A Conversation With Callan Wink on Writing and Selling Personal Essays (Killer Writers)
In spring, summer, and fall, Callan Wink can be found guiding flyfish anglers in Montana. In the winter, he surfs in Costa Rica. Callan’s new book is out (Beartooth), but what I wanted to talk to him about in this interview is writing and selling personal essays, something he has done for some time. I caught up with Callan in Costa Rica (he’s already made the migration) after a morning of surfing and before a walk on the beach. I have to say, he is definitely living the life.
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“Callan, what inspired you to focus on writing essays as a literary form? What’s the attraction?”
“I would consider my real writing to be writing fiction, but other modes allow me to take a break from that—especially if I’m getting stuck in a book project or something—and still feel like I’m being productive and writing and producing and maybe getting something published. I used to write short stories more, and then I could send things out and maybe get a published story here and there. But moving into novels, there’s this long period where you get no validation for what you’re doing, and you’re sort of like writing in a vacuum. In part, writing essays is like, well, I can spend a couple of days, crank this short essay out, get it published, make a little money, and feel like I’m finishing something. I like to finish things. And novels, it seems like you never finish them. That’s one big part of it. I am writing for a particular fishing magazine, for example. It’s good writing and photography and about the fishing lifestyle. They give me a lot of latitude in what I can write about if there’s a little fishing in there. Most of the things I write are about something else, quite honestly, and then some fishing happens. It’s fun. The shorter form, I think, is what attracts me to it. Short fiction, which I used to love to write, no one wants to publish short fiction and pay you for it, at least, in my opinion. So that’s kind of off my radar.”
“How do you find unique and compelling essay writing topics?”
“A lot of it is things from my life. They’re primarily personal essays. Writing a personal essay allows me to work through stuff I’m trying to figure out in my head and put a finer point on my opinions and feelings about an environmental issue or even my work life. It’s something that I can’t do in my fiction as well.”
“When writing personal essays, what key elements make a personal essay stand out?”
“I think having a personal dilemma allows you to access a bigger issue. I’m thinking of one I wrote about guiding. Often, the kind of people I guide come down on, for instance, a vastly different type of political side than I do. It’s this situation where money is exchanging hands, and I’m in a service job, and how you interact with someone you may not interact with on a normal basis, or even like very much, but for this day, you need to show them a good time. I think most people have something like that in their work life.”
“And in the writing life, I’m sure, as well.”
“Yes, exactly. So, finding a personal thing that allows you to branch into a more universal subject would probably be something I start with.”
“Speaking of that, how do your essays balance your voice with that universal appeal? How do you assimilate your voice into that larger audience?”
“All of my writing is a lot of trial and error. Probably more so, veering towards the error side. I don’t have much like, ‘Okay, I will write a personal essay. This is how I’m going to start it.’ Usually, a personal essay comes from something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and then I try to think of different ways to get into it. And again, most of my personal essays are for fishing crowds, so it’s specific. One thing that helps me is that it is an area where I have a certain level of expertise. I’m immersed in that world, and I know a lot of different little angles. Writing a personal essay about other things would be difficult for me. I’m trying to think of another area I could write a personal essay about and feel comfortable—maybe surfing, but that’s about it. Outdoor pursuits are easy for me to launch into.”
“The whole idea of a personal essay is personal. We all know the importance of sucking someone into what you’re writing. Do you have any techniques you use for that first sentence?”
“I do this with my fiction, especially, but I find myself doing it with personal essays. Having just read many things, you’re probably the same way. Most readers are the same if something doesn’t get me quickly in that first paragraph; there are so many conflicts for interest these days. I try to have it start with something very concrete. It’s not thoughts, probably not even a description of something; it’s doing something—whatever that is. Very concrete. Most of my fiction starts with the character performing a physical action and then goes from there. That’s general, but I try to start everything I write by describing a physical activity.”
“Starting at the beginning, what approach do you use for the structure and flow of your essays?”
“I’m not very original. Most of my things have a typical opening situation. Then I digress into my feelings about that sort of thing that may take a lot of different branches and then follow up to sort of the opening construct, whatever that may be. It’s standard.”
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“Do you find that all of this comes out of you organically, or is there research involved?”
“I’m not a big researcher, unfortunately. I respect writers who go heavy on research. I am not inclined to do that, which does limit me a little bit in my subject matter.”
“It fulfills the definition of personal essays because it’s coming from you. If it’s personal, how much detail do you feel inclined to include in each essay?”
“If it’s a personal essay, there does need to be something in there that I’ve written that I’m slightly uncomfortable about sharing. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but it’s not something I usually come out with, you know, in a conversation with somebody I just met—that sort of thing. But somehow, I can more easily do that in writing if I’ve had time to think about it.”
“Where do you find the courage for that? Because it does take courage sometimes.”
“It has not gotten any easier. It’s not like I’m making crazy admissions, but I feel like, for it to affect readers, it does need to have a little something in it of yourself. Again, maybe not something you share a lot.”
“Any tricks for readers in making personal essays relatable to a broader audience?”
“It’s the comfort of starting in a subject area where you have a certain degree of comfortability with the subject. For me, that’s fishing. And luckily for me, there’s a lot of fishing writing being done, and there has been for a long time. There’s this sort of market for that, which is nice. I don’t know if it’s the same for many other things like fishing. Again, starting from a point that I’m very comfortable with in terms of the subject matter allows me to branch out into other things that may interest me or affect my life.”
