane did before them—bridge the
- Page 21 and 22: Journalists have revived the tradit
- Page 23 and 24: Sims, Norman, and Mark Kramer, eds.
- Page 25 and 26: infantrymen in the army of homeless
- Page 27 and 28: a marginal or strange subculture—
- Page 29 and 30: “Disdain” is too strong a word.
- Page 31 and 32: of the academy that I’d be assign
- Page 33 and 34: Well, not really. I was never comfo
- Page 35 and 36: sacred to me. I know that if I were
- Page 37 and 38: expand on brief notes, transcribe q
- Page 39: experienced Denver as a member of a
- Page 43 and 44: Bruce Chatwin, anything by J. M. Co
- Page 45 and 46: Freed from the constraints of newsp
- Page 47 and 48: For his most recent book, How Israe
- Page 49 and 50: Now I’ve known a lot of politicia
- Page 51 and 52: gathering information. So the first
- Page 53 and 54: I learned it in Baltimore when I wa
- Page 55 and 56: How did they respond? They were won
- Page 57 and 58: write anything down, but the conver
- Page 59 and 60: What kind of a presence do you like
- Page 61 and 62: earned him the moniker of “staff
- Page 63 and 64: I want to understand the lives of p
- Page 65 and 66: You haven’t done any celebrity jo
- Page 67 and 68: I never know. I do know that I don
- Page 69 and 70: When Children Want Children, I rent
- Page 71 and 72: I like doing interviews over meals
- Page 73 and 74: Do you believe journalism can lead
- Page 75 and 76: Supporting himself through odd jobs
- Page 77 and 78: the editor’s house, but it had a
- Page 79 and 80: their activities, takes precedence,
- Page 81 and 82: public policy, etc., play in your w
- Page 83 and 84: How do you get people to ignore you
- Page 85 and 86: American landscape to someone who h
- Page 87 and 88: tried to kill him, and a drive-by s
- Page 89 and 90: Has taking notes openly ever been a
history or policy. Or than when I’m making an argument.<br />
Do you write straight through a project, or do you stop and start, reading over and editing the<br />
work as you go?<br />
I try to write a book in sequence. I used to start each morning by reading from the beginning of<br />
whatever I had written, but I don’t do that anymore because I’m more confident of my voice, or more<br />
sure of my progress, or . . . you know, I really don’t know why. But there are points when I just can’t<br />
stand to look behind me; I’ve got to focus on what’s ahead. Now I’m more likely to write through to<br />
the end of a section before I let myself read what I’ve done.<br />
Once you’ve started writing, how do you organize the rest of your day?<br />
I seldom spend more than a couple of hours at my desk without taking a walk or a run, doing<br />
errands, etc. In a productive day I may have three two-hour periods when I’m actually writing.<br />
How do you end the day?<br />
At the end of each day I type myself a brief note at the end of the manuscript, using capital letters,<br />
describing what I want to do the next morning. I’m always nervous that I’ll lose my train of thought,<br />
though I almost never do. I guess I’m superstitious.<br />
Is there any physical place you need to be in order to write?<br />
I don’t need to be at my own desk. In fact, sometimes that is the worst place to be, because of all<br />
the distractions, like bills and phone calls.<br />
One thing I’ve learned is that a room with a view is not necessarily a good thing for writing. The<br />
most productive I’ve ever been was when I was using the upstairs of a neighbor’s garage to write<br />
Coyotes. My desk had a view of a blank wall, which is really what you want: no distractions.<br />
Any time of day you especially like to write?<br />
I tend to get going in the late morning and am usually tired by late afternoon. I seldom write at<br />
night. I don’t write in the early morning unless I have a tight deadline and have to.<br />
Almost everything you’ve written has been in the first person. Could you imagine writing as,<br />
say, a third-person, omniscient narrator?<br />
I’m in the middle of writing a novel in the third person. I’ve written many articles that are third<br />
person, or just lightly first person, because those were cases where I didn’t think my presence added<br />
much to the piece.<br />
But the first person is how I best tell a story. Because my persona is so often that of the “witness,”<br />
not using the first person would make me feel like a left-handed person who was forced to use his
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