Chang-rae Lee visits!

Noted novelist Chang-rae Lee, author of Native Speaker, A Gesture Life, and Aloft, visited two of my English I classes a few weeks ago. Students had read his essay "Coming Home Again" and we thought it'd be nice to get some authorial perspective on said work. Lee talked a little about the essay but branched into a conversation about writing,as my students were
writing autobiographical short stories based on a memorable moment from their lives.

Some of Lee's sage advice, taken from my penciled notes--I've tried to
capture the words as he said them, but much may be paraphrased. While the ideas expressed below are certainly not new--at least to teachers of writing--they nevertheless gold:

1. When you write, don't think about the themes, but the little things.
Think small and miniature. Start with something seemingly
insignificant, and use details to add weight. Describe someone in
little scenes, imagining someone else in your place.

2. Try writing about a situation that's more complicated at second
glance, rather than a perfectly happy moment. Look for something
troubling. In life, we're looking for happiness and harmony, but
rarely find it. That's the place of art and literature.

3. You don't have to pretend you're a writer. Draw a picture with
words: show me what to see.

4. If you forget the details of your story, put yourself back in that
time. Short of that, make it up, as long as the details feel true.

5. Write about what you care about.

6. Beginning writers write ideas, but don't create pictures. Read over
your work, sentence by sentence, and think: "Am I telling the reader
how to think or feel? If the answer's yes, something's wrong."

On a totally separate note, I'm currently reading Aloft: the blog review's forthcoming!