What Taffy Brodesser-Akner Has Learned From Writing All Those Stories

by Lionel Casey

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and supplies behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism is produced.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, is first-class acknowledged for her celeb profiles. But the subjects she tackles are vast and sundry. Last year, she profiled Gwyneth Paltrow and helped to explain why Goop had grown to be one of these debatable brands in the wellness industry. She unpacked Ethan Hawke at a time while critics were subsequently embracing him. And in April, she published research into unequal pay and sexual harassment at Kay Jewelers. Now, she’s written her first novel, “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” on divorce, a subject that she stated in her existence always felt like the bogeyman. Ms. Brodesser-Akner discussed what she’s learned from writing profiles, how that has stimulated her fiction writing, and what’s next.

When did you make a decision you desired to jot down a singular?

I went to movie college because I wanted to be someone who informed testimonies. After that, I could write screenplays, and someday, I would write a novel, but nothing I ever did turned into turned-notch. And then, I needed to get a process.

I got an activity at a soap opera mag, which brought about a career in journalism (as it hardly ever does). One factor I found out over the years was that humans are moved by the truth and through the contradiction of reality—while people act toward their pleasant interests, humans are not precisely what you would expect.

I now understand that all the fiction and screenwriting I began doing earlier than I started in journalism did not incorporate reality. They could have appropriately contained tales and maybe some active writing, but they no longer comprise the emotional core of what people reply to in the first-rate writing I read.

Once I understood that human beings decide upon the truth, even if it’s messy, and that human beings aren’t just looking for a smooth story that makes me feel, that’s when I felt like I became capable of writing my novel.

I began writing this e-book in the summer of 2016 and have been revising it for a year. The issue that became hard for me was that there was no opportunity for commentary, which I’m best at in journalism. You couldn’t examine humans you made up, so I had to cultivate an active imagination.

How has your journalistic enjoyment motivated your fiction writing?

I knew how to tell a story—studying screenwriting taught me that—but journalism freed me to remember that human beings need to read reality, and that fact is something you have to paint very hard for.

What have you ever learned from doing profiles?

They’ve taught me how to pay attention without being self-involved and how to narrate to almost everybody. The latter—being able to relate to nearly every person and still observe them—is a very problematic aspect to cultivate.

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