Stepping Into Writing

Apr 02, 2012

writing Students got a chance to get inside the writing process during the seventh annual National Book Awards at Concordia. Authors Nikky Finney and Thanhha Lai answered questions from the next generation of writers at master classes on March 30.

Lai, author of "Inside Out & Back Again," likens writing a novel to building a house. She starts with the foundation of voice. All the beams, plaster, sheetrock and roof are her first draft. Her revisions become the walls and the painting, but her favorite part is the last draft.

"In the last draft, everything is there, you just get to go in and decorate," she says. "You blow beauty onto the page."

Lana Gyamera '13, Ghana, attended Lai's master class. She appreciated being able to step inside the writing of Lai's novel.

"I felt like I could actually get into her mind and understand what she was thinking when she was writing," she says.

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