Author Interview ~ Jeff Overstreet

Jeffrey Overstreet lives in two worlds. By day, he writes about movies at LookingCloser.org and his perspectives are published in Christianity Today, Risen, Paste, and Image. His adventures in cinema are chronicled in his book Through a Screen Darkly. By night, he composes new stories found in fictional worlds of his own. He lives in Shoreline, Washington, with his wife Anne, an editor and poet. And he works as a contributing editor for Response Magazine at Seattle Pacific University. Auralia's Colors is his first novel.

Time to crow: What new book or project do you have coming out?

Auralia’s Colors is a story about a kingdom in which all that is imaginative and colorful is illegal, unless it is given to the king and queen for their pleasure. When Auralia, an artist of unparalleled vision, wanders into that kingdom, bringing along dazzling inventions of color and light unlike anything the people have ever seen, well… as you might guess, she’s bound for all kinds of trouble.

Auralia’s world — “the Expanse” — is a territory I’ve been exploring and discovering for ten years. And the book has just arrived in bookstores, thanks to the big imaginations at WaterBrook Press.

It’s a fairy tale. But if you’re hoping for dragons, swords, and sorcerers, look elsewhere. I took the time to write Auralia’s Colors because the story was taking me places I’d never been before, and I wanted to bring readers with me. I even enjoyed getting to know the villains.

NJ: To read a review of Auralia's Colors, click here.

How did you come up with this story? Was there a specific 'what if' moment?

Before we were married, Anne and I were hiking near Flathead Lake in Montana in 1996. We were just getting to know each other, delighted to discover a kindred spirit who invested a great deal of time and energy in crafting stories and poems. Both of us have a lifelong love of fairy tales.

Anne said, "Isn't it strange how some people reach an age where they take their imaginations, fold them up, and put them in a closet?"

That question struck sparks. I started imagining what it would be like to live in a society that suppressed imagination, color, and art. As I imagined looking out over that dull, grey kingdom, I realized I was looking over the shoulder of a character who was weeping for that culture. I discovered that her name was Auralia, and that she was mustering the courage to carry her expressions of color, art, and imagination down to those poor people.

In my mind, Auralia’s world looks a lot like the country around Flathead Lake.

You write movie reviews for Christianity Today. How did you get into that?

Well, I love movies of all sizes and shapes. In the late ‘90s, I was writing about them every week on my own website, LookingCloser.org. One day, someone from Christianity Today contacted me and said, “Hey, we like your perspective. Would you do that for us, and write a weekly column?” I couldn’t refuse.

There are many Christians who love movies, and many more who approach cinema with suspicion and condemnation. Most Christian movie critics seem preoccupied with cataloging all of the things that offend them. I wanted to stir things up by writing about how much I love movies, and how much they’ve enhanced my life. My book Through a Screen Darkly is a memoir of “dangerous moviegoing,” chronicling what I learned from a lifetime of double-features and matinees.

Every novelist has a journey. You say on your blog you dreamed about your first novel since you were five. That's a long road to publication. Tell us about it. How did you find out and what went through your mind?

We didn’t watch much television in my house. And we weren’t wealthy enough to go out to dinner, or go to the movies very often. For Friday night fun, we drove down to the end of the Portland International Airport runways and watched planes land.

Or we went to the library. I loved the library — especially fairy tales and fantasy. I became familiar with everything on those shelves. And since I couldn’t find any more books like my favorites, I started writing my own.

Most of my early stories — the books I wrote when I was eight or nine — had plots that were very similar to The Hobbit, which I had read at seven years old. When I read The Lord of the Rings at eight years old, I realized that I needed to start writing bigger stories, with multiple volumes. I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to spend my life writing more… whether I found an audience or not.

Fortunately, I got around to finding some plots of my own, instead of just re-writing Tolkien’s narratives.

As with the movie reviews, I didn’t spend time trying to get published. I didn’t like the idea of learning how to “work the system.” I didn’t know the first thing about how to submit a manuscript or “shop” for an agent. I just wrote and wrote and wrote.

