…Have fun. There is legitimately no reason to write anything (except a grocery list) if it’s not fun. So, there is no reason to not make it fun and pleasurable. I write with music, and I try to always have a window to look out of. I pace, and I sometimes dance. I play games of solitaire. Working on a book means I always have something to think about at boring dinner parties (or at school events that run long or in line at the DMV). I carry a notebook around. The biggest thing I do in order to make writing fun: I try to temper that neurotic voice in my head that says, “Who do you think you are? And why do you think anyone cares what you think?” Answer: I’m writer… and I actually don’t know that anyone will care, but I like making up stories. And it’s free and fun, and that’s why I do it. Be gentle with yourself. And loving. The fact that you want to be a writer is a good enough reason to WRITE…
I had the pleasure of interviewing Attica Locke. A winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, Attica has been short-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and nominated for an LA Times Book Prize and an NAACP Image award for her work as a novelist. Her screenwriter and TV producer credits include Empire, When They See Us and the Emmy-nominated Little Fires Everywhere, for which she won an NAACP Image award for television writing. She co-created and executive produced an adaptation of her sister Tembi Locke’s memoir From Scratch, which was one of the top streamed and talked about series on Netflix in 2022.
Thank you so much for joining us! Can you share a story about what brought you to this particular career path?
I’ve been a writer since I was a kid, even before I considered it a possible career path. I wrote my first story when I was eleven or twelve. It was during a family reunion. The story is actually written on hotel stationery. I slipped away from all the activities so that I could play inside my own mind. In a way, it’s a feeling I’ve been chasing ever since. I like daydreaming, and I often like being alone more than I like being in a big group.
Can you share the most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your career?
I had a book signing in New Orleans once. I walked into the bookstore, and there were only two men in the audience. They took one look at me and walked out. The reading was canceled, and the bookstore owners ended up taking me out to a fancy dinner instead.
I would feel bad, but almost every author has a crazy book signing story.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in your journey to becoming an author? How did you overcome it? Can you share a story about that — in which other aspiring writers can learn from?
I shared an early, partial draft of my first novel Black Water Rising with an agent who declined to represent me, but she gave me a piece of advice. I say “she” because I don’t know her name. I never spoke to this person. This advice was communicated to me through Brian Lipson, who was at the time a book-to-film agent at the Hollywood agency where I was represented as a screenwriter. To this day, this woman, whose name I don’t know, doesn’t know the gift she gave me. Those early pages of the book had alternating chapters between the points of view of the two characters: Jay Porter and Charlie Luckman. The agent who declined to represent me said, “This isn’t your book. Your book is Jay Porter.” I knew instantly she was right, and I was instantly terrified. Sometime after that, I took myself on a solo writer’s retreat to Palm Springs. I have a vivid memory of sitting on the floor of my hotel room weeping because I knew what writing the book from Jay Porter’s point of view would ask of me: to bare my whole soul in a way I never had before. His psyche and mine are so closely aligned, as are our deepest fears about racism. I was scared that no one would care about this black man’s heart, which was also mine. I had to work up the courage to be my most vulnerable self on the page.
That decision — to rewrite the book, solely following Jay Porter — is the reason the book works, and it’s the reason I have a career as a novelist. Because I was willing to lay myself bare, even though my heart was quivering. I was willing took the leap of faith.
It takes courage to write well. Because to write well requires being raw and open; and it always risks rejection. The good news is that courage doesn’t require that you not be afraid. Courage is being scared and doing it anyway.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The first draft of my first novel was 665 pages! I had no concept of word count. I was just looking at my pages in a Word trying to guess how they might fit in “book pages.” I had somehow convinced myself a page in Word equaled half of a “book page,” so my 665-page book would be 335 pages. God, this is so embarrassing to admit. But it’s so funny. Because I had a career as a screenwriter before I was a novelist, I had no training in thinking about publishing and learning about word count. I had no idea what I was doing.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I am blessed to have a career as a screenwriter and television producer as well. Right now, my sister, Tembi Locke, and I are working together on an adaptation of my Highway 59 book series for TV. It’s a flip of what we did with our first show, when we adapted her book, From Scratch. And I am dreaming up my next book.
Can you share the most interesting story that you shared in your book?
I feel like this question might be more suited for a writer of nonfiction. I hope the whole book is “the most interesting story in the book.” But I will say I am kind of proud of how I wrote the epic bender and hangover that Darren Mathews goes through early in the book.
What is the main empowering lesson you want your readers to take away after finishing your book?
Nothing is more important than the truth.
Based on your experience, what are the “5 Things You Need to Know to Become a Great Author”? Please share a story or example for each.
