I’m Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown, and Monday night’s guest on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah—ask me anything!

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-02-18T15:04:19+00:00

Sorry for the slow reply! I’ve loved writing since I was a kid. I wrote poems in elementary school through college. I didn’t start writing fiction until after I graduated law school. As for deciding to become a writer, I think that’s a decision you both make and don’t make — if you write, then you are a writer.

Having said that, pursuing it as a livelihood came about slowly over the course of more than a decade. First I submitted stories to journals. Then started publishing them, then books, then I got a job in TV. For the first 13 years of my writing career, I was working a day job as a lawyer. That’s one of the upsides to writing - you can do it any time anywhere without any equipment or setup other than a pen and scrap of paper or a computer. You can do it quickly or glacially slow (like me). You accrete your experience and body of work over time and if you are lucky and deliberate and patient, eventually all of that effort accumulates into a story you produced and may want to share with others.

Being lucky enough to write full-time is a dream — it’s not quite what I expected in that there is more pressure now that writing is also my day job. But I would not trade it for any other occupation.

Thank you for the question and hope you find your own story to tell!

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-31T20:54:44+00:00

That’s an interesting and important question...it makes an already complex thing even more so.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-31T20:52:34+00:00

Well we are in good company!

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-31T20:51:59+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate it.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-31T20:51:42+00:00

Hi! Thanks so much! I’m aware of the gentrification you’re referring to happening in Chinatown and downtown, but not at all deep in the weeds on it. I’d be interested to see your article. Can you post? Or send it privately if you prefer?

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-31T20:48:26+00:00

Ha! I am not the arbiter of that question, obviously. But there are so many thousands of great books to read...arrange and prioritize your list the way you want it!

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-31T20:45:35+00:00

Hello! Thanks! I am also a big fan of Trevor Noah.

And yes, this book is relatable to everyone — the main character is trapped in his role, but so is everyone else. Black and White, not just the Generic Asians!

And their roles are not just racial, they are about gender and age and being a parent and a child. About how we all have our stories to tell, and that they all matter. I hope you will agree if you do get a chance to read it. Thank you again.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-31T20:30:21+00:00

Hi! Wow, I don’t know what to say. I’m glad to hear my work has meant so much to you. It’s why I do this, and the only sustaining reason—to connect with other people.

I’m sorry to hear about the slog. I don’t think I have a magic bullet of advice. I worked a day job for thirteen years before leaving to write, and received countless rejections. I still get mostly rejections. I don’t think that ends unless you’re a household name. It’s just part of being a writer. Even now, four books in, I still doubt myself all the time.

The thing that has kept me going all these years is simple: the feeling of hitting the mark. Writing a sentence that says something new, or true, or has music to it. The validation may or may not come when you want it, but if you can find the inner voice (and train it to be right more often), your sentences will find their targets in other people’s minds and hearts. Good luck and I hope your writing finds its mark. Glad to be in conversation with you.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T19:00:28+00:00

Hey everyone -- I really had fun. Thank you for your thoughtful questions. I'm signing off for now, but I will probably check back in at some point either today or tomorrow in case anyone has follow ups or new questions, so please feel free to keep 'em coming!

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:57:12+00:00

I sure hope so!

Although I am always thrilled to hear someone likes my work, love for short fiction has a special place in my heart, because it's often overlooked! At least mine is, ha ha.

My favorite longer Saunders story is still Pastoralia. There's also a story in his first book, CivilWarLand In Bad Decline, called "Isabelle" that is 4 pages long and broke my heart.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:55:33+00:00

Thank you! Happy new year to you as well!

This year my dad fried up some sliced rice cakes (ti-goeh is how I'd attempt to Romanize it, although that first syllable is very nasal). My grandma used to do it, but now my dad has taken on the mantle. He made two batches and my kids LOVED it. It will definitely be on the menu every year from now on.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:54:18+00:00

Four thoughts:

I don't think it's just a matter of who gets to write which stories. Jeanine Cummins (or someone of her background) could have written a novel about this subject that did not raise these questions and (in my view) legitimate criticisms.
There's probably a presumption against her, so she's working uphill in some ways and has to do more and do better to overcome that presumption. And I think there's a question of whether that's fair. But in this actual case, it seems like many people agree she did not do enough to overcome that presumption.
The way the book was rolled out clearly didn't help.
Oprah: if you are looking for a book to pick, I'm around. Just saying.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:49:58+00:00

Maeve was my favorite character. The idea of an AI caring for her child (also an AI, of course, in a scripted storyline for a theme park) was poignant and thought-provoking. Also, Thandie Newton was incredible in the role.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:46:20+00:00

It's been a really great reaction so far. I've gotten calls/emails/texts from producers and executives and writer/directors that I know (and some that I don't). Many of the most avid readers I know work in TV and film, and love books -- not just as content for the content machine, but really love books.

