What pleases you about the way your essay turned out? Are there any ways in which you feel it fell short of your original goal?

I think our relationship as writers to our individual creations frequently take on personal dimensions that are difficult to explain. This may be particularly true for creative nonfiction writers who draw directly upon their most intimate thoughts and experiences. At the level of language, however, I felt like I was more successful than usual at creating an experience as well as writing about it. Because this piece explores the rhythms underlying our conscious experience, I wanted the language to create underlying cadences that would shift in relation to what I was describing. The meaning is thus communicated as much by sound and syntax as by imagery or exposition. Very much like poetry. Even so, there are places where this essay disappoints me. I think that's true of every essay - they can't possibly live up to the complexity of the actual experience.

How did your essay develop, both in your initial thinking about it and in the revision process? What happened in the writing of it that you didn't expect would happen?

A large portion of "Night Rhythms" was written while the events described were unfolding. I remember borrowing a few sheets of paper from the night nurse to scribble on during an early break, and then returning to add more thoughts and images throughout my shift. At the time I don't think I intended to develop those notes into a formal essay, I just had a compulsive need to express what I was feeling and thinking. I believe those moments descend on us from time to time. Though it occurred almost seven years ago, I often return to that evening in my mind. This is one of the reasons I chose to use the present tense. In the past tense the essay seemed to lose its intimacy and thus its emotional accuracy. Experimenting with tenses was part of the long process of revising. I first wrote the essay almost a year after the experience, set it aside for another year, revised it and submitted it for a workshop course, put it away for another year, revised it and shared it with a few readers, set it aside again, and then finally sent it out for publication. Because I was so close to the piece, readers were essential to focusing my writing and to uncovering surprising layers of meaning. For instance, Dr. Van Skeldt was not as central a figure in my early drafts, but several readers encouraged me to think further about his role.

How does your experience writing in creative nonfiction depend upon or depart from your work in other genres (poetry, fiction, playwriting, literary criticism)?

For me, personal essays bring together the best of both poetry and fiction, combining lyrical and imagistic language with narrative appeal. The primary distinction between genres has to do with the relationship between the reader and the text. When someone picks up a collection of personal essays, they will read it differently than a work of fiction. As an essayist I am saying to that person, like Montaigne did: "Here I am, up front and center, thinking out loud about my life and about the general complexity of being human. You're not alone in this mess." I think readers turn to personal nonfiction, in part, to experience this sense of companionship.

Speculate about creative nonfiction as an emerging genre in American literature. Where do you see it going in the next several years, or even farther down the line?

I'm not sure I would call creative nonfiction an "emerging genre" in America, it has a long history here. However, I don't think the genre has ever attracted so much creative energy and experimentation from American writers. This may be a reaction to a variety of cultural and historical factors over specialization, global media, geographical transiency or just random literary cycles. Regardless, creative nonfiction is the most exciting, wide open field of writing in America right now. This is true even in literary criticism, where more and more scholars, including myself, are weaving their personal experiences into their academic essays. I don't see the momentum slowing any time soon.

What are the specific literary techniques you attempt to use as a creative nonfiction writer? Scenes? Dialogue? Specific detail, etc.?

I'm always trying to increase the stylistic range of my writing. However, I think each essay determines which techniques will be most effective. This was certainly true for "Night Rhythms" which, among other things, seemed to almost demand the use of the present tense. I am, however, partial to the vivid scene which expresses some larger complexity through the particulars of imagery and sound.

What advice do you offer young people interested in writing?

Don't judge your abilities by any single performance. Have faith in writing as a life long process of intellectual and artistic experimentation. The wonderful thing about essays is that you can make that personal process with all its contradiction an integral part of your writing. The energy of the essay is the energy of the mind at work, wrestling with an idea or struggling to articulate an emotion. Allow that energy to enter your essays and free yourself from the need to resolve everything. Sometimes it is enough to let your writing bear witness to a mystery.