A Conversation With Sue Grafton
by Claire E. WhiteThe Internet Writing Journal, October 1999
Internationally bestselling author Sue Grafton has come a long way from being a curious little girl in Louisville, Kentucky
|
Sue didn't care much for school as a child, and after graduating from the University of Louisville with a major in English
|
Sue is published in 28 countries and 26 languages-including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. She's an international bestseller with a readership in the millions. She is known for her distinctive style, her realism, her deft hand with character, her acute social observances, and her gift for storytelling. Married for twenty years to Steve Humphrey, a guest lecturer who teaches philosophy at the University of Louisville and the University of California at Santa Barbara, she splits her time between the couple's home in Louisville and their 4½ acre spread in Santa Barbara. Extremely self-disciplined, she writes every day in her home office. And she dresses up to go to work -- no lounging in p.j.s till noon for her. She exercises twice a day, much like Kinsey herself. She has three children and two grandchildren, one of whom is named Kinsey. She loves cats, gardens, and good cuisine, unlike her fictional creation who thinks nature is best left outside and whose favorite meal is a McDonald's quarter pounder and fries.
We caught up with Sue before she began her national book tour for her new release, O is for Outlaw. She talked with us about the world of Kinsey Millhone, the creative process, and why writer's block is a good thing.
Let's talk about O is for Outlaw. In the introduction you make some interesting comments about the way time flows in the world of Kinsey Millhone. Why did you decide to keep Kinsey in 1986, without cell phones or the Internet?
 Click here for ordering information. |
Do you ever think that you will have her jump forward in time? Some mystery authors seem to be working in their own unique time scheme -- almost like in an SF novel.
It's possible, but that gets just as complicated in its way, because I would not age her that requisite jump. I would simply make it 1999 or 2000, and she would still be 36. And I'd still have people doing the math and writing me irate letters about my getting it wrong -- which I didn't. So, for now, I'll keep it as it is. Most of what I talk about in the story doesn't have anything to do with technology anyway. That's a choice I make, because I think the interesting thing about mysteries is not the technology but the study of human nature -- which I think stays the same over time.
The book also breaks new ground in that we learn a lot more about Kinsey's personal life and her past. What went into your decision that now is the time to let us into the secrets of her first marriage?
Desperation! (laughs). I had started work on the book, I think, on September 26th or 27th of 1997. I keep a journal for each book. I play "what if?" and "suppose..." I write this long whiny letter to myself trying to figure out what I'm doing. I considered one idea after the other, rejecting so many story lines. I would pursue one and decide it wasn't suitable. Finally, on the 24th of November, my psyche (I refer to my unconscious as my Shadow) said to me, "What about Mickey Magruder?" I thought, "Oh, well I could do that." I had always known that her first husband was Mickey Magruder. I had believed he was a police officer, older than she, and that she walked out of the marriage. But that was as much information as I had. So I thought, "Well, let's find out what's happened there." So I discovered it pretty much at the same pace with the reader. As I've said before, I get information about Kinsey's life on an "as needed" basis -- the rest of it is none of my business, she assures me. Apparently I was allowed to get this much, and I tried to be as discreet about reporting it as possible.
How did you go about creating Mickey? That must have been a tough one: coming up with her first husband.
It was fun. I try not to create so much as
 Click here for ordering information. |
It was interesting that Mickey's life didn't really go as well as Kinsey's did.
No, it didn't, and I think she felt a really big responsibility for that. Although I don't really believe we are responsible for one another in that way. Certainly if you run over somebody with your car you have a certain responsibility. But, in the main, I think we are all here to do what we do. We imagine we have huge influence over other people, but it's a fantasy. The truth is each of us does what we need do in the order we need to do it, Kinsey, among us.
One of the difficulties with writing a series character like Kinsey is keeping the series from getting stale. But to me each of these books reads like a stand-alone novel. They all seem very different to me in tone and focus.
That's very deliberate on my part, and it's what keeps me on my toes. I don't want to write the same book 26 times. I don't even want to write the same book twice. So what I discover is that my Shadow, my psyche, will sometimes present me with a storyline. Like, "Hey boss this is new, fresh, original and different!" I get all excited and I write it all down. I start analyzing it and looking at it with my x-ray vision -- and I realize that it's a story I've told before. It's a set-up or a particular kind of plot line that I've used, and I jettison it. Out it goes!
