On Donna Tartt and the Writing Process

Linked above is an interview with maybe my favorite author of the 21st century. Donna Tartt has written three bestsellers, The Secret History, The Little Friend, and The Goldfinch. When I was packing for college, I limited myself to five personal books. My copy of The Secret History is nestled in the bookshelf under my dormitory bed as I write.

Tartt is a particular hero of mine because of her writing style. She manages to combine a gorgeous, almost purple prose with a compelling and suspenseful narrative, something I have seen very few modern authors accomplish. She exemplifies the kind of author I hope to be one day.

As I watched this, I was refreshed by her honesty about the writing process. Her debut novel took her nine years to write, and this interview sees her still bewildered by the sudden fame it garnered her. She tells the interviewer how rewarding it was to meet fans after spending nearly a decade perfecting her debut novel, which helped me put into perspective how long the writing process really is — and how gratifying it can be.

It was interesting to hear her thoughts on learning how to write. Around the ten-minute mark, she claims that writing classes can indeed make one a good writer, but that the novels that do well are the ones that contain a kind of “magic” that not even she knows the source of. While definitely an idealistic view, it is one I agree with and one that encouraged me to keep writing and searching for that magic myself.

While Donna Tartt’s books may not be every reader’s cup of tea, they are some of my all-time favorites. Hearing Tartt’s thoughts on the writing process helped me engage with my own in a way I had not done before. If you have a spare 14 minutes, I highly recommend you give it a watch — at the very least, her somewhat-southern, somewhat-New York accent will make for a relaxing listen!