Fictionaut Five: Michael Czyzniejewski

Michael Czyzniejewski is the author of the story collection Elephants in Our Bedroom (Dzanc Books, 2009) and the short short chapbook Chicago Stories (Another Chicago Press), forthcoming in Fall 2011. He teaches at Bowling Green State University and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Mid-American Review. In 2010, he was awarded a Fellowship in Literature from the National Endowment of the Arts.

Q (Meg Pokrass): How do you feel about mentors, who were your mentor/mentors if you had them, do you mentor?

I’ve had a couple of great mentors that formed me as a writer, but maybe not in terms of my own writing or aesthetic, but more as a writing professional. As an undergrad, I studied with Jean Thompson and Illinois, and she was very inspirational in terms of how I carried myself as a writer, how I went about achieving my goals. She’s takes teaching and writing very seriously, and instilled in us from the beginning that we were going to be serious or we should leave. I remember one guy, the first day, saying he didn’t really want to write, but was taking an extra writing class on his way to law school, and Jean basically told him to either go or put his head down and not bother anyone the rest of the term. That was refreshing to hear, as I was really serious about learning how to write, and was frequently disappointed whenever I’d heard anyone talk about dashing something off the morning it was due, or not wanting to pursue the craft as much as they wanted an easy A. Jean has remained in that role for me since then, becoming a good friend. Whenever I want a no-nonsense, practical opinion on something, she is always good to not blow smoke up my ass or sugarcoat anything. Our writing isn’t very similar, but I hope that I pull some of the dry humor from her work, which I think is fabulous.

Someone else who taught me a lot about writing and publishing and teaching and especially editing is George Looney, who was at Bowling Green when I came in as a student, who was the Editor of Mid-American Review when I came here. George, like Jean, taught me how to be a writer, how to go about achieving what I wanted to. His work ethic was unparalleled, in his writing, teaching, and editing, and it was good to have that model as an MFA student, where I had the time and opportunity to develop such a work ethic. He also set the moral standard I follow for editing, teaching me a lot about publishing ethics. And he’s a fantastic poet.

Tricks to get unstuck creatively – what do you do when you feel flat and uninspired. Mental exlax stuff…

I spend a lot of time surfing the Internet. Reading and surfing inspires ideas, but at the same time, it can be distracting, too much creative energy wasted. Somethings the absolute best thing to get me writing is guilt over wasting writing time, over not getting started right away. There are exercises I can do, but for the most part, I clear my mind by thinking about other things–the surfing–then eventually know what I want to do and how much time I have left to do it in.

Favorite exercises or prompts?

The first creative writing exercise I’ve ever done–Day 1 of the first creative writing workshop I took in college–is probably the one I still use, in some form or another: pick a bunch of interesting words–some nouns, some verbs, a few adjectives–and try to form them into a paragraph. There’s variations–like having another person pick the words, or picking the words from a source (maybe even a well written paragraph from a story, or from a page, like on Wikipedia, on the topic I want to write on), but just forming those words into something can lead me somewhere, get me interested in a character, in a setting, and especially in a topic.

Do you know what you are going to write about when you sit down to write… or does the story find you in the process of writing?

I spend a lot of time thinking of ideas, of first lines. I write mostly about concepts or situations characters find themselves in, and most of the legwork is done by me concocting that exact situation, then eventually, a first line. I’m a big fan of throwing that situation out there in the first sentence, just giving the exact premise and conflict in the first line: “Jim and Wendi found a message from the future in the baked potato they shared at the rehearsal dinner.” “Grapefruits were suddenly discovered to be vegetables, and thus, had to be renamed.” That sort of thing. Once I get the concept down, once I think of it, I can pretty much roll from there. But to answer the question, sort of a little of both. I start with that line/conceit and then let the story unfold.

Good habits to develop daily for creatives…

Read no matter what. Even if the great American novel or short story doesn’t come out of you, you can always take something in. Reading also inspires me to keep going, makes me want to produce, gives me ideas, shows me how. So even if there’s isn’t the time or accessibility to writing, reading should be easier.

The Fictionaut Five is our ongoing series of interviews with Fictionaut authors. Every Wednesday, Meg Pokrass asks a writer five (or more) questions. Meg is the editor-at-large for BLIP Magazine, and her stories and poems have been published widely. Her first full collection of flash fiction, “Damn Sure Right” is now out from Press 53. She blogs at http://megpokrass.com.