The journals must be invaluable for that.
Oh, yes. Because I did journals in a rudimentary form for A is for Alibi, but I'm not even sure if I have those notes now. That was very long ago boys and girls -- before computers.
Oh, yes I remember. Carbons if you wanted a copy.
Cut and paste, and white out. Were we insane?
It was ugly.
It was nasty. But over the years I've begun to keep these journals and some were on those old big fat five inch floppies. We can't even translate
| "Most of what I talk about in the story doesn't have anything to do with technology anyway. That's a choice I make because I think the interesting thing about mysteries is not the technology but the study of human nature." |
Do you use outlines before you write your stories?
No, I generally look for the overview. I think with the mystery novel you have to know where you're going, but not in any great detailed sense. I generally know whodunit, who died, and what the motive for the crime was. Then I have to figure out what I call the angle of attack. In other words, how do you cut into the story? Where does the story begin? What's relevant in that first line or paragraph from the reader's point of view? And I have to figure out who hires Kinsey Millhone, and what she's hired to do. You would be astonished how long it takes me to figure that out from one book to the next.
Really?
Yes, because that's the place I can bury the scheme. Sometimes, like in for B is for Burglar, she was hired to find a woman because they needed her signature on a check. And in D she was hired to find a kid who was being given a check for $25,000 dollars, as I remember. So it's different from book to book, and generally of course it ends up being about murder. But, as far as I have heard, most private investigators don't start out involved in active homicide cases, so I have to find a way around that little reality.
The books are so realistic. Obviously you must spend a great deal of time on research; how do approach the research for the books?
I make phone calls. I humiliate myself. I love the research, but I am really an introvert. So I have to pick up the phone and call an expert in some field and humble myself by admitting my profound ignorance. Now many people know my work and are thrilled to death to talk to me. I have more offers of information than I have use for, and that does make it easier. Although, I always found people to be extremely generous. When I'm doing research, I do my homework upfront. I don't start from ground zero. I do as much reading as I can and thinking about things so I know what I need to know and what questions I want to ask, so that I don't feel I'm wasting people's time more than I have to. Generally if I do an interview I can do it in thirty to forty-five minutes. Then if I need to call back and get more data, I can do that too.
Let's talk about the day to day creative process. Take us through a typical writing day for you.
I get up at 6:00 AM and do a three mile walk and come back. I shower and have breakfast. I get to my office promptly at 9:00 AM. I don't work in my jammies. I've heard some writers do that. This is a professional job. I get here at nine, and I log onto the journal and look at where I was the day before. Usually in the dead of night my Shadow will give me an assignment. She lets me know what I need to be looking at. So I'll come to the desk with some question or some idea that I jot down. I will, of course, read the work I've done previously to see if it stands up and do some revisions on that. I try to do two pages a day. I'm not good for much more than that. But I spend hours in my office. Some of it's reading, some is research, some is revision and some is whining and writing in my journal. I break then for lunch at 11:30 AM or so and by 1:30 PM I'm usually done and I start exercising again. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I do a four mile walk. Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, I lift weights and then spend some time in the pool, along with jogging. In Kentucky, at my other house, I have a tread mill and I belong to a gym there. My gym here I call a "Jill" because it's for women. It is Heaven on Earth; I have no competition for the machines. It's all state of the art. The machines are called Lady Paramounts, and are constructed for women. It's just wonderful. I eat dinner promptly at 6:00 PM, then by 9:30 PM I'm asleep, hoping to get in touch with my Shadow side again.
Do you write almost every day of the week?
I write everyday.
So far you've written one book a year. Is it hard to keep up that pace?
I've slowed down. I'm now doing a book every fifteen to eighteen months. I couldn't keep that pace up: each year to do the writing, the promotion and the book tour. I just couldn't do it without getting too cranky -- and I wasn't having fun. I was so stressed out trying to hit my mark. I thought, "That's not what it's about. Writing is not about hitting marks and being a good girl. It's about being a bad girl: sitting at your machine and thinking about murder and playing." Writing just takes that kind of time, so I made the decision not to have the books come out as often. Besides, you know what happens: if you bring out a book a year, they all think its easy.
