Jennifer Egan

I write fiction by hand, journalism completely on a computer. I barely need to look at a sheet of paper. Yes. Because…with fiction, I’m trying to access a less thinking part of me, and I write very quickly, very spontaneously. It seems like my mind has a different connection to the writing if I’m writing by hand than it does if I’m on a computer. If I’m on a computer, I’m in a basically analytical mode. But that doesn’t yield very much if I’m writing fiction. I need to be in an exploratory mode. Also kind of a more unconscious mode. I sort of think that the handwriting may be a way of getting at a kind of meditative state.… I just love not being attached to a machine. It is such a relief to just walk away from that screen and not need it near me. I can write fiction on an elevator; I can write fiction on an escalator. Maybe I lose something in terms of velocity, but I think I gain it in terms of freedom.
-Jennifer Egan, Seattle Arts and Lectures: Feb 1, Benaroya Hall

I think a feeling of distance from my own life is what allows me to find emotions and experiences elsewhere and really throw myself into them. It’s almost like a kind of ventriloquism whereby I detach from my own emotional life so that I can find those emotions in other places and feel as if they belong to other people. It helps me a lot to forget about myself when I’m writing fiction not just because I’m not that interested in myself but because I think I can find myself, if you will, in a fragmented and unrecognizable form more easily if I’m not thinking about my actual life.
-Jennifer Egan
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