December 2008
David Andrew Stoler is an award-winning journalist and fiction writer whose work has appeared in alternative weeklies across the country.

How do you know when a piece is done?
I always think a piece is done sooner than it really is. Every time, I make the same mistake. “Genius!” I think. Then I show it to readers I trust, and they tell me, “Not quite genius.” I think, of course, how very wrong they are. Then a few months later I look again and make all their changes, grudgingly. Inevitably, the story is then much, much tighter, and much, much better.

How do you “practice” your craft?
Every day, no matter what. Not journaling, not sketching things out: adding to something.

In your work, are you more interested in the language or the message?
I used to be more into the language, but that ended up really hurting my ability to tell a story. Now, I have to concentrate on plot, plot, plot. The language will come to me, following that.

What’s your favorite part of the writing process?
When I don’t have to do the work—i.e., when ideas are hitting me out of my subconscious, usually in the middle of a piece. I know what’s coming next, and the way it will happen comes to me no matter what else I’m doing, like geese, surfacing in a pond.

What book have you read recently that you couldn’t put down?
Giovanni’s Room by Baldwin. Post Office by Bukowski. The King of Bollywood (a Shah Rukh Khan bio!) by Anupama Chopra. Bend, Sinister by Nabokov.

How does teaching influence your work as a writer?
It helps, pretty simply put. I remember, all the time, the basics—good detail, a strong structure. And if I’m ever stuck, I can just use whatever lesson I taught that week to get me going again.

How do you create lessons to appeal to as many students as possible?
The important thing for me is to introduce the students to as broad a range of compelling literature as possible—a slam poem one week, Japanese couplets the next, Langston the next. That way, if someone doesn’t like something one week, they’ll most likely like something coming up soon enough. The key then is just to note how all these different kinds of writing use the very same techniques between them, and the same techniques we’re practicing.

Do you stick to lesson plans or follow the class dynamic wherever it takes you?
I stick to my lesson plan, but they’re honed for space, discussion, movement. If a student makes a suggestion based on the plan, I have no problem integrating it.

How much of yourself—your personal interests, your approach to writing—do you share in a classroom?
I do believe that if you don’t offer yourself entirely to students, you can’t expect them to do the same for you and in their writing for you. Never patronize. Be a person. Treat people like people.

What are your grammatical pet peeves?
“Towards” instead of “toward.” I cringe every time I see it. And any other Britishism—grey, theatre, etc. That is, unless suddenly I find myself teaching in England. Then reverse that.