It definitely helped me develop a sharper eye and understand that cutting and being open to new directions is part of the process. How did working as an editor for Narratively shape the way you approached writing, editing, and revising your own work? Finally, I jumped all the way in and was like, “Okay, my story is going to be a whole storyline, and I’m going to braid it in rather than trying to just put little tiny bits of my story mixed in with my father’s.” I kept thinking that I had added enough of myself … Then every time I would add more and show it to somebody else to read, they would give me the same feedback. Over time, it became a memoir, and I ended up weaving those strands together-the story of my father’s life and art, and then my story of uncovering his story and trying to make sense of it. But throughout the writing process, everyone who read it kept asking for more of my story in it. Originally I didn’t set out to write it as a memoir at all, it was just going to be an artist’s monograph: the story of my father’s life and his art. I wasn’t able to see clearly what shape the book wanted to take until I was several years into the process. It must have had a lot of iterations! Could you give me a sense of the discovery process for what form the book would take? Negative Space took you over a decade to write.
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