Lina Chern
Play The Fool
An Edgar Winner!
DOSSIER: What did it mean to win a Mary Higgins Clark Award for PLAY THE FOOL? Did it propel you to seek even greater heights in your writing, add confidence or pressure on you for your follow up, or was it the first step in your master plan to make the name Lina Chern a household name in publishing? If it’s #3, well done!
CHERN: It definitely wasn’t #3, because I’m not a good enough planner for that. Also, having a “master plan” over any career in publishing feels more like a liability than an asset.
The award was a definite confidence booster! It took me a long time to convince myself anyone would want to read anything I wrote, so having that leap of faith rewarded was a wonderful thing. It was also the cherry on top of a debut-year-long process of finding, entering (infiltrating?) and being welcomed by the crime fiction community, which is just the most delightful corner of the writing universe you could hope to find yourself in.
Making it better
DOSSIER: Your advice to new writers has been to be patient with themselves and understand that just like learning the piano, good writing takes time and practice … or something close to that (Dossier researchers are often distracted by shiny things in mid-sentence). How did you learn and then apply that principle of patience as you wrote PLAY THE FOOL, especially with wanting to get your debut novel out?
CHERN: I think it was writing PLAY THE FOOL that taught me this principle, not the other way around. When I first started writing, I had no patience for the necessary intermediate versions a piece needs to go through before it gets any good – and so I didn’t get much writing done, because I would abandon pieces too early. Once I tried actually working to make something better instead of tossing it in the trash, and saw some success with this bold new strategy, it got a lot easier to be patient. Even patience is a skill that takes practice. I’m still honing it myself.
Good writers are neurotically overfocused on improving
DOSSIER: Patience is hard. How long until you’re writing like Rachmaninoff composed his rhapsody in d minor?
CHERN: Patience is hard! But I think in this case we’re talking about perception rather than time. Am I ever going to feel like I’m writing Rachmaninoff-level work? Probably not, and I doubt any of my favorite writers will either, even when surrounded by raving fans. The tendency to constantly find flaws in your own work seems to be baked into the writing mindset, and while it can make writing maddening, it also seems to be what makes a writer good. Good writers are neurotically overfocused on improving.
I think you’re better off putting that patience toward accepting where you are and trying to get better, instead of shooting for some arbitrary – and probably imaginary – benchmark of quality.
That Elmore Leonard Moment
DOSSIER: When and where do you write, and what kind of environment do you prefer? (Thrilling music/dead silence/a coffee shop on Chicago’s Miracle Mile?)
CHERN: It depends on where I am in my writing session. When I first sit down to write I need it absolutely quiet and still, because I am waaaay too interested in every little flicker and squeak in my environment. Like, I need my kids to not just leave the room, but either leave the house or be unconscious (hides Benadryl behind back). To wit: I work at a small bedroom corner desk as far away from the rest of the house as possible.
If, however, I’ve had enough time to sink into what I’m doing and let the writing get its hooks in me, you could put me in front of a brass band performing in a thunderstorm, and I wouldn’t get distracted. This kind of addictive writing flow was always the holiest of grails for me when I was a kid dreaming of being a writer. Now, at the end of a writing day I ask myself: did I have an Elmore Leonard-writing-in-the-middle-of-his-son’s-pool-party moment? If I have, it’s been a good writing day.
It’s in the tarot cards
DOSSIER: What are some of the things you do to have fun in the process of writing, and how would you compare that with the fun things you’ve done to promote your book?
CHERN: This will look from the outside like a very fun thing that is in reality a product of total desperation. Just like my main character uses tarot cards to tease out meanings in confusing or difficult situations, I sometimes turn to the cards when writing, usually when I run up against a passage that will not behave and do what I want it to (or what I think I want it to). When that happens, I draw a card and see where it takes me. That tiny jolt of randomness is usually enough to get me thinking about my problem sentence / paragraph / passage in a new, and usually more interesting way. Some of my favorite things that I’ve written come from these little infusions of nonsense.
As for promotion, while I’m not much of a DIY graphics doodler or social media poster, I do tremendously enjoy going to events and conferences and meeting other writers and readers in person. Not only is it one of the most fun and rewarding experiences I’ve had as a debut author, it’s also one of the most effective in getting my books in front of readers.
Website: Lina Chern | Amazon Author Page