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The Write Up: The Story Behind the StorytellersWhat does it mean to be a writer? What is the creative process? How do you publish your work? What inspires you to write? When did you become a writer?Each month screenwriter, novelist and performer Owen Egerton sits down with all sorts of writers—from playwrights to poets—to talk about their lives and careers.“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” — Ernest Hemingway“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” — Gustave Flaubert“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”― Jack KerouacSupport for The Write Up comes from Headwater’s School, providing a Montessori foundation leading to an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.

Dan Chaon On Grief, Memory And 'Ill Will'

Ulf Anderson

Dan Chaon's new novel, Ill Will, Chaon explores mystery, death, grief and the personal narratives to which we cling. In this episode of The Write Up, Chaon and host Owen Egerton discuss about the act of writing and its thereapeutic ability to shine a light into the darker corners of mind.

As Egerton points out, “haunting” can be a hackneyed word to describe fiction, but Ill Will can’t be comprehensively described without using the derided descriptor. The novel tells the story of how two crimes impact the life of protagonist Dustin Tillman, examining the familial impact of the deaths of his parents, while also following him as he investigates the deaths of several college students. Ill Will is unsettling, unconventional and unapologetically full of dark humor.

Chaon says hearing a story about several college kids drowning in the river was the impetus for the novel. In the wake of the drowning, he says there were urban legends and suggestions that the deaths were connected. That concept became a central theme in this book: that, when our concepts of story are challenged or contradicted, things unravel quickly.

While not completely biographical, the novel has roots in his own life. With Egerton, Chaon discusses his own experiences as both a widower and a parent to teenage boys played a role in his writing of Ill Will. He likens the practice to a horror film and says that, while mining personal tragedy and imagining the worst possible scenarios may be painful, the finished product can often bring relief and empathy

"If I'm not shedding a few tears over something by the time I'm finished, I haven't done my job."

Rebecca McInroy is an award-winning show creator, host, and executive producer for KUT, KUTX, and KUT.ORG.
Owen Egerton is an author, performer, and screenwriter. His works include the short story collection How Best to Avoid Dying, the Zach Scott produced play The Other Side of Sleep and several screenplays. As a screenwriter he has written for Warner Brothers, Fox, Disney and many others. He and his partners’ screenplay Bobbie Sue was ranked on the 2008 Blacklist before selling to Warner Brothers. A new paperback edition of his novel The Book of Harold, the Illegitimate Son of God will be released in 2012 by Soft Skull Press. Egerton has been honored as one of Austin’s top comic performers and voted Austin’s favorite author in 2007, 2008 and 2010 by the readers of the Austin Chronicle.
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