The books that look easy probably had the most craftsmanship in them.
Absolutely. Of course, if a literary writer were to manage to come up with one book every three to five years, everyone would gasp and be amazed. But they expect genre writers to just crank them out.
What is your advice to aspiring writers?
I think (if I can make a judgement about writers coming into the business), I feel everybody is in a horrific hurry these days. You write one book and you're ready for fame and fortune. I don't know that people are spending the time and attention on learning how to write -- which takes years. Everybody sees the success stories. So instead of taking five years to learn how to write a decent sentence, they're writing a book proposal and asking who your editor and your agent are. So I find it a little infuriating that there is not more care given to the issue of being wonderful at writing.
Everyone is in a hurry these days it seems -- it's not just writers who are impatient. Our whole society seems to be in fast forward. Instant gratification.
 Click here for ordering information. |
Let's talk a little bit about your time in Hollywood. You've said before that you really didn't care for it all that much, and you were happy to get out. What did you dislike so much about doing the screenwriting thing?
I don't like to write by committee. I see writing as a very intense singular activity. I don't like to sit in a room with 26 year-olds telling me how to do my job. So that was the part that bothered me. I hated the sense of constant urgency. Someone was always saying, "Oh we have this project and you have to be down here next Tuesday." Nothing, nothing needs to happen that fast! Those projects always, in the end, came out mediocre. So what are we all rushing around for? The people I met were often smart, educated and --sometimes -- even polite. But the end result of the work, which took a year out of your life, was something you had to apologize for. I got tired of apologizing for things I hadn't decided to do. Somebody would say to me, "Oh here's a good idea." And at the time I thought "That's not a good idea; that's disgusting." But you're paid to kiss ass. So I finally got to the point where I thought, "If I'm going to succeed or fail it should be on my own process, not someone else's." Now, I did learn the following during my time in Hollywood: I learned how to structure a story. I learned how to do an action sequence. I learned how to get into a scene and out of it. I learned a lot about how putting a story together from writing screenplays. It was the business end of it and the day to day process that I couldn't hack. That is about my personality, it's not necessarily about Hollywood. Many people thrive in that world. Many people are alcoholics and many are people are still in therapy because they work in Hollywood. I am not. I am free.
You mentioned a little bit about writer's block. How do you get around it?
I love writer's block. Writer's block means that your Shadow has a little message for you, and you had better pay attention.
| "I caution writers all the time to slow down and pay more attention to the work in front of them than to the end result. I don't think you write one book and get anywhere. I think you write five books and then maybe you are finally on the right path. But it takes a long time to hear your voice, and to learn how to control material." |
Then perhaps the trick is hearing what she has to say.
Yes, yes!
What do you love most about your job?
| "[I]f a literary writer were to manage to come up with one book every three to five years, everyone would gasp and be amazed. But they expect genre writers to just crank them out." |
You've said before that Kinsey is a not so disguised, alter-ego, at least in some ways. I know that you've been married most of your adult life. Kinsey's been married too, but I really think of her as a single gal at heart.
She's been divorced twice. I was divorced twice. I'm now married and will be for life. I got such a good one this time. I'm so lucky.
Is it fun, living out the single life through Kinsey?
It is. It is! I get to live her life. I get to look at relationships and figure out what makes them work and what makes them not work. In terms of her as a private investigator I just think it works better if a p.i. is single, footloose and fancy free. Part of it is that I don't write the little lovey dovey domestic scene. I don't want to watch them cook up gourmet treats and exchange witty remarks.
Well, that's a different book.
Yeah. My husband and I hardly ever do that. We do cook together, but those scenes when written always ring so false to me. I don't want to write them and I don't have to, because I'm the boss. That's the best part about writing -- I get to be the boss. e. They loved books. They were witty and amusing." While growing up, she learned to look below the surface for the hidden meaning in things, feeling keenly the emotional undercurrents in the household. Vivian died on Sue's twentieth birthday. But despite difficulties in her childhood, Grafton clearly is not the type to complain. She, like her protagonist, Kinsey Millhone, have a very typically Southern outlook on life; take responsibility for yourself and when tragedy strikes, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and look for the next challenge.
