Devoted to publishing, publishers and to those who craft the written word

"Here is my life the day I became paralyzed. I was fifty-one, married with two sons, one in college and an eight-year-old at home, living in a big house in West Los Angeles, and pursuing my so-called craft as a writer of television specials and documentaries." 

That's the opening of Allen Rucker's memoir, The Best Seat in the House, a book about a freak medical condition that left him paralyzed after an afternoon nap.

Rucker spent most of his writing career toiling away in television and film, and has lifetime of writing craft to share--but today, he teaches us how to survive personal disasters and keep writing.

Rucker is our guest this week in my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
Your book is about recovery, following the process of getting to where you could write again after you were paralyzed by the rare disorder, transverse myelitis. Among other things, it's a handbook for learning how to write despite anxiety, depression, and difficult situations. What is your advice for young writers swamped by life?

Allen Rucker:
Anxiety, depression, and difficult situations are, as often as not, why you write in the first place, or at least why you write the ubiquitous form of first-person memoir writing prevalent today. Continue reading...

A lot of writers – me included – learn to write their way out of self-loathing, regret, painful memory, and all the nagging agonies that keep you up at night. It only provides temporary relief, but hey, you might come up with a great idea for David Lynch.

I became paralyzed on a Tuesday afternoon in 1996. Probably five minutes after the doctors told me a) I was in a serious fix but b) I wouldn’t die, I began to think about the whole episode as a writing project. Within a couple of days I was writing down a minute by minute log of this strange event on a laptop in my hospital room.

When writer Ben Stein dropped by my room, took one look at me, and said, “Boy, there’s a book in this,” I was already way ahead of him. Of course it took me another nine years to finally write the book proposal that led to the book.

Things take time. It took a good four or five years just to come to an uneasy truce with living in a wheelchair the rest of my life.

My advice to young writers swamped by life? Sit down and describe the swamp. Writers write. That’s the main idea.

In the paralysis book, I quote Richard Ford quoting Raymond Carver to the effect that the main task of a writer is “being at your station,” i.e., being there every day, ready to work.

It sounds easy but it isn’t. It demands disciple, dedication, an almost naïve belief that you have something to say that others want to read, and the right idea on the right day for the right writer.

And when you’re not writing, get the hell out of the house. Strenuous exercise is good.