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A JCPL librarian interviews published writers about their favorite writing prompts—exercises that can help inspire, focus, and improve your creative writing. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, a novelist, essayist, or poet, you’ll find ideas and advice to motivate you to keep writing. A partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.
PtoP Ep35 House edit 1
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Carrie: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Prompt to Page podcast, a partnership between the Jessamine County Public Library and the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. I'm your host, librarian and poet, Carrie Green. Each episode, we interview a published writer who shares their favorite writing prompt. Our guest today is Silas House.
Silas is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of seven novels, four plays, and one book of creative nonfiction. His writing has been featured in Time, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and many other publications. House currently serves as the Poet Laureate of Kentucky and is a 2022 winner of the Duggins Prize, the largest award for an LGBTQ writer in the nation.
He has been a finalist for a Grammy Award and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. His most recent novel, Lark Ascending, won [00:01:00] the Southern Book Prize and the Editor's Award from Booklist, among other honors. Welcome Silas, and thanks so much for joining us.
Silas: Hi Carrie, thanks for having me.
Carrie: So you are a little over halfway through your tenure as Poet Laureate, I think?
Silas: Yes, it goes until April 25.
Carrie: Okay. I know you've done a lot so far. What of your initiatives so far are you most proud of?
Silas: Well, actually, we're just announcing it today. The thing I'm most proud of is I wrote a curriculum for all schools K through 12 to teach children how to take oral histories of elders and their families and communities.
So it will not only get them active in writing, but it will also have them interviewing older people in their lives. And that was so important to me growing up. I think it's one of the reasons that I became a writer is because I was always around older people who were [00:02:00] telling great stories. And, you know, and just giving me such knowledge all the time.
and such great insights. I have also been working with the state park system to do a series of workshops across the state. We are working on a signage program so that if there's an internationally known writer from your county in Kentucky, there'll be a sign there that designates that. I also have a podcast that offers free writing lessons to anyone who needs them.
So those are the main things. Of course, a big part of it is traveling around within the state, especially to talk to school children and to travel around the United States and the world to carry forth, you know, the, the story of Kentucky's literature and to let people know we have a rich literary heritage here.
Carrie: Yeah, we certainly know that here, but people outside the state don't always know that. I think the [00:03:00] question of whether or not to get an MFA in creative writing is a very individual thing. And you know, some of our guests on the, in the past have them, but some of them don't. I thought it was interesting that you had already published a couple of books when you went back to get your MFA.
Can you tell us what led you to that decision to get it after already publishing?
Silas: Well, I didn't have the opportunity to pursue graduate school right after college. I had to, I had to go to work and I couldn't, I couldn't do it. And so I waited, I think it was about seven years between undergrad and graduate school.
Now, having said that, I'm really glad I waited because I don't know that I would have been ready. I think a lot, you know, what I tell students who tell me that they want to go into the MFA is I say, you know, some people it's good to go right out of graduate, undergrad, and some people need to wait. [00:04:00] I'm glad that I waited.
I took it way more seriously. And I just, I got way more out of it. The main reason I went back to get it though was because I wanted to teach. I had been a rural mail carrier. And then when my first book was successful, I became a full time writer, but I quickly realized that, you know, to be a full time writer, I was going to have to be gone a tremendous amount of time.
I had two small children. So I wanted my degree so I could teach. But I, but I got way more than a degree out of that. The main thing I got was a community. And you know, there's this mythology that writing is a solitary act and all that. And of course, to some degree, yeah, you, you have to do it on your own, but artists need communities and you need to be around other writers.
You need to share information. You need to share encouragement. And so the MFA not only taught me so much about [00:05:00] writing and pedagogy and so many things, but also it taught me a lot about the importance of community.
Carrie: Mm hmm. Yeah. And I think that's something that many of our guests talk about as well. So it's nice to hear you affirm that.
I heard you say in an interview that walking is an important part of your writing process. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Silas: It's the most important part for me. I don't know why, I can be completely frozen in a piece of writing, and if I go for a walk, the pistons start firing. I mean, sometimes that results in one sentence.
Sometimes it results in seven pages, you know, I'll take whatever I can get, especially when I'm frozen up. I think it just is a sort of meditation for me. It's kind of akin to prayer, I think. And it's been scientifically proven that walking and being out in nature, you know, [00:06:00] makes at first something in our creative parts of our brain.
