November 2009
Jenny Williams is a writer, book editor, and filmmaker. She was a 2008-2009 writing fellow with Teachers & Writers Collaborative and is currently pursuing her MFA in fiction at Brooklyn College. www.jennydwilliams.com

How do you start a new piece?
Almost always with the first line. Sometimes I’ll start with a title—but inevitably the story ends up going somewhere else and I have to scrap the title anyway. First lines are safer.

What is more frightening: a blank page or a manuscript in need of a complete rewrite?
I love the blank page. Except on deadline.

In Richard Hugo’s essay “Writing Off the Subject,” he states, “When you start to write, you carry to the page one of two attitudes, though you may not be aware of it. One is that all music must conform to truth. The other, that all truth must conform to music.” In your writing practice, have you taken a position on this?
Each piece is different. In some cases, I’ll favor lyricism over meaning; other times, it’s what happens in the story that I’m really interested in, and everything else suffers until I’ve gotten that down.

Who have you studied with that inspired you or had a great influence on your work? How were you inspired or influenced?
One of my bad habits is writing for a particular audience—a habit that becomes amplified when that audience is one of my literary heroes. But it has also pushed my writing in new and unexpected directions to write for Amy Hempel or Joshua Henkin (both of whom I’m currently studying with at Brooklyn College), versus writing for my mother.

What’s the best in-class writing prompt or assignment that you’ve been given?
Joshua Henkin gave us an assignment to write a story in which an object plays an important role. I didn’t like the prompt until I got writing, and then it turned out to be one of the best pieces I’ve written this semester.

What have you read recently that you couldn’t put down?
Anne Michaels’ recent book, The Winter Vault. made me think I should never write another word.

When revising, what kinds of things do you notice about your work that drive you crazy?
Over-writing. There are always those lines I thought were so stunning and poetic when I wrote them—and now all I want to do is scribble them out with a big Sharpie.