Terry McMillan Q & A

She talks about being a writer and her book, "A Day Late and a Dollar Short" about the joys and pains of an African-American family

By Esther Iverem
SeeingBlack.com Editor

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How does a novel begin for you? Do you involve yourself in a new story through characters you create, or through a story you have in mind?

It's kind of two-fold. It starts sometimes with a question I have. Why is this? Why is it this way? What is this situation? Then I start to think about how people would respond to this or that situation. I'll use this latest book as an example. I was curious about when parents stop treating their children as children. Do they still treat them as children even though they're 35 or 40 years old? And, also, what happens in a family when children don't turn out the way parents expected then to? And when there is jealousy and envy among siblings? One feels less loved then the other, or one feels they got short shrift. That's usually how the process starts.

Because of the detailed focus on one striving family, it reminded me a lot of "Mama" Did you draw from the same well of inspiration for both books?

Back then (with "Mama"), I didn't have the same kind of control. I didn't know what I was doing. By the time I wrote "Disappearing Acts," I looked back and wished I could have told the "Mama" story better. This time around, all the children are adults. I realized that it was important that everyone's story be told. I'm interested in the daily dynamics of a family. Those dynamics change based on whether you are a teen-ager, or in your 20's, 30's or 40's.

These are basically things that have happened to me in my family, and not just in my family. I've come to realize that people don't tell everything. As much as you love your siblings, there are things you just don't share. You think, this is my sister or brother they tell me everything, and then you realize they don't tell you everything. And maybe they shouldn't. Maybe some things shouldn't be shared.

I noticed that the disclaimer at the front of the book is fairly extensive and personal. Do you write your own disclaimers? And are you sensitive about a disclaimer because of past legal drama concerning characters in your books?

For each book I have asked to write my own disclaimer and they never would allow it. They have their own stock paragraph they like to use. But this year they allowed me to write my own. People like to misconstrue things. Folks like to think this is them in the book, Folks just do.

Did the release of the movie "Disappearing Acts" revive any of the hostilities from your earlier battles with the book? (A former boyfriend and the father of her son protested that he was the basis for the character Franklin in "Disappearing Acts.")

No. As a matter of fact, I talked to my son's father, and he said, "thanks a lot for telling me that "Disappearing Acts" is being made into a movie." He didn't even know about it and he didn't watch it. He said he didn't have HBO. He was more interested in hearing the soundtrack.

Which plot out of the many in this book in this book came to you first?

My novels are usually plotless so if you're trying to come up with a plot, you're going to be challenged. My stories are character driven. Basically, my stories are a journey. My characters are being put in a situation where they are being tested. Each book is a test. The stories are the same but the tests are just different. I look at how they reconcile things, how they manage…

Which characters came to you first?

Viola came to me first and Cecil (the parents in the book). I've known so many late-aged women whose husbands wound up running off with the secretary or some hoochie. I wanted to have a woman whose husband left her at the same stages that I'm talking about. But instead of him being an evil man I wanted him to be a good guy. He becomes estranged from his wife because she can be mean. A lot of woman think its a always the man but it's not always all them. We can be mean. I love Viola. She's a great person but she can be a bitch.

Are you conscious of your growth and evolution as an artist?

I don't really think of evolution as an artist as much as I would like to think of myself as just an adult. My work is a small representation of the things that I happen to care about right now—at least the things that loomed large enough for me to find their way into book form. Even after writing "Mama" "Disappearing Acts" and "Waiting To Exhale," books don't get easier to write. It's not a formula. I don't know what their journey is going to bring them (the characters). I don't know and that's part of the beauty of writing a novel. If I already know how it is going to end, or what they are going to experience why bother?

What do you want your legacy as a writer to be?

Hopefully your life can represent things that you really care about. Considering the fact that I'm not dead yet and the only real tokens I have to define or reflect it are my books, I hope they get stronger. That's pretty much it. I'm more interested in interpersonal relationships—between lovers families, siblings. That's why I write about how we treat each other. How well a child is loved, how well a person is treated as a young person has a lot to do with how they turn out as an adult.

What do you want to still accomplish as a writer? What is your greatest challenge at this point?

Basically what motivates me is ill will. One of the reasons novelists, in particular African-American women writers, have gotten a big gigantic wrist slap is for airing dirty laundry. I just feel that on so many levels we were raised better and some of our behavior doesn't seem to reflect that. From gang-banging and going on to the next thing. Never mind the fact that we're all Black and that this is ridiculous. What is it doing to our life spans? Our young men's life spans?

I write about people and situations that are causing us harm. Somebody needs to say it or show it—and if it's embarrassing then it should be. Some of those comedians like D.L. Hughley, and he's not even that old, talk about how it was in the good old days. If you were out of line, your neighbor could beat your ass and when your parents got home you would get a beating again. You showed respect. I had to stop several of my sons friends from referring to me as Terry. We didn't call adults by their first names when I was a child. So I make them say Miss Terry or Aunt Terry or something—but they don't call me Terry. I told my son if I ever hear you refer to someone's parent by their first name I'll slap you into next week.

A lot of the writers coming out don't care about these values. They're like the equivalent of Lil' Kim. They'll go as far as they have to go just for shock value and to make money. I'm not trying to put myself on a pedestal but I don't write for shock value. There are lot of writers out here writing what I think are solid, strong stories that make you feel better when you finish them. And there are a lot of books I read out here where I could care less what happens to the characters.

But very often writers like you and E. Lynn Harris, characterized as writers of commercial Black fiction, are described as mentors and forerunners of this same group of uninspired writers. How do your respond to that labeling of what you do? Do you feel the need to defend yourself?

What is sad and annoying is that the publishing industry hasn't known how to characterize my work. What has heretofore been referred to as pop fiction—Danielle Steel, Mary Higgins Clark—is work that is pretty predictable. You know how it's going to end. And I don't consider my work to be formulaic at all. I know it isn't. And because of the language in my work, they are hesitant to put me in with the literature folks. But in libraries, my books are defined as literature and on college campuses my books are read as literature. But there are few Black writers who sell books in the numbers that I do so they put me into the popular literature category…

The other thing that is annoying to me is that I think the publishing industry gives me too much credit. They made it seem like before "Waiting to Exhale," there were no black writers. I know exactly what they're doing. It sets me up and it sets up many young writers who tried to emulate me. Even all the book covers began to look the same—all the bright colors. And how many stories about four women can there be? At least the number of women in the stories is changing. But there are too many relationship novels with some of them saying the same old story over and over again. I wouldn't mind a different spin on it. There are still people out here having troubling feeding their kids. There's more to it all than kissing and having sex and buying a BMW.

If you had to compare yourself to a singer or musician. Who would it be?

Macy Gray, Erykah Badu, Sade and maybe Maxwell. I think Macy Gray is really crazy and wild but honest—Erykah Badu as well. Maxwell—he's just really sensitive and I just have the utmost respect for him because of it. And he's not ashamed of it.

Will this book also be turned into a movie? Did you sell the movie rights?

No. I didn't sell them.

What's next for you?

I'd really like a write a young adult novel and write a young adult movie—something for the teenage set. And I have another idea for a novel. So it's just a matter of seeing what I can do.

-- September 26, 2002

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