So yeah, walking and the natural world are the two most important things for me. You know, if I go for a walk or if I sit by a creek and I, you know, if I see a body of water and I'm near it, I'm rejuvenated. And so all of my life I have relied on those things.
Carrie: Have you been able to, we've had such a hot summer this summer, have you been able to still get out and do that as part of your practice?
And I'm just curious how you do it because that's something that I've been struggling with.
Silas: Uh, yes, I do it in the early morning. I do it late at night, but I also do it right in the middle of the day. And, you know, I just put a big hat on and sunscreen and sort of sweat it out. And that has been showing up in this, in this novel that I'm writing.
There's a big heat wave section of it that I love so much. And it's, it's [00:07:00] directly because I've been roasting while I've been walking.
So I think that's one of the things I always want to talk to writers about is use what you have. Often you cannot create the perfect conditions for your writing. So you have to use whatever conditions you have.
And I hear a lot of people, you know, saying that they have to wait for the conditions to be just right. I think if you wait around for that, you're never going to get anything written. You know, I mean, I wrote my first three novels with a child in my lap or within earshot. Sometimes you just have to do it.
You know, I could have easily just said, well, I have these children crawling all over me, so I can't write. But I was so unhappy if I wasn't writing, that I had to write anyway, and I'm really glad that I forged ahead and did that.
Carrie: Mm hmm. Absolutely. And what about prompts? [00:08:00] Do those play any kind of role in your writing process?
Or, you know, have they in the past?
Silas: Absolutely. I give myself prompts all the time. For every novel, I give myself a specific challenge as well. My last published novel, my challenge that I gave to myself was to write passages from the point of view of a dog. And it just, it made the book so much richer to have that dog character, but it was incredibly hard to do.
And the challenge of writing from a dog's point of view made the sections from the human point of view richer as well, because it just was about heightening my senses and, you know, and all those things. But you know, sometimes I'll just give myself a prompt of, I'll go through a passage that I've read, and let's say that, I mean that I've written, and let's say that one of the characters alludes to having gone to the beauty [00:09:00] salon that day, but it's not necessarily important to the scene at hand.
Sometimes I will just write a scene where they do go to the beauty salon to see if it is usable, or to see if I learned something more about my character through that experience, or whatever. You know, other times they're more constructed than that. You know, like I might go into a writing a scene and then, okay, today I have to describe this character.
I have to give my first impression to the reader of who this character is. And so, you know, I have little exercises that I do, some of which I'm going to talk about when I give you my prompt, but you know, things like making lists are real important and, and things like that. I mean, I use all kinds of prompts and exercises.
There is really something unexplainable about timed prompts as well. It's [00:10:00] sort of like if you're a poet and you think I'm going to write a sonnet, then you know you only can do, you only have 14 lines to do that within. And so it gives you a structure that you wouldn't have otherwise. It's sort of similar if I think I'm going to figure out who this character is and what they look like and how they move physically and what their quirks are and what their trauma is and etc.
And I'm going to give myself 20 minutes to see how much that I can do. There's just something about being timed and having a real strict deadline like that, that gets your juices flowing.
Carrie: Mm hmm. And do you, I know some people have like a little hourglass that they might flip or just, you know, a timer on your phone, or what, what do you use to?
Silas: I use the timer on my phone.
Carrie: Yeah.
Silas: And when that little, you know, bell goes off, I quit. And then I go back and I read it, and then I can take my, you know, if I want to, I can time my [00:11:00] revision on it, or I can just take my time revising it, and I can expand on it or whatever, but having that timed space. It's something about it makes you get up and write, you know, instead of just sitting there staring at the screen
Carrie: Yeah, which is so easy to to fall into.
Well, would you like to go ahead and talk about your prompt now?
Silas: Well, I think the one that I use the most often is a characterization prompt because for me If I can get the main characters, the plot will arise up out of that. You know, and a lot of people I think worry so much about plot. I think plot is the thing I worry the least about.
I worry the most about creating vivid characters who are delivering on the theme that I have in mind. And so if you have your theme and your character, your plot would usually arise pretty organically. And so I've [00:12:00] walked through the world a lot as my characters, you know, one day I'll walk through as this character, the next day I'll walk through as this character.
And I just sort of see everything from their points of view. And that allows me to write them more clearly. But this one is a lot about starting from the place of if you are a fiction writer or poet, or even if you're writing creative non fiction, starting from a place of memoir and seeing how that can feed you, you know, to build a character.
