Kenneth Timm On Choosing the Writer's Life

I met Kenneth Timm this past spring during my third year serving on the Advisory Board for the University of Wisconsin - Superior School of Writing. He was one of several students whose work impressed me at a Senior Capstone Portfolio Presentation this past May. I asked if he might be open to being in the spotlight here sometime, and we finally got to it here. You can find a link to some of his writing at the end of this interview.

EN: How did you come to take an interesting in writing?

Kenneth Timm: I began writing when I was a young boy. At the age of seven or eight, I started jotting thoughts down and organizing them into writings of one kind or another. It was the structure of writing that interested me then, and still does today in much the same way. Like a piece of music or poetry, well written prose must flow. Creating that flow regardless of content is the challenge I enjoy. For what it’s worth, even though I started writing when I was really young, doing it for a living never really seemed like a possibility until the recent past.

EN: What kinds of writing do you specialize in?

KT: I have done and can do a variety of types of writing. Creative nonfiction is by far my favorite genre to write in, but I’ve experimented with and enjoy nature writing, and have also found creative fiction to be an interesting challenge. On the business side of things, I have experience with promotional, informational and technical writing.

EN: What do you enjoy most and what are you currently working on?

KT: As mentioned above, creative nonfiction is my favorite thing to write. There always seems to be something more impactful about true-to-life stories. Perhaps they are more relatable? I enjoy writing short pieces (1,000 words or less) that are perspectives of simple happenings around me that can oftentimes be overlooked. For the moment, though, I’ve taken a short break from that type of writing in an effort to regenerate after an intensive month of writing a blog to capture the daily events of a 600 mile walk. It was most challenging finding the time required to update a blog on a daily basis, and it became something of a thorn in my side. After a few weeks of separation from the end of the walk, I am just now beginning to write again. It was a good lesson in personal limits…

EN: How important is college for writer? That is, why not just write? In what ways did your classes at UWS broaden you or help you move forward in your career?

KT: Where my personal writing is concerned, I cannot possibly overstate the importance of having gotten a college education. There are several reasons for this. First—and most importantly—I was forced to get comfortable with other writers reading and critiquing my work. Workshopping written pieces can be a nerve-racking and humbling experience, but one a writer must get comfortable with. It is also a means of vastly improving on a piece that may or may not exist without the college environment. Secondly, writing classes in college forced me to write, and with each piece I wrote, my skills improved. At the very least, taking college writing classes exposed me to a wide variety of genres, and gave me the confidence required to attempt projects completely outside of my comfort zone.

EN: Can you share three or four tips for people seeking to pursue a writing career?

KT: (1) Write, write, write! Do it as often as possible; make a commitment to doing it daily. Also, experiment with different types of writing. Before college, I had no idea that I could write poetry!

(2) Surround yourself with other writers. The perspectives of others are highly valuable. Oftentimes we are just too close to our own work to see its flaws, shortcomings or potential. Along that same line of thinking, get used to and appreciate the criticism of others, but know when you feel strongly enough about something you’ve written to “just say no” to a suggested change.

(3) Take college writing classes! Especially if it feels uncomfortable to do so. Enough said…

(4) Treat writing like the job it is. Being a professional writer is difficult and time consuming work. Identify one or more physical locations where you write best. Also, find the time(s) of day when you write most effectively. Then combine those things and STICK TO THEM.

EN: Do you have a website or way for people seeking a writer to find you?

KT: I have a writer’s profile page. Here is the link: https://sites.google.com/site/freeinggeorge/

I also created a blog for the 600-mile walk earlier this summer. While I’ not updating it at this point, I will be getting back into it in the near future.

* * * *
Thank you, Ken. Keep it going.

Keep It Real

A half century ago Tom Wolfe called it The New Journalism. Today it is no longer new… though it does have a new name: creative nonfiction.

Famous examples abound from Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood to Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast is in this category as is John Hersey’s Hiroshima. In fact, a website cataloging 100 major modern works of creative nonfiction includes such early forerunners of the genre as Virginia Woolf (A Room of One’s Own, 1929) and George Orwell (Down and Out in Paris and London, 1933) in this category.

Five years ago Lee Gutkind assembled and edited a book designed to help writers navigate the potentially treacherous waters associated with this genre. Gutkind’s aim is to not only help us understand this approach to reportage, but also to make us aware of some the potential minefields to avoid lest we lose a pound of flesh as a result of lawsuits or reputation-crushing experiences.

“This is creative nonfiction’s greatest asset: It offers flexibility and freedom while adhering to the basic tenets of reportage. In creative nonfiction, writers can be poetic and journalistic simultaneously,” he writes here.

A problem arises, however, when an author fictionalizes to such an extent that the book is a deceptive and false misrepresentation. No one likes being duped, and no author in recent times did it more notoriously than James Frey with his A Million Little Pieces, a much-fabricated memoir that gained him the opportunity to keep even Oprah gripped in it revelations. Unfortunately, when Frey was outed by The Smoking Gun, well… it created a stir.

What frustrated Gutkind and his peers was that many in the media indicted the creative nonfiction form itself instead of the culprit who abused the form. In response Gutkind and friends wrote an article titled "A Million Little Choices." This book is an outgrowth of the principles initially assembled there.

As for me, I found it an affirmation of much that I have been saying over the years with regard to writing as an avocation. Early in my career it became apparent that each and every kind of writing that you master can strengthen other kinds of writing. Writing poetry teaches you about the sound of language, helps increase your sensitivity to literary rhythms. Writing descriptive prose bleeds over into both journalism and fiction, as well as business proposals and grant writing. Writing is a craft, and our aim as writers is mastery.

The many short chapters assembled in Keep It Real cover all manner of topics from fact-checking and documentation to the basic ABCs of the genre. Is it OK to take three interviews and compress them into one? Is it OK to put words in another person's mouth when you didn't really record the dialogue and don't really exactly have it down?

Gutkind's gives the writer a lot of rope,  but warns that there are risks involved and writers should weigh those risks. Because we're journalists and not fiction writers, the standards we hold ourselves to must remain high ones ethically. Many of us recall when Janet Cooke won the Pulitzer Prize for a story about an 8-year old  heroin addict named Jimmy, only to have us later learn she fabricated the boy. Cooke crossed a line that we cannot cross, and paid a price for it... not only being stripped of her Prize, but also her job and reputation. If we present it as true, it must be true.

Ultimately, we are asking readers to trust us. Misrepresentations and fictions paraded as facts will erode that trust.

For writers of all ages and levels of experience Keep It Real is worth your time.