Sue didn't care much for school as a child, and after graduating from the University of Louisville with a major in English
|
|
Sue is published in 28 countries and 26 languages-including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. She's an international bestseller with a readership in the millions. She is known for her distinctive style, her realism, her deft hand with character, her acute social observances, and her gift for storytelling. Married for twenty years to Steve Humphrey, a guest lecturer who teaches philosophy at the University of Louisville and the University of California at Santa Barbara, she splits her time between the couple's home in Louisville and their 4
We caught up with Sue before she began her national book tour for her new release, O is for Outlaw. She talked with us about the world of Kinsey Millhone, the creative process, and why writer's block is a good thing.
Let's talk about O is for Outlaw. In the introduction you make some interesting comments about the way time flows in the world of Kinsey Millhone. Why did you decide to keep Kinsey in 1986, without cell phones or the Internet?
|
Click here for ordering information. |
Do you ever think that you will have her jump forward in time? Some mystery authors seem to be working in their own unique time scheme -- almost like in an SF novel.
It's possible, but that gets just as complicated in its way, because I would not age her that requisite jump. I would simply make it 1999 or 2000, and she would still be 36. And I'd still have people doing the math and writing me irate letters about my getting it wrong -- which I didn't. So, for now, I'll keep it as it is. Most of what I talk about in the story doesn't have anything to do with technology anyway. That's a choice I make, because I think the interesting thing about mysteries
The book also breaks new ground in that we learn a lot more about Kinsey's personal life and her past. What went into your decision that now is the time to let us into the secrets of her first marriage?
Desperation! (laughs). I had started work on the book, I think, on September 26th or 27th of 1997. I keep a journal for each book. I play "what if?" and "suppose..." I write this long whiny letter to myself trying to figure out what I'm doing. I considered one idea after the other, rejecting so many story lines. I would pursue one and decide it wasn't suitable. Finally, on the 24th of November, my psyche (I refer to my unconscious as my Shadow) ough a line and you have so little time to make a connection. But I don't like going from city to city, one a day. It's exhausting. I never know where I am. All you see is airports and the inside of book stores. At the end of a long tour you start suffering what is probably post-traumatic stress disorder, if the truth be known.
What's the strangest thing that's happened to you on a book tour? Or at a signing?
Once there was a person there who had a mental problem worse than mine. She stood at the front of the bookstore and greeted people as Sue Grafton. And she would ask to sign books!
Did she look anything like you?
Yes, but a great deal younger. She had dark shoulder-length hair and one of my readers was looking at the picture of me on the back of the book, then looking at her and saying, "Oh my God, they really air-brushed this chick and she looks nothing like her picture!" The bookstore people knew her and she was off her meds. They thought about calling the police, but somebody took her aside and bought her a cup of coffee and she explained all of her bitter complaints about the world. They finally got a taxi and took her home. But all I knew was when the signing was over I had an armed escort to my car, which I thought was very fancy treatment! Later, I realized that there was some concern about my personal safety, perhaps needlessly.
Certainly celebrity stalkings have been on the rise. You haven't had any troubles like that, have you?
No, nobody recognizes writers. I've been recognized a couple of times in public, in strange places by strangers. People know my name, but it's certainly not that often that they recognize my face.
How will you spend the Millennium New Year's Eve?
I'm going to be here in town, in Santa Barbara, close enough to walk home if it all turns sour on me. I'll take a pair of tennies in my purse or something.
Do you think you'll make any New Year's Resolutions?
 Click here for ordering information. |
You and your husband like to cook, don't you?
Yes. Actually, we like really simple things. You know, you put a chicken on the rotisserie and barbecue. With a love of food, you're always looking for ways to keep from getting a wide butt. So, that's part of what the exercise is about.
If you had to pick, what do you think the greatest challenge is you've had to overcome in your life so far?
Well, I think the alphabet series would qualify right there in itself. The beauty of writing my way through the alphabet is that it always require me to dig deeper and try harder to keep the quality of the books up. I have vowed that I will never cut it, I will never fake it, I will never cheat. If I reach a point where I feel the books are suffering because I've lost my mind, or my power or my integrity -- I will quit. I will not write these books just for the sake of it. I will never sign it off to somebody else who secretly writes for my signature. So I just watch. I think it's important. I think it can be done one book at a time, one sentence at a time.