I’ve been on a Raymond Carver kick since college.
I love his style: sparse, terse, every word intentional and deliberate and functional. A copywriter’s delight. But his ability to find and illuminate humanity in the small moments—the mundane moments, the typical things—is perhaps his most remarkable gift.
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Carver wrote about people, mostly.
Ordinary people in ordinary situations and circumstances. But his portrayals were so emotional and poignant, subtextual. And this confluence created a profound effect on the page.
And I often wondered how he did it? How did he invent so many stories? And how’d he make them feel so authentic and sentimental?
Because as a copywriter, making people sentimental about ordinary things is often part of the work:
“Here’s a product,” they say, “make people feel something.”
“Oh-kay,” you say. “I’ll try.”
Then:
I listened to an interview with the great American memoirist, Tobias Wolff. He was friends with Carver.
The interviewer asked Wolff about Carver’s penchant for writing about people:
“He was a great listener, very sympathetic,” said Wolff. “And he’d make all those kinds of old lady noises when he listened and he’d shake his head and say, ‘No!’ and ‘I don’t believe it!’ and ‘He said that?’ And I mean, all that stuff people say over the back fence, you know. And he wasn’t putting it on… that’s the way he talked—and that’s the way he was. But my God, people would just spill their guts to him. It was unbelievable. And then later, he’d be absolutely ruthless about using anything he heard at all.”
Oh. I see.
Carver was a thief. That’s how he did it. He listened and he stole, like the other greats.
Somebody would tell him about a happening and he’d ask, in earnest: “How did that make you feel?” Then he’d write down what he heard and it would hit so fucking real because it was. It was.
It worked for him.
It’ll work for you, too.
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Hey there, thanks for reading. :)If you want more “micro” content, feel free to explore 100s of articles, interviews, courses, and series — all free. Enjoy!Eddie Shleyner
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