Robert Boswell - Interview #320 (11/10/14)

Robert Boswell, award-winning author of seven novels, including Tumbledown, just released in paperback from Graywolf Press. 

This morning, I reported to our local courthouse for jury duty. While there, I wasn’t able to do much in between the active moments of jury questioning and selection. What I ended up doing was watching people and making mental notes about their appearance, habits, and speech. So the Write The Book Prompt this week is to try to immerse yourself in a place with strangers, and watch them. See if your characters might learn something from these people: something about how to dress, how to speak, how to walk, how to use their hands. I imagine you’ll come up with new ways of presenting at least one of the characters you thought you already knew. 

Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.

Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students, now alums).