The Writer 03.2020

48 | The Writer • March 2020

HOW I WRITE
BY ALLISON FUTTERMAN

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riter Clare Beams
received significant
recognition and
acclaim for her 2016
short story collection We Show What
We Have Learned, including nomina-
tions for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham
Prize for Debut Fiction and the Shirley
Jackson Award for a Single-Author
Collection. With her first novel, The
Illness Lesson, she demonstrates that
she is equally talented at longform fic-
tion. Set in the 1870s, this imaginative,
insightful story
stars a young
woman named
Caroline Hood,
whose father,
Samuel, decides
to found an
unusual school
for girls on the
same site where
he once formed a failed utopian com-
munity. But when a mysterious illness
plagues the students, Samuel turns to
sinister Dr. Hawkins for a bizarre med-
ical treatment (based on a real historic
treatment). Beautiful, evocative prose
and a thought-provoking plot make
this a book that stays with you long
after you finish reading it.

Dialogue
Dialogue is always a challenge for me,
especially if it’s a piece set in a histori-
cal time. I don’t want people to sound
like set pieces, but I do want them to
sound convincing of that time. I have
to read my dialogue many times to see
if it has life in it. With The Illness Les-
son, the character of Samuel just
clicked for me, and there were ways I
had a sense that dialogue would be
important for him because he’s happi-

est when he’s proclaiming. I did many

drafts to make sure it sounded right

and had life.

Short stories vs. novels

I find novels harder to write, although

both forms have their challenges. Short

stories are not forgiving if you reach

the end, and you don’t get that perfect

ending. Novels leave more space for

messiness that doesn’t tie up perfectly.

With a novel, everything you change

has repercussions for the entire thing.

That’s also true with a short story, but

there aren’t as many changes to recali-

brate. I try to approach it in ways that

make it manageable, structuring chap-

ters so they have a little bit of a story

arc. But then I go back and make

changes, so it doesn’t feel like the same

rhythm every chapter.

Starting point

I never know everything when I start. I

had a sense of the characters Samuel

and Hawkins, but Caroline had to

grow into who she was over the course

of the writing. I had some sense of the

secondary characters – but really I

start with an image and an idea, and

they overlap. I had been to see Fruit-

lands, Bronson Alcott’s failed utopian

community, and I found the contradic-

tions in that time period to be interest-

ing. Some of the thinking was

genuinely beautiful, but it didn’t

include everyone. That led to an idea

about women and the blindness to

women’s lives, and I also had this

image of red birds – and I started to

play with them together.

Historical writing and research

I don’t call it historical fiction. I have

an aversion to that. I don’t want to get

it wrong, but that’s where the engine

is for me. I try to make sure I haven’t

included anything that’s wrong, with

the knowledge that there will proba-

bly be some things that are wrong.

But I try to make it as minimal as

possible. I love researching, and I tend

to write and then dive into research

while I’m working.

Writing routine

I tend to try to touch my current proj-

ects as many days of the week as I can,

but it doesn’t amount to every single

day. If I’m working on a longer project,

it’s helpful to keep my finger in it so

when I come back for rewriting, I don’t

have to spend a long time getting back

under it. I also found that it’s helpful

not to work at home, so I write at a

coworking space.

Allison Futterman is a freelance writer based

in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Clare Beams