I remember what happened very vividly — I went for a walk and started talking to God. I remember saying, “God, if you have to drop somebody out of the sky with a special-delivery golden ticket that will give me a chance to be published, I’ll take it. If you want Auralia’s Colors to be published, you’ll have to give me some kind of sign.”

Two weeks later, a total stranger — a flight attendant, actually — wrote to me about one of my movie reviews. She was curious about what else I was writing. She told me that she could fly anywhere in the country for free. So she flew out to Seattle, met me for lunch, and looked over chapters of Auralia’s Colors and another story about a runaway bird. She started making phone calls, right there during lunch. This all seemed very unusual.

The next morning, I got a call from a publisher. He wanted to read Auralia’s Colors. And that is the short version of “How Auralia’s Colors was Published.” God dropped somebody out of the sky who gave me a golden ticket. I can hardly believe it. And I am so grateful, I sometimes burst into tears.

Do you ever bang your head against the wall from the dreaded writer's block? If so, how do you overcome it?

I don’t have enough time to write down all of the ideas I have. I think if I had ‘writer’s block,’ it would be kind of nice. It would give me a chance to take a vacation.

But I do think that inspiration tends to be “seasonal.” If you don’t allow for winter, then spring won’t come. It’s best to put your roots down deep in good writing and good art. Give your imagination time to rest. Read. Go hiking. Travel. Meditate. Pray. But don’t stop writing — not even during the ‘winter.’ You need to keep your tools in good shape, so that you’re ready when that Big Idea arrives.

I get most of my best ideas when I’m hiking, or when I’m listening to great music.

Novelists sometimes dig themselves into a hole over implausible plots, flat characters or a host of other problems. What's the most difficult part of writing for you?

Revisions and edits used to be a terrible chore for me. I wanted to write what was fresh and new and exciting. It was tedious to go over stuff I wrote two years ago, or spend hours staring at the same paragraphs over and over.

But lately that has been changing. I’ve been learning to love the editing process. The more patient I am with each line, the more I’m surprised by new possibilities. Sometimes, the whole story changes with the revision of a single word.

How did you climb out or overcome it?

I’m finding that the more time I spend asking myself questions about a scene, or responding to the questions and observations of other readers, the more opportunities reveal themselves. I’ve discovered some of the most exciting things about my characters simply because somebody challenged me with a tough question.
I have a friend, Danny Walter, who has a sharp eye for detail, and he loves to ask me questions. Because of his good questions, Auralia’s Colors is twice as long as it once was. He kept saying, “I want to know more about the ale boy,” and “I want to understand Queen Jaralaine better.” And the more I investigated, the more I discovered, and the more involved I became in the story.

I’m learning to slow down and listen to the story. And that’s good, because the story knows more than I do.

Where do you write: In a cave, a coffeehouse, or a cozy attic nook?

I once asked my favorite novelist, Mark Helprin, the same question. And I was startled by his answer. But now, after many more years of practice and discipline, I’m giving the same answer: “I write everywhere.” I can’t afford to wait for the right place or the right conditions.

For twelve years, I’ve commuted to my day job on Seattle’s Metro bus — so I write there. I write in coffee shops, a lot. On my lunch breaks, I walk down to an espresso stand called The Grinder, and the barista, Kristin, saves me a special lounge chair where I can work. Don’t tell my coworkers, but I write during staff meetings when I get a good idea. I write in church, because Pastor Kelly’s sermons often give me inspiration for stories. I write at the beach, ten minutes from my house. I write before I turn off the light at night.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I work full-time at Seattle Pacific University as a contributing editor for Response magazine. I leave before 7:00 a.m., and I’m not home until 7:00 p.m. So I try to jot down ideas during the workday. I stuff ideas into emails and send them to myself at home. I write them on coffee napkins. I’ve filled countless journals on my lunch breaks.

I’m always thinking, “Just imagine what I could get done if I had the whole day to write stories!”

But life is expensive, and I’m grateful for a good day job that pays the bills.

In the evening, I work on the sequels to Auralia’s Colors, or I write movie reviews. Or both. Usually, both. I don’t get enough sleep. Anne and I plan our whole weekly schedule carefully, so we can write in the evenings and weekends.

Some authors report writing 5-10 thousand words a day. Do scenes flow freely from your veins or do you have to tweeze each word out?

