Matter of Craft with Mila Jaroniec
In this installment of Matter of Craft, Mila Jaroniec, author of Plastic Vodka Bottle Sleepover, chats about the beauty of the novella, her disorganized yet steady writing routine, her upcoming project about work and writing life, and her novella NETRATĀ, out now on Joyland.
Did you envision NETRATĀ as a novella? Or was it just the shape the story ended up taking? Did you face any challenges?
I did, although I initially envisioned it as a much longer one. My favorite novella is Jack Kerouac’s TRISTESSA, which is somewhere around 24,000 words and was my model for this story. I wanted to write something compact, really crystallized, airtight, something you could read in one sitting that would transport. I suppose one challenge was recognizing when it was still too long, and cutting and cutting. The story started out at about 22,000 words and is now about half that length. As for real challenges, I suppose the main one was really hearing the story, and not trying to superimpose myself on it, or a disingenuous plot. Figuring out that it was about a grieving father and daughter, the transcendence, recovery, rootlessness, and DIY spirituality surrounding them, and grounding down into the pain point where it all came together was probably the locus of the effort. But I think I got it.
Novellas don’t seem as popular as novels – why do you think that is? What do you love most about this form?
From a publishing standpoint, because big publishers usually won’t take a chance on them unless they’re coming from an established author, writers might feel dissuaded from writing them. Or because writers will find themselves in a workshop where developing a story is synonymous with making it longer. Maybe it’s our bedrock belief that more is always better. Could this have been a novel? Sure. But it didn’t need to be. Every piece of art has a shape it asks its author to find. What I love most about this form is it does everything a novel does, without the filler. You can have big moves in a relatively small amount of space and it still feels complete by the end.
What did your submission process for NETRATĀ look like? Did it take a while for this story to find a home?
It was both easy and hard, if that makes sense. I took my time and was very particular with where I was sending it, because I knew the length would narrow my options and also it’s a very specific piece that doesn’t belong just anywhere. I waited two years after it was finished to get moving on finding it a home. My husband was finally like, You have to just let it go. If not for him it would still be in drafts! He suggested Joyland, which is a wonderful home for it because of their emphasis on place, and because Michelle [Lyn King] is such a great editor. But I do think it has a print life ahead of it too. It’s meant to be held and sat with, not just scrolled through.
What does your writing life look like right now? Can you take us through a day in the life?
My writing life at the moment is disorganized, but steady. I’m disciplined when I have a deadline, given to me or self-imposed, and I move things out of the way as needed. But right now, I have a full time, on-site desk job, a workout schedule to physically recover from the full-time, on-site desk job, a 6-year-old who has school and extracurriculars and homework and unexpected sick days, a home to maintain and a marriage to nurture, so writing…it just has to be squeezed in. Sometimes I’ll get up at 5 am. Sometimes I journal at work on breaks. Sometimes I’ll take an entire night to myself at the coffee shop and my husband does everything. No two days are alike. I’ve figured out how to be obsessive and relaxed, structured and flexible. Right now, I’m in the stage between novel revisions and a new project, so it’s this liminal, mystical space that’s fun to explore. But writing on a tightrope is something I’m exploring in TIME THEFT, the anthology I’m curating that deals with the intersection of work and writing. Living a creative life when your waking life doesn’t really support it. I’m working with a lot of great writers on that.
For writers who have written something experimental or maybe that doesn't adhere to a standard genre, do you have any advice for them?
Yes I do. My advice is, Don’t take any.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on the proposal for TIME THEFT and editing the pieces, and my first full-length nonfiction project. Essentially it’s an essay collection about beauty practice and mental health. There’s a ton of beauty content online and a lot of books on beauty from a cultural and feminist perspective, but nothing personal and literary in the way I’d like. So I’m writing it.
Mila Jaroniec is the author of two novels, including Plastic Vodka Bottle Sleepover (Split Lip Press). Her work has appeared in Playgirl, Playboy, Joyland, Ninth Letter, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, PANK, Hobart, The Millions, NYLON and Teen Vogue, among others. She earned her MFA from The New School and teaches writing at Catapult.
UPCOMING EVENT WITH MILA
