Shelf Unbound: This is your first novel. What did you learn from it about the art and process of novel writing?
to be undisturbed for long periods of time to really get good writing done—I think a lot of writers feel this way—and that was pretty much how I proceeded for the first two drafts. But then grad school was over and I needed a day job and I knew that if I didn’t get the manuscript into publishable shape relatively quickly, it would probably languish forever. That really forced me to change my work habits, because if I didn’t try to get 500 words done while my wife watched TV in the background after dinner, then I just didn’t get any words Ladd: That it’s hard work! But also that done, period. And now, actually, I get there are some writerly habits that can all my best writing done on the subway, make it unnecessarily harder. For a long which is probably about as far from the time I had it in my head that I needed ideal writer’s retreat as you can get.
120 A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R
2015
DEBUT: APRIL/MAY 2014