Thank you both for reading.
Thank you.
So you both, I think, are really energetic writers.
I felt rushed along by what you were writing.
And so I was thinking about the way
I think you both maybe write kind of long sentences
that have a lot of parts that build up.
So how much do you think about sentence level
when you're writing either part of a story,
or a novel, or a poem?
Or is that something that just kind of happens?
Hieu, do you want to start?
Oh, yeah.
I don't really think about it that much.
So I don't know how much I can contribute to this question.
Would you mind talking into the mic?
Thank you.
I don't think about it that much.
Yeah.
What do you think about instead?
Oh.
I think about the tone, and how I want it to come across.
And sometimes it's helpful to have a longer sentence,
so maybe I do think about it a little bit.
I think about it a lot, maybe.
I think a lot of the work for me generates sort of
at that level.
The book ends up being sort of cohesive,
but I write in really small fragments.
And often I'm starting with sort of a piece of language,
or a line or rhythm I like, or an image.
I'm just trying to unpack that as
long as I can sort of hold it.
And I usually can't do that for more than maybe a half
a page at a time or a couple of sentences.
And so I end up with lots of these sort of units.
And it's sort of like trying to put them together.
I care a lot about how things are filled out,
and the rhythm of the language.
I read a lot aloud as I'm writing.
My last novel is really strange.
There's a lot of weird things, like a giant sentient bear,
and squid fights, and stuff.
And when I was writing it, I was living in a condo
in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
And all the condos in our row had the same floor plan,
so I knew my office wall was against the bedroom
of the people next to me.
And I would write at like 6:00 in the morning,
and just working out the acoustics of these sentences
really loudly through their bedroom wall.
And I assume those people are really happy I don't live there
anymore, trying to figure out the pauses in a sentence about,
like, squid at 6:00 in the morning every day.
But yeah, a lot.
Like to me, that's what makes a sentence done,
is that it's sort of filled out acoustically.
And to put a synonym in, or to change where the commas are,
will somehow weaken it, that there's an inevitability.
And you know, it's never as good as you want in the end.
My galley copy of this is already all marked up,
and my final copies will be too.
The changes I'd make in the future.
But yeah, I care a lot about that.
And sometimes like fix the sound, fix the meaning,
if that makes sense.
Like for me, there is something there.
Yeah.
Thanks.
I have a question.
It's unordinary, but I'm going to ask anyway.
So Hieu, I know you're in the moment
of working on this second book.
And your first book is over there.
This is the sales pitch for it.
Buy that first book.
But I wonder, I mean, you're over there scratching away
at stuff, do you feel like, as you're
working on this second book, it feels the same?
Does it feel different?
Does it feel new?
Or is your process the same?
No.
I feel like I'm having a lot more fun this time.
When I was writing my first book, I felt like I just--
I don't know, I think processing, right?
And it felt heavier.
And I think now that I got that out of the way,
I feel like I'm having a lot more fun writing, which
I think is important.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Is there another question?
Is that an elbow or a hand?
It's hard to tell.
Elbow.
OK.
In that case, let's get to the book signing part of this.
Thank you both so much.
Thank you, Hannah.