How I Write: Ha Jin
Published: February 15, 2001
Born in Liaoning, China, Xuefei (Ha) Jin decided to stay in the United States after the 1989 Tiananmen Square riots. His creative ouput includes novels, short stories and poetry. He combines writing with teaching English at Emory University in Atlanta, where he is an associate professor.
Credits: Short story collections: The Bridegroom Stories (2000); Oceans of Words (Flannery O'Connor Award, 1998); Under the Red Flag: Stories (PEN/Hemingway Award, 1997). Novels: Waiting (National Book Award, 1999); In the Pond (1998). Poetry collections: Facing Shadows (1996); Between Silences (1990).
Why: What's hard is to live a meaningful life. For me, writing can be a way to assert my existence.
When and where: If I have a choice, I write at home, in the morning. I try to write every day, even if my mind is occupied by my other work, teaching. Sometimes I write for a few minutes, sometimes for 10 hours. But teaching helps me learn about my craft. When I teach a good poem or story, it's also a lesson in writing.
How: I write my first draft in longhand, usually in a big notebook. When I put it into the computer, I basically rewrite. Once the text is fairly stable, I print it out and work on the hard copy. On the computer everything is fluid. I'm more tempted to change, add or reduce. On paper I think more carefully about changes.
Cure for writer's block: Read, think, loaf around. If I'm uncertain about some scenes, I will read to see how great writers--like Tolstoy, Bellow or Woolf--handle that kind of scene. If I'm dealing with the passage of time, I might read Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily." If I want to know how dialogue is used to reveal information, Hemingway's short stories can help.
Advice to writers: Persevere. You have to forget about commercial and social success. You have to sit at a desk and face a blank page.
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