You have to read this, right? Elizabeth Silver is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Execution of Noa P. Singleton, an Amazon Best Book of the Year, Amazon Best Debut of the Month, a Kirkus Best Book of the Summer, Kansas City Star Best Book of the Year, Oprah “Ten Books to Pick up Now,” and selection for the Target Emerging Author Series. Optioned for film by ImageMovers Production Company (Robert Zemeckis), the novel will be translated into Polish, French, Japanese, Russian, and Korean.
I'm thrilled to have Elizabeth here. Thank you, Elizabeth!
I'm always interested how a novel sparked? A college dropout on
death row for murder--where did that come from? How did The Execution of Noa P.
Singleton come into being?
After years of writing fiction and toying with a variety of day
jobs in writing-related fields, I switched directions, and in my late-twenties,
attended law school. I entered my third year of law school and took a course in
capital punishment, where I learned about the death penalty from some of the
country’s top anti-death penalty attorneys in Austin, Texas. The course
included a clinic component in which I worked on a clemency petition, visited
death row, interviewed inmates and met with a handful of victim family members
with my supervising attorneys. I also attended a symposium at the Texas
State Capitol where several lawyers, journalists, filmmakers, and a solitary
victim’s rights advocate spoke about the problems with the death penalty as it
related to one potentially wrongful execution. Only one person on the
dais represented the voice of the victim, surprisingly, and she was the mother
of a victim ten years later still struggling with her position. While listening
to each person express a different perspective on the issue, the complicated
relationship between a mourning parent trying to forgive and an admittedly
guilty inmate struck me as an intricate and conflicted bond ripe for
exploration. It wasn’t about guilt or innocence necessarily, but instead about
the fragility, doubt, and unease in each of these people. I also knew that I
wanted my protagonist to be intelligent, self-educated, and someone with whom
readers may be able to relate, despite her residence and status.
Instantly, my new project was borne, although at that point, I wasn’t sure the
body it would occupy or the story that would carry it along. I rushed home, and
over the next few months before the bar exam, wrote the first and last chapters
of the novel.
A lot of this extraordinary novel occurs in prison. Did you do
research? What was that like? Did anything surprise you and turn the plot of
the novel in a way you didn't expect?
Most of my research came from my law school classes and my very
first job as a lawyer. Right after the bar exam, my first professional lawyer
gig was as a judicial clerk for a judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals,
the highest criminal court in Texas. All death penalty cases skip over the
intermediate courts and go directly to this court. My first assignment as a
clerk was to draft a death penalty opinion (the decision) for my judge. I spent
the next two years drafting over two dozens opinions for the court, several of
which were death penalty cases. I reviewed trial transcripts, researched the
law, and on my lunch breaks and free time, wandered into local courtrooms to
watch live trials. Meanwhile, I was writing the novel at night. As a result,
once the clerkship was over, there was little I had to research. It was
minutiae, like ensuring that the details were accurate: for example, the proper
color of the jumpsuits for Pennsylvania's death row and the size of the cell
and the state-to-state population, which changed from the point I began the
book to the point it was sold and the point it was published.
As for the turning plot, oh yes, so much surprised me. I had
never written a story like this and hadn't a clue how it was going to proceed.
I knew two things when I started: whether Noa was guilty and whether she was
going to be executed. What I didn't know was how or why and this was the thrill
of the writing. As a result, every plot turn, every development surprised me
along the way. I was nearly finished with the first draft before I had any sort
of motivation for Noa to even commit a crime because I became so fascinated
with her childhood, which ultimately helped bring her actions full circle.
I deeply admired the structure of the novel. Did you plan it out
before you wrote, or did you just follow the characters?
Thank you so much. I did plan the structure of the novel after
those first few chapters, but only loosely. It wasn't until round two of edits
with my editor that I wrote a timeline for each character and discovered
massive plot and character flaws that were likely there because I was sticking
to that original structure. Early on, I planned the book in six parts to
represent the six months leading up to "X-Day," Noa's date of
execution. I also planned for Marlene to write a letter to her dead daughter
between each section. Apart from that very simple structure, though, I just
followed the characters and allowed them to fall into place as time progressed
(and regressed). It was also important to be introduced to both characters from
their present state: prison for Noa and freedom and power for Marlene, and then
to watch as they overlap and at times switch positions psychologically and
emotionally. By the time we are nearing the end, we will have very different
visions of these women based on their histories, despite the fact that they are
in precisely the same place in the present day.
You also write screenplays. Do you find you have to get into a
whole different mindset to do that, or does it just come naturally for you?
Is one easier for you than the other?
I'm not sure anything comes naturally. I do love writing
scripts of any form as well as fiction and I find it easier than fiction, in
part because I know I might just be providing a blueprint for another team to
use to tell the story. Scripts will have a director whose vision the story will
ultimately become, actors who interpret your lines, cinematographers,
soundtracks, costumes, settings, props, etc. With fiction, you get to play all
of those parts for as long or as short as you crave. These are entirely
distinct ways of approaching creativity and storytelling, and inherently
require a different mindset and skill set. I have great respect for
storytellers of any kind, and often the most difficult step is determining what
medium the story fits. So many films should be stage plays and so many novels
should have been written as short stories, and the list could go on. As for the
mind of screenwriting, all I can say is that I simply enjoy it. When I feel
stuck with my fiction, I know I can find great pleasure in writing a script,
particularly because I love dialogue, but also because there is some liberation
in the constraint scripts require. I'm a rule-lover. I like making lists and
crossing things off of them.
What's obsessing you now and why?
My five-month old baby girl. She's simultaneously digging into
my writing time and creating it, tightening my energy and multiplying it. On a
more literary note, I'm also obsessed with everything written by Emily Rapp.
Read her essays and memoir, if you can. They're devastating and beautiful and
incandescent. I'm also obsessed with short stories, particularly Karen Russell
and can't believe I waited until now to finally read her. Do you have a
favorite collection I should add to my ever-growing night table queue?
What question didn't I ask that I should have?
Yikes, this is a bit like writing your own letter of
recommendation, I fear. That was always so difficult for me. Thank goodness I'm
not applying for any more graduate school. Thank you so much for having me on
your incredible blog. It's been a tremendous honor getting to talk with you and
get to know you. These questions were so much fun.
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