GRWM— featuring S. Tremaine Nelson
Issue #13
GRWM (Get Ready With Me) is a new (and dare I say sexy!) segment where I'll be interviewing writers retro-style-- cute little questionnaires about what writers are wearing, listening to, snacking on, etc. We want to know what they're into and what gives them the ick. We want writing prompts based on their books. We want to know their favorite song, the worst writing advice they've ever received, and you better believe we want to know their brunch order.
It's time to stop asking writers the same boring questions and start getting REAL.
S. Tremaine Nelson was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. He studied neuroscience at Vanderbilt University and fiction in the Columbia University MFA program. He read fiction at The New Yorker and The Paris Review and in 2020 revived the storied literary magazine Northwest Review. His writing has appeared in The Nashville Scene, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Ploughshares, The Village Voice, and The Southern Review. He lives in Portland with his family.
What does getting ready for writing look like for you?
Caffeine and nicotine. Writing, for me, has always been a habit. If it’s not a habit, you’re not activating enough of your mind to sustainably include the practice in your daily life. I remember meeting Jennifer Egan in New York at 192 Books in Chelsea and she told me that she set a timer for an hour whenever she started to write, and when the timing went off she stopped writing. I was deeply impressed by that level of discipline. For me, writing can take over an entire day if I’m deep in a project, or especially consumed by revision. For all of my adult life, however, I’ve had to provide for myself and other people around, to make a living, to show up and go to work every day. There’s no such thing as having enough time, or having enough money: if you want to become a writer, you have to start doing it every day, or at least every work day, in my case. I made it a rule to not work if I could otherwise spend time with my family. During business hours, on the other hand, I would carve out 60 minutes during my lunch break, or whenever I could find a lull in the rhythm of the corporate day, and I would open my Word doc and enter.
What does your writing space look and feel like?
I love the ritual, I’ll admit. My favorite writing space was in Vermont, where I would set my typewriter on the table, light a candle to the right, and arrange my Leatherman pocket knife just so, in case I needed to tighten the spools of the typewriter, and, back then, I would have poured myself a fresh Martini, too. The ritual took me several minutes of preparation, and I loved it. I’m also recognizing that the ritual I’ve described took place almost exclusively in the evening after I had put my daughter to sleep. And this ritual I’m visualizing: it was only poetry I wrote that way. I only wrote poetry for a year, during a project called The Martini Poems. For fiction, my previous answer stands about getting it done during the work day. Novels are long, difficult, immersive gestures of psychological fugue: you enter a dissociative state where characters talk and function and evolve in your mind. It’s pretty crazy, no matter how you describe it. So the long-winded way of answering this question is to say that, for me, where and how I write depends on what I’m writing. I’m writing a novel, I’m on my laptop, usually taking a break from work, at my desk, surrounded by books and papers and work stuff. For poetry, the ritual can become more sacred, more elaborate, more romantic, so to speak.
What’s your outfit of choice for a writing session?
I have a full body gorilla costume (with a mask) I try to wear whenever I can while writing.
What are you listening to?
This morning, I listened to Radiohead’s Kid A over and over and over again.
What are you snacking on and or drinking?
Water, endless supply of water. Endless supply of caffeine. And because I’m usually inside, some kind of chewing tobacco. I know, I know, it’s disgusting, but I could probably count out the extra 100,000 words I’ve managed to write after caffeine has lost its effect but the nicotine of throwing a plug in has kept my ass glued to the seat long enough to power through an extra 2,500 words. I don’t eat when I write.
What time of day do you write?
The best writing, for me, materializes early in the morning and very, very late at night. This, of course, contradicts everything I said about business hours. But perhaps it’s in the pure-thinking moments of clarity early in the morning when I can edit properly, when I can clean up the raw pulp of the workday and shape it the way it needs to read.
Don’t Miss This!
Pitch 101: How to Get Published in Top Magazines and Newspapers with Elle Warren
Dates: Thursday, April 3, 2025
Time: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM (EST)
Duration: 3 hours
Where: Zoom
Have you ever dreamed of seeing your name in fancy outlets like HuffPost, The Cut, or even The New York Times, but have no idea where to start? This class will teach you everything you need to know about what makes a successful pitch, how to choose the right home for your work, and how to come up with ideas that will sell (hint: it's not as scary as you think!).
What you will learn
How to write a good pitch (including a captivating headline)
What a successful pitch actually looks like (from my own archives)
The difference between a general topic and a specific story
How to scout out potential outlets for your pitch
What the entire process, from ideation, to pitch, to acceptance, to publication looks like
Helpful newsletters and other pitching resources - Writing for your dream outlets *is* possible!
Workshop takeaways
A list of ideas
A draft of a pitch
A pitch template
A roadmap for seeking out the right outlets for you
The confidence to send that email
Newsletters/resources for staying on top of pitch calls
Strategies for hunting down editor emails
*This workshop will be recorded for the convenience of those unable to attend live. The recorded session will be emailed to participants the following day.