Five Minutes with....Charles Leerhsen
Charles Leerhsen, the author of current bestseller Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain, has written for Sports Illustrated, Esquire, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, Money, People, TV Guide and Seventeen. He has been an editor at SI, People and US Weekly, and spent 11 years at Newsweek, where as a senior writer he covered sports, entertainment, family stories and breaking news. At Newsweek he won the National Mental Health Association award for a cover story on alcohol and the family. Leerhsen's previous books include the New York Times bestseller Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, the award-winning Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America, the groundbreaking Butch Cassidy: The True Story of An American Outlaw, and the highly-acclaimed Blood and Smoke: A True Tale of Mystery, Mayhem and the Birth of the Indy 500. He has also co-written several best-selling biographies, including Press On! Adventures in the Good Life, with pioneer aviator Chuck Yeager, The Last Great Ride, with entertainment mogul Brandon Tartikoff and Surviving at the Top with Donald Trump. He is an adjunct professor at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism. (Bio and photo taken from Mr. Leerhsen's website.)
After the research is done, do you have a specific process that you follow when doing the actual writing?
Well, the research is never really done; it continues after I start to write. At some point, though, I get a sense that I have enough to begin if I begin at a certain place — a place that is also calling out to me as a good starting point. After that I continue to listen to my feelings and instincts. I don't use an outline, though I certainly wouldn't look down on anyone who does.
When do you write?
Prefer morning, when I am at my boldest and most optimistic. But as the deadline gets closer any time of day will do. The late afternoon is probably my least favorite time to work and my favorite time to nap.
Do you have a writing nook or do you write wherever/whenever?
I don't have a particular spot although sometimes I wish I did. Technically my wife and I share a nice large office but she is a psychotherapist and so needs privacy with her clients, of which she has quite a few. I usually wind up writing on the dining room table, which in our apartment is downstairs — or in warmer months on a table in the back yard. When the writing isn't going well, I tell myself and others it's because I don't have "A Room of One's Own" but in my case that's just an excuse.
How many hours a day do you typically write?
There's no typical amount of writing but as for hunching over the keyboard I do that for usually about 6 hours unless I'm on deadline or past it, in which case it might be 18 hours.
If you could give your younger self any writing advice, what would it be?
I would tell myself to stop writing in my head so much and to write more on "paper," meaning the screen. Once you have words down you can edit them and editing is so much easier than writing.
What does literary success mean to you?
To me literary success means satisfying myself and getting paid properly.
Who are your writing heroes?
I have many writing heroes but The ones who come to mind first are S.J. Perelman, Christopher Hitchens and A.J. Liebling.
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I would like to thank Charles Leerhsen for taking the time to answer a few questions about his writing process. I believe much can be learned from successful writers and their writing habits.
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