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WORD on Thomas Larson
Memoir instructor and expert, Thomas Larson, chaired the very talented memoir panel showcased at San Diego Writers, Ink's Open Air Literary Salon in August 2008. He was kind enough to share his thoughts on writing with Word.
WORD - How do you feel living in Paradise affects our writing community?
I would argue that this is NOT a paradise for writers. The writing community has always struggled with the pull of other elements, namely, the physical and outdoor culture. We're lucky to get a dozen or more for a reading or workshop or class, although the attendance at the City Fest memoir panel was excellent. That group of writers wooed them and kept them.
WORD - How are you involved in San Diego Writers, Ink?
The classes I've taught include "Writing the Memoir" and "Keep the Memoir Going" at the Ink Spot and "Writing the Memoir" and "Personal Narrative" at UCSD Extension. I also facilitate private memoir-writing groups.
WORD - How does your association with Ink help with your goals and dreams as a writer?
Writing is an alone profession, which can be softened by grouping, community projects, classes, forums, and so on. My goal is to be healthy to have as much time as I can to devote to this demanding craft and profession---and to keep the "business" aspect of it out of my head most of the time.
WORD - What did you want to be when you grew up? What do you want to be now?
I am what I want to be. A full-time writer who earns a basic living. When I was younger, I wanted to be and was a composer. But I left music in order to write, my primal passion. My leaving music for writing is the subject of my memoir, Disenthralled, which I am currently working on.
WORD - What is your earliest memory?
My mother disregarding me for my younger brother. The piece I wrote about this, "The Hollow Boy," was given the Editor's Award in Nonfiction when it appeared in The Cream City Review.
WORD - Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Write but not to the exclusion of reading. With the Internet, there is more opportunity than ever for writers to be published. For me, the problem of most writers is that they don't read enough. They don't know the literature of the genre they're working in. They need to know this not so they can copy others, but so they can learn that there are ways to shape the kinds of creative and nuanced stories and books they want to make. The fulcrum between reading and writer memoir, for example, is the main subject of my book, The Memoir and the Memoirist. Write and read in equal draughts.
WORD - What are your favorite San Diego writers hang-outs? Favorite on-line writing sites?
I don't hang out either in person or online. My work as a writer is not really helped much by scanning web sites. I grow from the intense and uninterrupted focus on writing and reading.
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