- Read. Read because it lights up your mind; read because it’s inspiring; read because it’s fun; and also read so you realize that cliches exist for a reason: they’re cheap and everywhere. There’s a joke among writers about how often we like to describe people as having gray eyes, when really only 3% of the population has gray eyes (I am guilty of this, by the way). When you read a lot, it hopefully pushes the writer in you to not fall into already well-worn grooves, but to chart your own way and find a way to describe a character or turn a phrase in a way that no one else would.
- Know that everything you read was once a terrible first draft. One of the hardest things to remember is that what you pick up in a bookstore took years to accomplish. I forget this too and sometimes make the mistake of feeling overwhelmed by how good someone else’s book is. How did they do that? Answer: one sentence at a time, one draft a time. And there may have been dozens of drafts. You cannot even fully know your book is about in single draft. I always remember Dennis Lehane saying that in all of his books there’s always something in the first chapter — sometimes on the first page — that is the last thing he wrote. It’s only after having gone through the long process of writing a book that he knows the breadth of what he’s trying to impart, and it allows him to put in something genius early in the book — something you’re likely to read while you’re still in the bookstore, going “how did he do that?” Answer: time.
- “The only way to fail at a first draft is to not finish it.” The brilliant Jane Smiley wrote this in her book 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, which is an incredible how-to/memoir/love letter to the novel that I couldn’t recommend more highly. I am a firm believer that part of being a writer is learning how to tolerate discomfort. Often there’s great discomfort in making a mess along the way to making something great.
- The best writers are neurotic so if you think you can’t write a novel, you’re actually already halfway to greatness. My husband, my sister, and my therapist would all tell you that with each book I’ve had a new reason why I can’t write it. Black Water Rising — I’ve never written a book before. The Cutting Season — I’m a mother now; I can’t write anymore. Pleasantville — I can’t write a sequel. Bluebird, Bluebird — I’m a TV writer now; I can’t write a book. Heaven, My Home — I can’t write a book series. Guide Me Home (my latest) — I don’t know how to end a series. And yet all these books exist. I was deeply uncomfortable for large swaths of time while working on these books. But I wrote them anyway… because part of me is still that little girl writing on hotel stationery. Part of me, despite my fears, is still wanting to play inside my own mind.
- Have fun. There is legitimately no reason to write anything (except a grocery list) if it’s not fun. So, there is no reason to not make it fun and pleasurable. I write with music, and I try to always have a window to look out of. I pace, and I sometimes dance. I play games of solitaire. Working on a book means I always have something to think about at boring dinner parties (or at school events that run long or in line at the DMV). I carry a notebook around. The biggest thing I do in order to make writing fun: I try to temper that neurotic voice in my head that says, “Who do you think you are? And why do you think anyone cares what you think?” Answer: I’m writer… and I actually don’t know that anyone will care, but I like making up stories. And it’s free and fun, and that’s why I do it. Be gentle with yourself. And loving. The fact that you want to be a writer is a good enough reason to WRITE.
What is the one habit you believe contributed the most to you becoming a great writer? (i.e. perseverance, discipline, play, craft study). Can you share a story or example?
Weekly therapy sessions. I am constitutionally made for a life as a writer. I like solitude, and I am a self-starter. I was quite single-minded as a younger writer. I would wake up at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning to make sure I wrote in my journal every day. I wrote every day of my life until I became a mother (when so many things about my life changed).
But I would not have had the courage to write a novel without working with a therapist to chip away at my insecurities and to believe that I had a right to a life as an artist. That it was birthright to live a life in play. I have been with the same therapist for twenty-plus years, and not only has it helped me learn to trust and believe in myself, it’s also made me a pretty good student of human nature. I have learned so much through the practice.
Which literature do you draw inspiration from? Why?
It sounds cliché, but it’s the truth: all books. That they exist is always a miracle. But I will mention a few books that have moved me in immeasurable ways.
Sebastian Junger’s latest, In My Time of Dying. This contemplative look at life and death and love gave me so much peace. It quelled a lot of existential dread I’ve been feeling since the height of the pandemic.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. The ending of this book is a sucker-punch of love and joy and spiritual connection with family in all its iterations.
The entirety of Toni Morrison’s oeuvre. The Bluest Eye changed my life, as did Beloved. Through her books, I saw myself, my world view, my blackness as a thing of aching beauty.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
In descending order of importance to me:
- Universal Health Care
- A four-day work week
- An agreement that we all return our grocery carts to the cart-thingy
How can our readers follow you on social media?
I’m mostly on Instagram these days at @atticalocke. Same handle for X. And I have a sad little middle-aged TikTok account under the handle @rollysnow (named after the character in Black Water Rising and Pleasantville)
Thank you for these great insights!
Attica Locke On Five Things You Need to Know to Become a Great Author was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.