The way I work, I fill pages very quickly. I sit down to write a whole chapter, and it’s like running a marathon. It’s like someone is playing a movie in my head, and I’m trying to take notes in a darkened theater. I can’t write fast enough to keep up with the ideas. The hard work comes in sifting, sculpting, and compressing all of that raw material.

For the first draft, I write in a journal, or on a legal pad, with a pen. That slows me down so I’ll pay attention. Then I type it out, editing as I go.

Briefly take us through your process of writing a novel—from conception to revision.

I write the whole book in an elaborate rough draft. A basic outline helps, so I chart the basic course early. But when I start writing for detail, that outline falls apart, because new ideas emerge. It helps to know something about how the story ends. Aimless adventures can lead to great discoveries, but it’s a good idea to have an ultimate destination in mind, or the writing becomes aimless and self-indulgent.

When I feel the chapters are in decent shape, I read them to Anne. She’s a very sensitive editor. She’s a poet, so she pays close attention. She also has the biggest library of fantasy literature I’ve ever seen. She knows the difference between a good fairy tale and a derivative fantasy.

What are a few of your favorite books (not written by you) and why are they favorites?

Watership Down is my favorite novel. It’s such a beautifully realized world, a place I can see and smell and hear and touch. Richard Adams studied “the private lives of rabbits,” so he could write about them with great particularity. And yet, when you step back, you can see how much the story reflects human behavior — our passions, our fears, our beliefs, our abuses of power. The suspense in the second half of the book is excruciating. It’s perfect, beginning to end. I wouldn’t change a word.

Winter’s Tale, by Mark Helprin, has some of the most enchanting prose I’ve ever read. When we see New York through Helprin’s eyes, it becomes a wonderland. He writes with such a romantic, inspiring sense of hope… ferocious hope.

The Lord of the Rings, of course. I think you may have heard of it.

I’m currently enamored of Kate DiCamillo. The Tiger Rising is a masterpiece.

Still, I’m more inspired to write fiction when I read nonfiction. Annie Dillard is best known for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, but my favorite is For the Time Being. When she writes about God, nature, life, and death, I am restored to a proper sense of awe, reverence, and terror. If I had time, I’d go on and on about Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Madeleine L’Engle’s Walking on Water, and the poetry of Scott Cairns.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve heard?

“Write it again, and better this time, but in half as many words.” Now… whether or not I’ve actually learned from that advice is still open to debate.

What do you wish you’d known early in your career that might have saved you some time and/or frustration in writing? In publishing?

Even if you’ve been blessed, as I have, with fantastic publishers, editors, and agents, the process of writing and publishing is fraught with challenges, and it’s incredibly time consuming. If you know any good tips for saving time and frustration, please send them!

How much marketing do you do? What have you found that particularly works well for you?

I’m still new at this. I’m waiting to see what “works” in marketing. But frankly, I believe that if your writing is really good, and you show it to people who know good writing, you’re off to a good start. I’ve watched a lot of writers run themselves ragged trying to find a way to sell more books… and the fact is that the writing just isn’t going to hold anybody’s attention. Good storytelling is 90% of the secret. Once the audience gets inspired, they’ll be your best marketers.

I try to make time to get to know the reviewers, the bookstore owners, the magazine editors. First and foremost, because they’re interesting people, worth knowing. Secondly, they’re good critics and advisors. And finally, if you develop personal relationships with them, they’re more likely to take interest in your projects. That sounds exploitative, but seriously — I’ve discovered some of my best friendships that way.

Do you have any parting words of advice?

I’m still new at this. So it’s best to defer to three valuable reminders from some of my favorite mentors:

C.S. Lewis said, “When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” No wonder he wrote great fairy tales.

Orson Welles, referring to his War of the Worlds radio hoax back in 1938: “I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act.” If a reader doesn’t participate in imagining the story, they won’t remember it later.

And Thomas Merton wrote: “If you write for God, you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men, you may make some money, and you may give someone a little joy, and you may make a noise in the world—for a little while. If you write only for yourself, you can read what you yourself have written, and after ten minutes, you will be so disgusted you will wish that you were dead.”