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Feb 7
Tony D'Souza Explains How To Write In An Airport

Whiteman"I was a creature set among them from the magical world of television. Even after a year, children would sit in a group on the dirt of my courtyard to watch me do the simplest things as though watching television still: sweeping out my hut, coughing from the dust, spitting, mending my sandals, sharpening my machete, taking a sip of water from my gourd."

That's an excerpt from Tony D'Souza's Whiteman
--a fictional account of his time in Peace Corps Ivory Coast that ended when a civil war rocked his host country. Over the course of a long freelance career, D'Souza learned how to write in strange places with tight deadlines.

This week he's our special guest, talking about
new novel, The Konkans. Today he tells you how to keep writing no matter where you are. 

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
In an interview in 2006, you said: "I wrote articles for The New Yorker, Salon, Esquire, and a slew of other places in airport and hotel bars while on tour, by the way. I've discovered a lot about myself this year. One is that I can write on the road." Could you elaborate? What did writing on the road teach you? Any advice for fledgling writers looking to strike out as a traveling freelancer?

Tony D'Souza:
I meant that more as a comment on writing itself then on freelancing or anything. Until Whiteman came out, I wrote in a quiet room at a quiet table because nobody was looking for work from me and so I had that luxury. Continue reading...
 
 

Well, after Whiteman a lot of opportunities came my way and I took all of them. So I lost the quiet room and had to learn how to write pretty much anywhere.
 
And instead of saying to myself "I can't write in this airport. I can't make that deadline by tomorrow," I said to myself, "Not only are you going to write this in this airport and make that deadline by tomorrow, but it's going to be good."
 
So that comment was about that, about deciding mentally what I could and could not do. It's served me very well.

Click here to read D'Souza's advice about agents.

Click here to read D'Souza's advice about research. 

Click here to read D'Souza's advice about building characters in a novel. 


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