Name: Sam Gwynne

Claim To Fame: S.C. “Sam” Gwynne is the author of five books, including The Perfect Pass, Rebel Yell, and Empire of the Summer Moon – a New York Times Bestseller and finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Sam writes for Texas Monthly, and has also written for Outside, Time Magazine, the New York Times, Harper’s, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, California Magazine, The Boston Globe and many other publications in over thirty years in journalism.

Where You Can Find Him: Amazon, Twitter, and his Website

Praise For Sam: “Transcendent…Empire of the Summer Moon is nothing short of a revelation…This book will leave dust and blood on your jeans.” – Bruce Barcott, New York Times

Let’s start with the basics: What time of day do you start writing? Is it easier for you to write early in the morning? Late at night?

When I am writing, as opposed to researching—writing takes less time than researching—I get to my desk by 8 or 9 am, break for lunch, then write until 5 and usually try to get some exercise. I only write at night when I am on a tight deadline for a newspaper or magazine. I am like a man who works at a title insurance company, except that my sentences are prettier than his. As a journalist I was often on the road and sometimes up for 24 hours straight. But I am not in that business any more.

How did you develop your writing habits and routine as a writer? Was it the cycle and needs of the magazine business? Was there someone you emulated? Or did you have your own working style from the beginning?

Everything grows out of my 30 years in the journalism biz. I have worked with daily, weekly, and monthly deadlines and have done this as both an editor and writer. You have to organize your ideas quickly in the world of journalism. Writer’s block is not really an option, though I do know several fellow journalists who live in terror of the blank screen.

I greatly admire the writing habits of Ernest Hemingway. Party your brains out, travel the world hunting and fishing and having cool adventures, then somehow get up in the morning, shake off your hangover, and write for three hours. Coupla hundred words. And then off to the bullfights. Oh, yes, and then become world famous and massively rich.

Do you listen to music when you write, or do you prefer silence, or something else in the background?

Early Slayer on full volume. Just kidding. I prefer zero background noise.

Before you start on your first word for the day, is there anything particular you do? Or don’t do?

Try to figure out some chore I have to do that will postpone my having to write the first word. Walking the dog is quite useful for that. Grocery shopping has to be done, doesn’t it? That’s good for a few hours.

How do you judge a productive writing day or an unproductive day? What’s the sign of a good day for you?

An excellent day is 1,000 words. 750 is what I shoot for. 500 annoys me. 250 or less and we have a real problem, such as: I have written the lede to a different story or chapter than the one I am actually writing.

You have also been an editor for a long time. Are there habits or weaknesses you’ve seen other writers fall prey to that you try to avoid? Or try to warn young writers against?

I think writers should use outlines and I am constantly amazed to hear that many do not. An outline forces you to think your way through the piece. Writing is thinking. Transitions are everything.

If someone was setting out on an ambitious writing project–a book, a movie, even a screenplay–that required a lot of historical research. Based on your experience, would you suggest they do all the research first and write only when finished? Or do you recommend doing quite a bit of research at the beginning but then get started and to sort of just keep enough track out in front to keep going?

This is a very important question. I have a friend who once wrote a major biography of a famous person. He spent 4 years researching it and put everything on tidy little note cards. Then when the day came to start writing—four years after his first day of research—he took out one of his little note cards and began his 500-page bio. I could never do that. Maybe it is the journalist in me. I cannot possibly be that far—temporally or spatially—from my research. For my current project on the final year of the American Civil War, I did a year’s worth of background reading, then research and write each chapter as I go along.

In your last three books, you’ve written about Hal Mumme (a revolutionary football coach), Stonewall Jackson (a Civil War Hero), and Quanah Parker (the last and greatest chief of the Comanches). Clearly your interests are wide-ranging. How do you find your book ideas? How do you narrow in and decide an idea is worth pursuing?

Each of these ideas has a different origin. The Comanches was the result of my moving to Texas and learning a part of American history I had known nothing about. It was about being here, traveling the state, hearing things. The Stonewall Jackson bio was in part the result of having a bestseller (Empire of the Summer Moon), which meant that I could do what I wanted. I had always been fascinated by Grant and Jackson. There have been about 700 biographies of Grant. So I chose Jackson. The Perfect Pass grew directly out of a profile I did of a football coach in Texas Monthly magazine.

In your years in journalism, reporting, researching for the books, you’ve conducted hundreds if not thousands of interviews. What are some mistakes interviewers and reporters often make?

Most interviewers make the mistake I always make, which is to drone on forever while asking your subject a question. Questions should be short and open-ended. 

The greatest interview question of all time, and the one that Barbara Walters made famous, was:

“How did that make you feel?”

Now there is an interview question. 

I think you have to have a pre-prepared list of questions. But I am always amazed when I listen to tapes of my interviews at how willing I am to abandon a really interesting line of inquiry just to get to the next question. I step on interesting stuff all the time. That’s because I am not listening. “Keep it simple and listen” is good advice.

How do you deal with getting discouraged when you write–maybe because the material isn’t coming along like you expect or it’s taking longer than predicted? How do you know the difference between being discouraged and an idea that is worth dropping?

Since I am a non-fiction writer, what I do is pretty clearly defined from the start. So I know what I am getting into. I can’t imagine how difficult and discouraging it must be trying to write fiction. Take Rebel Yell, my biography of Stonewall Jackson. I spent 6 months reading about him, and two months writing a 30-page proposal. I knew in considerable detail what I wanted to do, and so did my editor. The project did take longer than I had planned because the research was so difficult. But there was no reason to be discouraged about the actual viability of the project. I knew exactly what was going to be in the book.

If there were any books or articles you’d recommend on writing or on style, what would they be? 

The best guy on writing is probably John McPhee—at least for young writers. This will probably sound immodest, but I find what he says to be excruciatingly obvious. But I have been in the business for a long time.