How do you think you handled criticism when you first started?
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You know, just advice on how to handle criticism. When to respond, when not to respond, how to take the best of the criticism, and you know, how to discard those things that aren’t really going to make you into a better writer. I wish I had been given advice on how to handle criticism. What advice do you wish someone had given you before you started writing? Now I just take those same stories and publish them in literary magazines. The first time I got paid to write was for an erotica anthology when I was in my 20s, and they paid $50. I mean, I’ve always known it can be an actual career, but it was really, I think, about five years ago, when I was 36, that I realized that you can cobble together a reasonably good life as a writer.ĭo you remember the first time you got paid to write? Oh, I don’t know, but I’ll let you know when I do find that out. When did you realize that writing could be an actual career? I mean, sometimes you just need something to be just a normal size. It’s just so large, and when I’m holding it, it barely fits in my hands. I never use it, and it really is very, very big, and that’s what she said. What is something you bought that you now completely regret buying? No, it has not necessarily been getting easier, but I am getting more used to it. I’m a writer because I’m shy, I want to be behind the scenes, and I didn’t realize that when a book takes off, you have to go in front of cameras. I’m a writer because I don’t like people. The hardest part about my job is and having to go on television and having to do a lot of public events. What is the hardest part about your job that nobody knows? You know you’ll never get bored working in an E.R. I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, and I just love the idea of working with a lot of different kinds of patients and meeting a lot of different kinds of people. My next career would be an emergency room physician. In a next life, what would your career be?
Roxanne Gay is the author of “ Untamed State” and “ Bad Feminist,” a nd the forthcoming “Difficult Women” and “Hunger.”
This week, author Roxane Gay took our money-inspired personality questionnaire. No matter who you are, you’ve probably had a rough day at the office that changed your perspective, or maybe you made an impulse purchase you really, really wish you could take back.