“The uniting thing, then, would be fishing. So, whatever they write for these personal essays, the uniting thing would be their vocation.”
“I think so.”
“Or a particular hobby, or something like that.”
“For me, that would be a great spot to start.”
“If you have this little hesitancy sometimes in a line here or there, when do you say, okay, this essay is ready to go? How do you know when it’s ready for submission?”
“That’s always the hard part. With my stuff, I have a pretty good relationship with the editor of the publication that publishes me the most for the essay stuff, so I’ll write something, and I’ll work on it hard for a couple of days, put it away, come back to it, go over it in another few days. The whole thing will probably take me a week or a week-and-a-half, and then I send it to see if there’s interest. Then, the editor will say, ‘Okay, we can get behind this,’ maybe, ‘Shorten and work on this.’ Usually, it’s cut the word count. I don’t obsess over it too much for the personal essay. It’s a fishing magazine when it comes down to it.”
“For essays, what do you look for in a literary journal before you submit material?”
“Not to be super mercenary and commercial, but a large factor is I do try to make money doing this these days. And so that takes a lot of publications right off the table. Outside of that, maybe a publication that has published writers that I admire in the past. If people I like and writers I admire publish in X-Journal, even if they don’t pay that well, I’m like, ‘Okay, well, people I like are in here.’ Then I’ll give it a shot. Also, if people ask me. I’m a sucker for that. If someone solicits something from me, if I have something, chances are I’ll try.”
“Do you specifically try to tailor your material for different journals’ styles and themes? Or do you write it and then find the placement?”
“I think that’s more what I do. I’ve never done well trying to think about the publication first. It’s more like writing it and seeing if there’s a home for it after that.”
“I assume that you’ve probably been rejected before?”
“Oh, god.”
“Can you share your experience with rejection and how you navigate it? Some people take rejection hard.”
“That’s never good.”
“But you keep writing.”
“Oh, yeah. And you know, the one thing about getting rejected from a publication is it’s sort of impersonal. I mean, they get a lot of submissions in most places, and maybe it’s just not right for them. Those are usually easier. I did grad school, and I did a writing fellowship where it was the writing workshop sort of thing, and that is just brutal because you’re in the room with the people, and it’s not like they’re just saying, ‘No, this isn’t right for our publication.’ They’re like, ‘This story is not right for humanity,’ or ‘This is bad.’ It gets more personal. That’s much harder. Just getting an email from some editor who is like, ‘This isn’t right for us,’ it’s like, all right, fine. I’m going to send it somewhere else. Commercial rejection is much easier than criticism from pointed readers trying to help you improve it.”
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“As you’ve gone through your career, what are some common mistakes you’ve made in submitting to journals that you would recommend our audience don’t do?”
“You do need to be familiar with the publication. If you’re writing something just out of line with what they publish, that’s not right.”
“Target it well.”
“And also, being aware. Maybe you have one that you like, and no one wants it, then maybe you need to go back to the drawing board on that one or start something new.”
“Do you submit cover letters with those? And if so, what makes a good one?”
“I have to say, I’ve not been a big cover letter guy. Maybe the kind of writing I do is not so much that I’m just sending things out unless I know the editor or have an email relationship with them. I should speak to that question. If you can get some personal relationship with the person who’s maybe going to buy the story, it’s more like, ‘Hey, Bob, I have this essay I think might work for your publication. I’m going to send it to you. If you have time, give it a read.’ Something straightforward and informal. I’m sure a cover letter might be more important in some people’s writing lives.”
“You were talking about the editor, Bob? What advice do you have for building a relationship with Bob and other editors?”
“I have noticed that sometimes they need some material for whatever reason. Maybe due to publication day, they have room for something they don’t have. If they reach out, I try to send them something. That is one thing. If people reach out and say, ‘Hey, we’re looking for something,’ I feel like your foot is in the door, and if you don’t take advantage of that, it’s a missed opportunity for sure. Even if you don’t think everything you have is perfectly right or all the way done, try to send them something. That’s an excellent first step.”
“You got them on the line and reel them in. Returning to your essays, what advice would you give aspiring essayists about building a sustainable career or a literary presence in writing essays?”
“Oh, man! Have a different job, maybe. Don’t quit your day job. Try to be generating. That’s always my thing. I’ve had great writing teachers in the past. When I was in grad school, and many people were concerned about getting publications and things like that, I had a great writing teacher who said, ‘If you write and are generating, and it’s good, the publications will probably come.’ Just focus on the work first and be generating, and then, things just seem to flow from that. Maybe that’s sort of simplistic or naive, but that is how I’ve tried to do it, and it’s, to some degree, worked out. Focus more on the writing and less on the publishing.”
“They made a whole movie about that sort of thing: Field of Dreams.”
“Exactly. It’s like a little bit of putting the cart before the horse. If you’re worried too much about publishing things and don’t have much in the bag that you’ve written.”
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Callan Wink (Photo credit: Dan Lahren)
Callan Wink has been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts and Stanford University, where he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow. His stories and essays have been published in the New Yorker, Granta, Playboy, Men’s Journal, and The Best American Short Stories. He is the author of a novel, August, and a collection of short stories, Dog Run Moon. He lives in Livingston, Montana, where he is a fly-fishing guide on the Yellowstone River. https://www.spiegelandgrau.com/beartooth
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