Joyce Carol Oates - On Writing Characters

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/fora/showthread.php?t=1204

Critically acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates discusses how a writer develops realistic characters, using examples from her novel "The Gravedigger's Daughter."

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Joyce Carol Oates talks about "The Gravedigger's Daughter."

A family desperate to escape Nazi Germany settles in upstate New York, where the father is demeaned by the only job he can get: gravedigger an cemetery caretaker. What follows is a tale of unspeakable tragedy, as the gravedigger's daughter begins her astonishing pilgrimage into America, an odyssey of ingenious self-invention and bittersweet triumph - Book Passage

Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American author and the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing at Princeton University, where she has taught since 1978.

She serves as associate editor for the Ontario Review, a literary magazine, and the Ontario Review Press, a literary book publisher, both of which are edited by her husband, Raymond J. Smith.

Oates has also written under the pseudonyms "Rosamond Smith" and "Lauren Kelly."

Her most recent book is "The Gravedigger's Daughter."

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[septip123]

we should shut everything off - at least once a week - no TV, computer, radio...- and pull out a novel, sit and just be alone for a few hours.

[kumihoku]

I just might check out what you NAVE written! I bet ITS amazing!

Seriously, now. If you are a writer, write like one. What's up with the terrible grammar (including misspellings and random capitalization)? Try using a comma.

[Federico Campbell Quiroz]

La concentración continuada es lo más difícil de conseguir. Una vez que se conquista, la concentración persistente, cada vez más profunda, es lo más parecido a la felicidad. If you are not capable of focus you simple don't have it: you're not a writer. Federico Campbell

[DixieKorley]

you should write the ending, and then the beginning and middle will be super easy

[DixieKorley]

that would be really cool. ill do that. i

[ahappykitten]

I used to like people, before I became exhausted of them.

[exeuroweenie]

It's eerie,I've been poring over her(vast) body of work for years.Until now I've never seen her on video-just a few pictures.Her voice,mien,speech patterns and mannerisms are exactly what I'd imagined,though.People I see on a daily basis don't seem as familiar.

[superkateri1]

I can't help but thinking that her gestures, way of speaking and everything reminds me of Phoebe in "friends"...

[ACSDistanceEducation]

First and foremost, sucessful writers write.

[johnnyforjohnny]

I'm surprised by how mean-spirited some of these comments are. I guess noone is immune from online invective. Oates is a thoughtful, brilliant writer and these are some great insights.

[MrLogocan]

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