By Layla Hutchings
Late in the semester, we reached out to Professor Rob Davidson to share his thoughts about the writing life and his path to publication. Here, he offers his hard-earned writing tips and a story about what it looks like to reconsider a draft well after you see it as done. Professor Davidson reminds us of the importance of finding your writing community and trusted others to read your writing.
How do you get into the mindset of writing? Are there any rituals or habits you have to start the writing process?
I’m generally a morning person and I like to get to my desk early. For me, writing has nothing to do “being in the zone” or feeling inspired by the muse or anything like that. In one sense, I see writing as a job or a type of work I have tasked myself with doing. My habit is to sit in the chair whether I am “in the mood” or not. I work for a set amount of time. I don’t write every day. During the school year, when I am teaching, I write five days a week for shorter amounts of time. When I am free from teaching, I typically work six days a week for longer stretches.
How do you go about getting your works published? What happens if your work gets rejected? Do you try to get it published elsewhere or do you put it back in the drafts? If you’d like, share a memory you have of your work getting published or rejected.
When I have a new short story or essay ready, I look for journals who I think might be interested. There are quite a few out there, both online and in print or some hybrid. Aspiring authors should be reading those journals, seeing who is publishing who, what’s selling, and so forth. I also read the Pushcart Prize anthology every year, an excellent overview of the small press and literary journal marketplace. Over the years, I have discovered amazing writers there: Lia Purpura and Karen Russell, for example.
Most journals accept multiple submissions (the piece is under consideration at more than one journal). I typically send a piece out to 6-10 journals and then wait to hear back. When a journal rejects a piece, I don’t fuss about it. I send it back out. If a given piece gets rejected by 12 or more journals, I re-read it and consider revisions.
Sometimes an editor makes a suggestion. I sent a 17,000 word story entitled “Criminals” to Howard Junker at ZYZZYVA. He loved it, but asked if he could trim it down. He cut 7,000 words out of the story and rearranged some bits. It was a heavy edit! At first, I freaked out and nearly pulled the piece. After I calmed down, I read it again and realized his edits were really smart. He published the piece and then, when I included the story in my book The Farther Shore (2012), I restored some of what he cut.
When putting together a collection, which stories do you choose? Is there ever a time where a story has thematic similarities with the others but doesn’t make the cut?
Each of my short story collections has what I call a “governing metaphor,” a shared set of ideas or themes that, in my mind, unite the stories. They aren’t linked stories exactly; more like stories that contain echoes, harmonies, and resonances. This governing metaphor typically emerges after I’ve drafted about half of the book. Once I know what that theme is, it helps me shape the second half and things come a little faster.
That sometimes means I have drafted a story that doesn’t fit. So, yes, there are “orphans” on my hard drive. Pieces that never found a home, sad little buggers.
Sometimes it’s out of the writer’s hands. The editors of my first two collections (two different editors at two different presses) cut stories from the manuscript they’d accepted. My protestations were futile.
Where can we find some of your work, both on campus and elsewhere?
In Chico, the campus bookstore has copies of my most recent books, Spectators (2017) and What Some Would Call Lies (2018). Look in the “local authors” or “faculty authors” section. I believe The Bookstore in downtown Chico also has copies.
The Chico State library has copies of my books and students can check them out for free! And so does the Bayliss branch of the Willows public library. It’s an old Carnegie library, with a fireplace and wood paneled walls—perfectly charming. I sent them a complete set of my books, gratis. I want my books in a place like that.
All of my five published books are in print and can be purchased online. For online purchases, please consider bookshop.org, a nonprofit that shares a portion of its sales with independent bookstores around the nation. We need to sustain brick-and-mortar indie bookstores!
At what point did you decide to be an author and what was your path to publication?
I studied creative writing as an undergraduate and was very motivated, but I don’t suppose I fully committed to being an author and publishing until after I graduated. During that time, I began writing with sharper intention and dedication. There were no more deadlines, no more grades. There was no one asking me for a short story. I realized that if it was going to happen, I had to want it to happen. But I had no writing community.
The Loft is a nonprofit writers’ cooperative in Minneapolis. That place rescued me. I took workshops there, met a gaggle of other ambitious and talented writers, and found my groove. Community is so important! Out of that period came my first published short story, which in turn became my writing sample for Purdue’s MFA program. The rest is… you know.
Rob Davidson is the author of six books, including Welcome Back to the World: A Novella and Stories, forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in 2024. His fiction, essays and interviews have appeared in Zyzzyva, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, Arlington Literary Journal, The Normal School, and elsewhere. Davidson’s honors include a Fulbright, multiple Pushcart Prize nominations, and an AWP Intro Journals Project Award in fiction. He’s twice been appointed Artist in Residence at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. He teaches creative writing at California State University, Chico. Please visit www.robdavidsonauthor.net
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