Reprising a similarly popular Q&A discussion<\/a> held at Bates during Reunion 2017, Strout joined Spencer in front of a packed Olin Concert Hall to read from Olive, Again<\/em>, which a Washington Post<\/em> reviewer called \u201cstunning work \u2014 arguably better than the original.\u201d<\/p>\n The appearance by Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning author Elizabeth Strout \u201977, interviewed by Bates President Clayton Spencer, filled the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall on Oct. 21. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n Like Olive, Strout herself is inseparable from Maine. In previous interviews, she\u2019s described how a solitary childhood in small Maine and New Hampshire towns sparked her imagination. Much of her fiction takes place in Maine\u2019s seaside villages, mill towns, or cities.<\/p>\n At Bates, professors like the late Jim Hepburn, professor emeritus of English, and Martin Andrucki, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Theater, encouraged her writing and introduced her to works that inspired her.<\/p>\n To-the-point and often evoking audience laughter, Strout went into detail about her writing process and offered some advice to aspiring writers. Here are eight takeaways from the conversation.<\/p>\n \u201cI just make a mess,\u201d Strout told Spencer, who had asked her if she had a writing routine. \u201cI\u2019ve learned at this point that I don\u2019t write from beginning to end \u2014 because I can\u2019t. It becomes too wooden. So I\u2019ve learned to write by scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf I can make a scene that is real, then I leave it on the table. If I don\u2019t, it gets tossed on the floor. That continues until eventually the scenes that have what I consider a heartbeat will start to connect.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I never worry about plot, because it will take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Strout\u2019s two favorite classes at Bates were a criminology course with sociology professor Sawyer Sylvester, and a theater class with Andrucki, who guided his students through the work of classic American playwrights like Eugene O\u2019Neill and Tennessee Williams.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Strout ’77 greets Dana Professor of Theater Martin Andrucki, one of her formative Bates professors, following her talk in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall on Oct. 21. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cHe loved those people so much that I loved them,\u201d Strout said.<\/p>\n And she learned a valuable lesson from their plays. \u201cReading dialogue was very helpful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you write dialogue in a story or a novel, there has to be a translation between what people are actually saying to the page. You can\u2019t write what people are actually saying, because it\u2019s too boring. There are too many ‘uhhs.’ You\u2019ve got to translate it to the page in a way that sounds authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy entire life, I have always wondered what it felt like to be another person,\u201d Strout said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was rather young when I realized, I\u2019m never going to know. I\u2019m only going to see things through my own eyes, and you\u2019re only going to see things through your own eyes. I was so frustrated by that, and I\u2019m still frustrated.<\/p>\n “I have always wondered what it felt like to be another person,\u201d Strout said during her appearance at Bates. \u201cThat is the engine that has propelled me forward in my life.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cThat is the engine that has propelled me forward in my life. I have listened unbelievably carefully. I have observed all the time, I\u2019m listening and I\u2019m watching and I\u2019m thinking. Even on the subway, I watch somebody and I think, \u2018Physically what does that sweater feel like?\u2019 It\u2019s so automatic with me.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was young and reading fiction for the first time, I read something \u2014 I don\u2019t remember what it was \u2014 but I thought, ‘I\u2019ve had that thought.’ I recognized myself in the character that I was reading. I understood through fiction that we get a chance to understand what it\u2019s like to be another person. That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n An audience member, picking up on how Olive Kitteridge came back to Strout in Norway, asked if that\u2019s how she comes up with all of her characters.<\/p>\n Yes and no, Strout said. \u201cEven within a story, the characters will differ in how they show up. Pete Barton showed up ever so gently, because he\u2019s such a gentle person. He just hung out quietly next to me for a long time and I realized \u2014 \u2018Oh, okay, Pete, let\u2019s wash the windows.\u2019 Olive, because she\u2019s so Olive, showed up with a force. It\u2019s because that\u2019s who she is.\u201d<\/p>\n A Bates student asked Strout how she persisted in her writing, when many young writers struggle to wrangle themselves into a routine.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just have to fail,\u201d Strout told him. \u201cBelieve me, I know that because I failed for years and years and years. I couldn\u2019t believe how long I kept failing. I really was a little bit intrigued by it. But I kept going.\u201d<\/p>\n Elizabeth Strout \u201977 and President Clayton Spencer enjoy a light moment during the Oct. 21 conversation in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College).<\/p><\/div>\n But Strout described her own writing process as an abiding need, not something she has to force herself to do.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s funny,\u201d she said. \u201cThis woman came over one time when I had first moved to New York. She saw the typewriter on the dining room table and the messy handwriting, and she said, \u2018I really admire your discipline.\u2019 It didn\u2019t feel like I was disciplined. It just felt like I needed to do it. There\u2019s a difference.<\/p>\n \u201cI think of discipline as someone saying, \u2018Okay, I am going to exercise five days a week no matter what.\u2019 I don\u2019t have that discipline, you see. Writing is, I just had to do it. I had to do it. So I kept doing it.”<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to get you in trouble,\u201d Strout told Mark Su \u201922, of Beijing. Su, an English major accustomed to close, analytical reading of text, had asked her how best to read a book.<\/p>\n \u201cWell,\u201d Strout corrected herself, \u201cI won\u2019t get you in trouble \u2014 but I don\u2019t want to get your professors in trouble. I think the best way to read something is to just read it.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a child, I would wander through the library. I had no idea who these different writers were, but I would pull a book from the shelf, and once in a while it was almost like the text of the page would rise up to me.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/10\/191021_Elizabeth_Strout_Clayton_Spencer_0298.jpg\")
<\/a>Write in scenes<\/h5>\n
Look to theater<\/h5>\n
![\"Elizabeth](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/10\/191021_Elizabeth_Strout_Clayton_Spencer_0599.jpg\")
<\/a>Embody others<\/h5>\n
![\"Bestselling](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/10\/191021_Elizabeth_Strout_Clayton_Spencer_0321.jpg\")
<\/a>Let characters show up<\/h5>\n
Keep writing and keep failing<\/h5>\n
![\"Bestselling](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/10\/191021_Elizabeth_Strout_Clayton_Spencer_0313.jpg\")
<\/a>Let sentences rise to meet you<\/h5>\n
![\"During](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/10\/191021_Elizabeth_Strout_Clayton_Spencer_0513.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Bestselling](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/10\/191021_Elizabeth_Strout_Clayton_Spencer_0774.jpg\")
<\/a>