Being an author has its perks: writing every single day, conducting research, releasing a novel and traveling on book tours. However, the job also has its downsides: writing every single day, conducting research, releasing a novel and traveling on book tours. At least, this is the sentiment given by Erik Larson at his book talk last week in DU’s Sturm Hall.
Larson is the author of five bestselling novels, including “Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania,” “In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin,” “The Devil in the White City,” “Thunderstruck” and “Isaac’s Storm.”
His novels are nonfiction, but they don’t read like a dry history textbook or boring factual accounts. Larson instead crafts his novels into the stories of the people involved in historical events, painting what the experience was for those at the heart of the matter.
All of the content is factual, from the dates, to the character’s names, to the conversations that occur and to the letters that appear. Years of work go into finding and organizing the research for these novels and compiling the facts in a way that depicts a human story and evokes empathy from readers.
Larson’s most recent novel is “Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania” was released on March 10, so he is currently traveling on the book tour. The DU talk was given in Davis Auditorium and was almost packed full, but few college students were in sight; most attendees were people over the age of 35.
Larson gave an overview of the new novel and briefly explained his writing style, but the majority of the time was allowed for questions from the audience. The questions clearly had to be the driving force of the talk because an author can only speak about their book for a certain amount of time before they start saying too much, giving away content or mysteries hidden within that the readers should find for themselves.
Through the questions, Larson was a very calm speaker. He never seemed ruffled, nervous or unwilling to answer. These questions revealed the deeply personal and human drive behind the force that is five bestselling novels. Larson detailed that part of his wish and goals for his readers was to make them sink into the past and feel as if they were in history with the character.
One audience member asked about the reasoning behind his books not displaying any photographs or images of historical documents as other nonfiction novels tend to. Larson immediately responded by explaining that the presence of photographs in his novels would only serve to distract the reader, pulling them out of the story and into a more objective and observant mindset. He continued to say that when he writes, he places himself in the position of one of his characters, which forces him to consider what he would have done in their difficult situation. This personal experience is what he wants for his readers as well.
At the end of the talk, Larson was asked to give advice or divulge a personal secret to aspiring writers.
Larson’s advice was to always end your day of writing in the middle of sentence, in the middle of a paragraph. It doesn’t make sense immediately, but think on it for a second. As Larson continued to explain, if a writer ends the day in the middle of something, the next morning when they sit down to write, she or he has a starting point. Immediately the next day, that unfinished sentence and unfinished paragraph must be completed, allowing the writer to be instantaneously productive.
Larson left the stage on this note, and the audience was left with food for thought, and perhaps, the feeling of something left unfinished.