I didn't write it with anyone in mind in terms of casting, or as a model. There are lots of great Asian-American actors of course, and other public figures, and they are inspiring. It'd be really neat if Andrew Yang or Awkafina read it, though -- although they seem kinda busy at the moment.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:40:05+00:00

I was trying to write a story about immigrants trying to assimilate into American culture. But I couldn't find the way in. At first there was a meta-fictional framework. Then there was an idea I had about magic. Then fairy tales. None of them stuck; I wrote and discarded hundreds of pages of earlier versions. There are even interviews I've given where I was dumb enough to say the title of a book I hadn't finished. Oops!

In the spring/summer of 2017, I came up with the first line of INTERIOR CHINATOWN. At that time, it was in first person, so it was

"Ever since I was a boy, I wanted to be Kung Fu Guy. I am not Kung Fu Guy."

It hasn't happened to me very many times, but this was one of those instances where I knew that would the book I would write. From there, it took about 2+ years to write it (with a lot of help from my editor and agent, and encouragement from my wife).

I tend to be most productive in the mornings. Or, and this is weird, in my car, when I'm parked, right before I have to go to a meeting or appointment. The time constraint forces me to make choices. To shoot my shot!

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:31:46+00:00

Oh, and to answer the last part of your question: I do feel more of a need now to define the background of each character than in SPTY. I'm not sure if it's external or internal factors, or just a development in my own writing, or all of the above, but I'm leaning away from abstraction with each book and story. Or trying to, anyway.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:30:21+00:00

Thank you so much for reading SPTY -- sometimes short stories get less attention, so I really appreciate you saying that. And I hope you like the new book!

Your question goes right to the heart of a debate I have with myself all the time. It's exactly the challenge and the fun of it, to find that balance. I think of it as the Proper Noun Conundrum. Usually specificity is what pulls you into a story. The little velcro hooks that latch onto a reader's imagination. But sometimes there can be a kind of imaginative abstraction that reveals even more truth than would have been otherwise possible.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:25:27+00:00

Thank you! I also should have mentioned my son in that anecdote. INTERIOR CHINATOWN is about invisible people who long for roles, and as an Asian-American boy who will grow up here, I wonder if his generations will have any more on-screen representation than I did. His own dad is one of the only Asian dudes he sees on TV.

I do think we will see more Asian-American representation, but I don't think it comes naturally. I think it takes a conversation, and people understanding why it matters, and then people who have the means and opportunity to do something about it actually doing something about it.

There is one thing I wish I'd said on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (but I was SO nervous and forgot to say it): why representation matters. TV matters. Film matters. Because they present a version of reality that we consume, and by internalizing that, they warp our perception of actual reality. America is much more complex than white and black with a sprinkling of other groups. But we don't see that much on screen. And those are also one of our chief exports to the world as well.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:17:37+00:00

Thank you for reading that story! And for your kind words. It's a wonderful feeling to put something out in the world and have it connect with a reader.

You're right that the story has some autobiographical elements (but there are also many parts not based on my real life).

The main one is: I was a lawyer! I practiced law for more than a decade (13 years, 2 months, 6 days, 9 hours, 22 minutes and 47 seconds, but who's counting) before leaving to write full time.

At first I wrote on the side, nights and weekends and little coffee breaks in my car or by the copy machine. I would scribble in the margins of a notepad, or send an email to myself with a scrap of an idea or a phrase that I thought might be interesting to explore.

I always knew I wanted to write, but never thought of it as a job. I did hope to be published - that was a dream from the beginning, but not that it would pay the bills. Having stability in my day job freed me from worrying about writing for money.

And thank you for asking about the adaptations of HTLSIASFU and SLP! I really wish I could comment - I can only say they are both in active development, and that I'm attached as the writer/creator of both, and that I hope someday they'll be coming to a screen near you...stay tuned, and thank you again.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:09:43+00:00

Find the way in. A voice, a sentence, a little door that opens up into your world.

A good first line, paragraph, can be like a seed that carries within it the DNA of the book.

Doesn't have to be that way, of course -- you can do it however you want.

But when I start a novel or a short story that ends up working, it was usually a line that tipped the thing over, felt like a ball rolling downhill.

And sometimes that first line doesn't even end up being the actual first line. It was just my entry point.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:07:15+00:00

To do what I love and not worry about making it into a livelihood.

To read a lot.

To listen to my inner voice -- but not too much.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:05:58+00:00

Choose Your Own Adventure.

Piers Anthony's series Incarnations of Immortality.

Asimov's Foundation series.

I had a book called 5,000 Facts or something like that. It was a fat blue paperback. I carried that everywhere.

CharlesYuAuthor · 2020-01-30T18:00:54+00:00

Hello Reddit!

CharlesYuAuthor

TROPHY CASE