Because you know, if you are writing a novel or a short story, for instance, you are creating a character, but that doesn't mean you can't draw on real life to do that. Usually when I create a character in fiction, I'm thinking of a, of a braid of three things. A real person that I know well, a real person that I might've just seen in the grocery store or something, who had something interesting about them that I want to use.[00:13:00]
And the third strand is just totally made up. It's just total imagination. And so this is sort of a little jumping off place. And it, the main thing it does is it makes you focus on sensory details. So it's a little bit of a tangle of, of sense of place and character and how you can't totally separate those things.
But the first thing I ask people to do is to close their eyes and really concentrate and I want them to think about a kitchen that was important to them during their childhood. And it doesn't have to necessarily be the kitchen of your childhood home or anything like that. It's just a kitchen that comes to mind that's important.
A neighbor's, an aunt's, a grandmother's, your own. Try to pick the kitchen that was important to you because you had a lot of good times there or because you had trouble there. Ultimately because it's a place where there's emotion and a kitchen often There is more emotion involved in that room of the house because we [00:14:00] live so much of our lives there so much of our lives revolve around food preparation of food etc. So, close your eyes, look around, orient yourself to that space.
Remember where the stove was, the fridge, the table. Can you recall the color of the walls? Was there a theme to the decor? Were there curtains in the windows? What did they look like? What can you see outside of the windows if you walk up and move the curtain aside? Was the kitchen disheveled or very neat?
You know, ask yourself all those questions and let one question lead to another. And as you go, write down what you're remembering. Then, open your eyes and actually make a list of the following. What do you see? What do you smell? What do you hear? Most importantly, what do you feel? Not only the surfaces of the counter and the table, the stove, et cetera.
But also what do you feel [00:15:00] emotionally? Safety, fear, love. Work hard at thinking about the complications of the emotion you're feeling about the space and never be sentimental. Think about conflicts that happen there, good things, bad things, joys, sorrows, and just think about those for a while. Set a timer and give yourself about 10 minutes to just free write about whatever you're feeling.
So you could be free writing about, you know, the particular yellow of that kitchen, or you could be free writing about a time when you felt really afraid in that kitchen, wherever it goes. So make sure you have a really good inventory of that childhood kitchen so that you can see it in your mind's eye and you have a good feeling of it.
And then most importantly here for this prompt, think about who you must associate with that kitchen. Who is the person? And then what you do is [00:16:00] you write down their full name, then close your eyes and study their face, their body, their clothing, their posture. Ask yourself if you had to boil them down to one essential trait, what would it be?
And try to make it one word. Loving, mean, hateful. Stingy, generous, hardworking, tired. After meditating on this for a bit, write down all that you've gathered. And after writing the list of things you've come up with, close your eyes and think about this person some more concentrating very hard on their physicality.
So you have their first name, then you might want to make a list of things about their face, things about their body, things about their clothing, things about their posture. The essential trait. And now make a list of everything you think, that you can think of about that person. Age. Occupation. What was their childhood like?
What was their political [00:17:00] persuasion? What were they really good at? What were they not good at? What objects do you think of when you think of them? Because props are really important to a character. If a character's smoking all the time, that, you need to be able to describe the ways they're smoking, et cetera.
How to use their prop. So you're making a list of these real factual things, make a list of any food you associate with them, anything that's sensory like that. So now, for the best part, what you do with that then, is you use that in a piece of writing. So if you're writing a piece of creative non fiction, like an essay for instance, you pretty much use what you have and just see where it goes.
If you were writing, if you were going to use this for a piece of fiction, then you would think about all the ways to fictionalize this person. Main thing is you change their name. Then you might want to think [00:18:00] about incorporating some other person's physicality with theirs, some other person's traits with theirs, and what will happen there is they become more three dimensional, you know, when you're not just using that one person, and you're using your imagination, or you're maybe using other people you know to build that character and to make that flat.
And so then put your character in a situation, whether this is a poem or creative non fiction or whatever, write a scene set in that kitchen from this character's point of view where we're meeting them for the first time. And in this scene, they reveal what their deepest, darkest secret is. So it's a pretty complicated prompt.
But it's leading you, you know, by the time you finish that prompt, you're going to know so much about that character that you didn't know before. And it's going to be a much [00:19:00] richer portrayal. I think the thing that bothers me the most when I read manuscripts from people is thin characterization. A lot of people think that characterization is somebody's eye color, hair color, how tall they are.
