Finding The Joy of Discovery

 “Writing is a process of discovering. I could never outline a narrative; that just sounds boring. There's no joy of discovery in what you're doing if that's your strategy.” – Bob Shacochis

Born in Pennsylvania on this date in 1951, Shacochis is a novelist, short story writer, and literary journalist who grew up in Virginia, studied in Missouri and Iowa, and now teaches creative writing in Florida, where he also has built an award-winning writing career.

 

Shacochis’s first short-story collection, Easy in the Islands, published in 1985, won the National Book Award in category First Work of Fiction, and his 1993 novel, Swimming in the Volcano, was a finalist for the National Book Award.  His 2013 novel, The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction. 

Also a journalist, he has worked at everything from being a war correspondent to serving as a cooking columnist and a regular contributor to Harper’s magazine, where he spent nearly a year covering a U.S. Special Forces operation.  That experience led to his bestselling nonfiction book The Immaculate Invasion.

“I'm asked all the time, 'Doesn't it feel great to finish the novel?' And the answer to that is, 'No.'” Shacochis said.  “It's sort of a loss to stop a 10-year project, which is an imaginary project in the sense that it's a work of my imagination.”

 

www.writersmoment.blogspot.com