Have you heard of the Eulalie and Carlo Scandiuzzi Writers' Room at the Central Library?
The Writers' Room, located on Level 9 of the Central Library, offers a space for writers to work on their projects and access Library resources. Use of the room is through an application process for the Writers' Room Residency.
We interviewed some of our current Writers' Room Residents to learn more about them and their experience in the Writers' Room. For the first of our series, we interviewed Morgan Richter!
Tell us a bit about yourself and your writing! For folks wanting to learn more about your work, where can we find it?
I grew up in Spokane, then went to USC's film school in Los Angeles to learn how to write screenplays. While I didn't get far with a career in the film industry, I had a great time working in production on TV shows like E!'s Talk Soup. Since those days, I've carved out a small niche as a Gen-X pop culture expert: I created a pair of YouTube series devoted to analysis of Miami Vice episodes and formative eighties films, I've written more words about Duran Duran than anyone reasonably should, and I'm a frequent guest on various podcasts to talk about eighties films, music, and television shows.
In late 2022, I signed a two-book deal with Alfred A. Knopf. The first book, a literary mystery/thriller titled THE DIVIDE, will be published in August 2024, while my untitled second book, another thriller, will be published in 2025. I can be found online at www.morganrichter.net.
What has your experience been like using the Writers' Room so far?
I used the Writers' Room to power my way through a long and ridiculously messy first draft of the second book in my Knopf deal. I like to divide my writing process into three distinct stages: brainstorming, drafting, and rewriting. I prefer to brainstorm while I'm walking – I don't own a car, so I would mull over and mentally outline the book during long, meandering strolls around Seattle. Rewriting is a slow, tedious, and brutal stage, so that's ideally done in my apartment, sitting at my desktop computer, where I can spend endless hours on my manuscript, working early in the morning or late into the night to untangle my tortured prose one sentence at a time.
So, I used the Writers' Room fairly exclusively for drafting, which worked beautifully. I'd bring in a clunky old laptop that I kept as distraction-free as possible – no email, no social media, no fun – and I'd pick a cubicle in the room, sit down, and just start writing. While sitting in the Writers' Room, I'd pound out words without stopping. I'd let my sentences be as sloppy and convoluted as they wanted, just as long as I kept writing. That was really a privilege; I wish all writers could have the opportunity to write somewhere calm, isolated, and away from the chaotic interruptions of daily life.
What are your favorite writing collections or resources that you've used?
My current book – this is the one coming out in 2025 – is set in the contemporary New York opera world. For research, I plundered the robust resources in the Central Library stacks: books on opera history, books on opera analysis, paperbound opera scores, and DVDs of great opera performances. Some performances were available on streaming video through SPL-connected online resources like Kanopy.
As a fiction writer, though, I'm a fiction reader above all else, and thus the collections I value most at SPL are its novels. Every time I use the Writers' Room, I wrap up my visit by spending time on Level 3 selecting a fresh stack of books. Lately, I've been addicted to fusty old British mysteries from the 1930s-1950s, so I've been heading straight for the Mystery shelves and looking for the distinct spines of the books published under the British Library Crime Classics label – it's introduced me to a slew of tremendously entertaining authors, like Anthony Gilbert, John Dickson Carr, George Bellairs, and others.
Is there anything you'd like to share with future Writers' Room Residents?
Every writer has a different method, so my approach to using the Writers' Room, i.e. reserving it for speedy, hyper focused bursts of distraction-free writing, might be disastrous for others! My only suggestion would be to carve out some time to enjoy the space. The writing session that sticks most in my mind took place on a day when I was exhausted and grouchy and incurably blocked; try as I might, the words wouldn't flow. Eventually I gave up and stared out the window at the panoramic city view. It was a clear summer day, with Mount Rainier rising up in the distance, and it was gorgeous. I sat there for a very long time, not thinking about my book or about anything in particular, and just allowed myself to savor the moment.
Interested in applying for the Writers' Room Residency? Applications for the 2024 Writers' Room cohort will close December 22, 2023. Those accepted into the program in 2024 will have access to the room during the Library's open hours through December 20, 2024. Click here to apply!
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