When
you get right down to it. There are not that many differences in people's physicality, and you should really only mention physicality if it has some impact on the theme, or the plot, or the, you know, what's happening. What's more important is the operation of people's hearts and brains. And that's how you characterize somebody, is you let them, you let the reader know what's their motivation.
What's their desire, you know, what, what are their sorrows and joys and how does that maybe manifest in their physicality? And if it doesn't then it does then the physical detail doesn't really matter
You know my last novel my main character [00:20:00] I think the only thing you know about his physicality is that he has green eyes and you're only told that because there's a moment where he talks about having his father's eyes, you know, and so, but instead you, you have a really good sense of how he moves and what he cares about and what he wants and, you know, you know, all those things,
because,
you know, if we're describing somebody that we know really well, we wouldn't dwell as much on their hair color, eye color, all that.
We'd be talking more about the operations of their heart and mind.
Carrie: Right. And that also, I mean, it, it's, it occurs to me, as you were saying that, is that lets the reader be involved in picturing maybe what the character looks like, and so it becomes more of a collaboration between the reader and the writer, I think.
Silas: I'm a big believer in that true readers of [00:21:00] literary writing want to be a participant. Every once in a while, somebody will say to me, you left the end of this too open ended and I wanted it to be all tied up in a nice little bow. And my response is if I had done that, you would never think of the book again.
And I mean, I don't have anything against commercial fiction. I love a lot of commercial fiction, but commercial fiction does fill in all the blanks. Commercial fiction does tie everything up at the end. And the thing is you really enjoy it when you're on the beach and you're reading it, but then you never think of it again
really. You don't remember it properly, but with literary fiction, it sticks with you more because you are more of a participant and you, you are filling in some of those blanks, gathering information, and it makes your mind active in a different way. And that's, you know, that's what I like to do. I want to give the [00:22:00] reader some power,
Carrie: Right.
Yeah. No, I agree. And that's, that's one of the things I like about it, literary fiction as well. And I think maybe even being a poet, you know, I think in poetry, there are even more leaps sometimes than, than in fiction. So if I'm reading something, that's giving me every single detail. I just think I don't need to know that.
Let's skip ahead. That's a great prompt. And, and it also reminds me a little bit of George Ella Lyons' prompt where she had people actually draw, a house that they had lived in before. So there's some similarities there. I think yours went a little bit you know, more into the characterization like, like you were talking about.
Well, do you have any final writing tips that you'd like to give to our listeners?
Silas: Well, I mean, for me, [00:23:00] I feel like that if I am going to create a world for the reader to step into, I have to create that world for myself. And I really immerse myself as much as possible in that while I'm writing. So, you know, let's say I'm writing a short story that's set in 1986.
I'm going to listen to all the music I can of 1986 that my characters would have loved. If my characters, you know, likes country music, then I'm going to be listening to the top country of 1986. I'm going to immerse myself in that. I'm going to look at the Sears and Roebuck catalogs from 1986. And, you know, think about the clothing.
I'm going to read poetry that was written during that time. I'm going to read the news and see what was going on in the world. And I'm going to walk through my day from that point of view. I'm just, I'm trying to create a whole world. I think sometimes [00:24:00] people think that you only do world building if you're writing like science fiction or fantasy.
But in all good writing, you have to build the world. Now, I was alive in 1986. I was a young teenager. So I remember it. But I still have to go back and, you know, conjure that world for myself or remind myself of things to be able to build it for the reader. I also have to keep in mind that some of my readers, you know, would not be born for 30 years after 1986, and they don't know it at all.
And that some readers know it very well. You know, so you just have to be thinking of all those layers. And I think the other thing is to always be thinking of layers, period. A lot of times, The younger writers that I work with think a lot about all, they were thinking all about the surface and not what, what the story is really about.
So, you know, I don't know, somebody might write a story about [00:25:00] a character has to move away from a place they love. And that's, that's all the story is about, but for a story to be really successful, it has to operate on more than one level. There has to be layers going on there and that it has to resonate for as many people as possible because of those layers.
Carrie: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.
Silas: Thank you. I appreciate you doing this podcast.
Carrie: Thank you for listening to Prompt to Page. To learn more about the Jessamine County Public Library, visit jesspublib. org. Find the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning at carnegiecenterlex. org. Our music is by Archipelago, an all instrumental musical collaboration between three Lexington based university professors.
Find out more about [00:26:00] Archipelago, Songs from Quarantine Volumes 1 and 2 at the links on our podcast website.