Start a Novel with Keisha Bush

Write along with Keisha’s playlist!

Prompt #1: Starting Small

Think of an object and write about it. Try writing about your character’s interaction or feelings about the object. Write for as long as you can until you run out of things to say.

It helps to start small and focus on singular objects. For example, try writing about a chair, a cup, a spoon, a shoe, a house, a place of worship, etc…

Prompt #2: Going Places… Or Not!

Write about a character taking a trip in a car. The character cannot get out of the vehicle. What do they do?

Prompt #3: Getting Lost

Your character has lost something or is lost themselves. What is it? How do they recover it? Do they recover it?

Q&A with Keisha Bush

If I were to write a book with a character with disorders, would I be insensitive or ableist?

That’s a really good question. What this question is actually asking in a greater aspect is about writing “the other”. If you yourself do not have a disorder, do you have a right to write about it? And can you write about it? This is something that is relevant to my own book, No Heaven for Good Boys.

I was living in West Africa, and I’m a black person, but I’m not West African. I was born in Boston. My mother is actually from Honduras, and I’m first generation American on my mother’s side. My father’s family comes from North Carolina. But without getting into my own background further, I wrote “the other”. I grew up Christian as a young girl, we practice Islam, but I am not a practicing Muslim. Right? And I write heavily as you can see about Islam, in the book. 

And so I am very much writing the other. And I would not have been able to write this story had I not lived in Senegal, because, one, I didn’t even know about the Talibé and most people don’t. To write, it was extremely important for me to acknowledge from day one that I was writing a story about someone else. And that I had to be respectful, I had to live there. I didn’t have a lot of research that I could do. But when I chose names, I chose them thoughtfully, while also wanting to keep a rhythm to the text. But names are really important. 

Writing “the other” is necessary, because sometimes, we’re writing about characters in marginalized groups of people who don’t have the ability, or the access to write their own stories, like the Talibé children. This book is the first book ever written about them, fiction or nonfiction. It is the first one. There’s journalism out there about them, but no one has taken the time to do it. It’s important. So I say, you can do it, but you have to do it mindfully and thoughtfully.

Whether it is doing your research to really learn, whether it is reaching out to people who you know. On the one hand, if you’re doing research, it’s like, how do I talk about something that I may not know a lot about? There are different ways to go about it, whether you interview people or not. That’s also about building relationships, you just can’t roll up on someone like, “Hey, you have this disorder, tell me about it.” There’s a way you can do it, but you have to you have to be willing to put the work and the research and the due diligence in.

Can you talk a little bit about your MFA experience?

I went to business school for undergrad. Instead of, you know, following my dream to be a writer. I took a different route. But my advice to anyone who’s looking for an MFA is to go into an MFA with very clear and direct goals. That is key. The MFA is not to find yourself or to see if you’re a writer.

You have to believe that you are already a writer. You all are all writers, right? You don’t need an MFA. You don’t need to have a book out. You don’t need a byline to be a writer. Own it today. Period. Because if you don’t own it, you don’t pursue it as if it is real. Because other people are going to doubt you. Let me tell you, I knew I was a writer back in like 2009, or at least by 2010. I was like, I’m a writer. Other people would tell me, “You know, you’re not published, whatever. Oh, it’s your hobby. Oh, you’re looking for yourself.”

I can see myself right here. Like I have a mirror. What do you mean I’m looking for myself? I know where I am. You are a writer. And when you say, I am a writer, then you start taking steps to get closer to being published. I went into the MFA with three goals. I wanted to improve my craft, because as a writer, we can always improve our craft. I wanted community, because I knew community was important with other writers. And I needed— and this is key— mentorship. 

  Do you recommend planning your novels?

No, I’m terrible at that. I’ve tried to use outlines. And it just doesn’t work. I get to a point. An example is my first book I ever wrote. That’s my training wheels. The book was overwritten. But anyway, I wrote an outline. I thought it was great. And then I got to a point where my character was supposed to be pregnant. She didn’t even have a boyfriend. She was single, and she was only 16. So she couldn’t adopt, she couldn’t get ID. And I was just like, whoa. I threw the whole outline away, and now I sometimes write notes along the way, things that I’m feeling, but aside from that, no notes. I’m all freestyle, and I allow the characters to take the story forward. It’s scary and uncomfortable, but I learned along the way, too, from the characters.

Would you recommend using a resource book or prompt list to continue this practice?

It’s really interesting. I come up with my own prompts.

I did the object one and I said, “Can I read about a chair for five pages?” Because I’m not that type of writer. So I said, maybe I could do it. Probably not. And then I started writing, writing about this red velvet chair. And what came out of it was this whole piece about a relationship with this other person that I’ve had going on for, like, several years. I realized that I’m actually writing a series of shorts right now that are more like memoir or nonfiction. 

So I used one of my own prompts. And it opened up new work for me, which I think is fascinating. I think, sometimes a good prompt is to say, “What am I not so strong at?” Like, I’m not that character. I’m not that writer who can write for five pages about an object, but I just realized, yes, I am, right. And I did it as a challenge to myself.

One thing I like about workshops, you tend to find out what your strong points are. And then you know what some of your weak points are. Take one of your weak points, and challenge yourself with a prompt. So, if you’re not so great with dialogue, you have to write a play. Or you have to write five pages of dialogue. How about that? I won’t put the play on your shoulders, but you have to write five pages for as long as you can, just dialogue.

Then you have to go back over it and see if you can find a rhythm with it. Where’s your rhythm? Where are you struggling with the dialogue? And I told you, I read a lot of different genres. I love reading plays, and I think that’s why I’m good with dialogue. I’m a listener also, right? Most of us, especially writers, often are introverts, right? Listen first.    

This event was originally recorded on March 5th, 2020.