Author Interview: Haili Blassingame on Revision and Reinvention

C.C. King
6 days ago
7 min read

Tuesday greetings, writers!

I love talking to authors and having conversations that get into the real work of writing: where stories come from, how they change in revision, and what happens when the material of our lives refuses to fit neatly inside one form.

Book cover on bright pink with four abstract portraits and neon green title They All Fall in Love at the End by Haili Blassingame.

Today, I’m so excited to welcome author Haili Blassingame to the blog to talk about her novel, They All Fall in Love at the End, a bold, sharp, and deeply searching story about desire, ambition, artistic identity, and the messy process of becoming a writer.

In our conversation, Haili talks about moving from journalism and nonfiction into fiction, learning what revision really demands, finding trusted readers, building a literary life outside the MFA path, and experimenting with form when traditional prose isn’t enough to hold the story.

There's so much to take away from her insights, I know everyone will find something valuable to reflect on for their own writing process and writing life.

Check out the author interview below, and enjoy!

-CC

Interview: Author Haili Blassingame on Revision and Reinvention

CCK: Haili, welcome! I’m so glad to have you here. You have a strong background in journalism as an NPR producer and a nonfiction essayist. In the novel, a legendary author tells Cat that fiction is about “playing in the big, big world of genre possibility,” and that she took the material of her life and “gave it a new one.”

How did your background in factual storytelling inspire your leap into this novel, and what tips do you have for writers trying to successfully turn the messy material of their own lives into compelling fiction?

HB: Thanks for having me!! To answer your question, I was searching for a story that would explain myself and my desires to me (why did I want three boyfriends? etc.) and realized I was going to have to write it.

Beige quote card with teal text: Abandon allegiance to how things Went Down... HAILI BLASSINGAME.

Of course, the narrative ended up going off the rails, taking on a life of its own, becoming less and less about me and much more about the questions I was asking, the confusion I was experiencing. That energy is still in the book, even though the events of it now dramatically depart from my life.

My advice is to abandon allegiance to how things Went Down (except if you’re writing memoir, then don’t do that), and focus on figuring out what will make the spirit of Went Down the most interesting story.

CCK: I love that idea of abandoning allegiance to what actually happened in favor of the “spirit” of what happened. That feels so freeing, but also like it requires a lot of trust in the story as it starts becoming its own thing.

As writers, we have to get comfortable with the idea of revision. In the story, Janine tells a stunned Cat that her latest novel took “upwards of thirty-five drafts.” Later, Cat physically stitches her two separate manuscripts together and ends up rewriting her story entirely from memory.

Could you talk about your own revision approach for They All Fall in Love at the End? How do you get through the daunting process of revision?

HB: It was awful!!! Revision was the greatest challenge BY FAR. I’d never done it before. I thought revision meant switching sentences around, so it was truly a paradigm shift, understanding that revision is, in some ways, when the real work of becoming an author begins. I had to rewrite the whole book from page one. I got through it because what choice did I have??? Often, I mentally block off all other options until there’s one path and I’m forced down it dragging my feet. I love revision now, but it’s still the hardest thing you’ll ever do.

CCK: That “what choice did I have?” feeling is so real, and I think a lot of writers will recognize that moment when revision stops being a polish and becomes a total re-seeing of the work.

Speaking of that process, I was really struck by the way Cat receives feedback in the novel. Professor Ford provides a masterclass in tough-but-necessary feedback, telling Cat that her work lacks “emotionality” and reminding her that “meaning first, language last” is the goal. At the same time, she receives harsh, sometimes even dismissive feedback from her workshop, and particularly Professor Milken.

How did you find your own trusted readers or mentors for this novel? And what advice do you have for writers struggling to sort through feedback while staying true to the story they need to tell?

HB: Unfortunately, I had such a charmed experience (I say unfortunately because many writers won’t have experienced this so I’m aware it may not be so helpful). So I got my agent from my Modern Love essay and she was my reader, she helped me revise it.

Inspirational quote on pale green background: Know what you’re writing before inviting feedback. HAILI BLASSINGAME

I still struggle to find and trust readers, I basically only trust two people when it comes to feedback and hold my projects close to my chest. I know The Shit No One Tells You About Writing has a beta reader match up. Taking writing workshops is another way to get feedback.

My advice is to know what you’re writing before inviting anyone else into the process (unless you’re a collaborator writer). This way, you know what feedback you’re looking for and your antenna is up when it comes to knowing what’s useful for you and what’s not.

CCK: That’s such useful advice, especially the reminder to know what you’re writing before inviting other people into the process. It gives the writer a center of gravity before all those outside voices come in. That makes me think about another thread in the novel: the question of what kind of writing life a person actually needs.

In your acknowledgments, you thank your MFA program for letting you in “even though I failed to finish my degree,” and in the book, Cat realizes she doesn’t need that “silly program.”

For writers debating whether to go into debt for an MFA or forge their own path, what is your biggest piece of advice on building a literary life outside of the academy?

HB: Oh God, I don’t know, MFA’s can be great but what I hear over and over is that it’s most useful for people who are trying to carve out the time to write and the MFA does that for them (there’s also the community piece). I know Stephanie Danler went to The New School, which is not, as far as I know, free like an Iowa, but it paid off for her.

Pale blue quote card with dark teal text: Know what you need... writing a novel while working is reality for most writers. Haili Blassingame

Know what you need. You don’t need an MFA to do anything and I DO recommend learning how to write a novel while working because that’s the reality for most writers. You don’t want to overly depend on having to have two years of total free time to write.

I took writing workshops here and there at the Writer’s Center and Catapult (RIP) which connected me with some of my most important mentors. Writing workshops outside of the MFA are just as useful and there’s a ton of them.

CCK: I appreciate that distinction so much: knowing what you need, rather than assuming there’s one official path into the writing life. And that same spirit of questioning the “official” container seems to show up in the form of the novel, too.

Lastly, I’d love to talk about form and structure. You use screenplay formatting to depict the explosive, cyclical arguments between Cat’s parents.

How do you know when a scene demands a different structural container? What advice do you have for writers looking to break out of traditional prose and experiment with mixed media or script formats?

HB: Oh, we had to get out of the protagonist’s brain for a second is how I saw it. The screenplays are third-person and so it’s a nice respite to a story so deeply rooted in one person’s head. Also the novel itself is uncomfortable with the novel form! That’s one of the big questions, how do you contain a thing that won’t be contained?

Pale pink quote card with teal text: Follow your experimental impulses to the end; if it doesn't work, start over.

A novel is by nature a container, so I see the screenplays as the book kind of breaking out in hives for a second. But notice it always returns to the novel form, to the conventional mode, which mimics Cat’s journey. She’s trying to tell a different story but continues to find herself inside an old one.

My advice is to follow your experimental impulses to the end. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work, you can always start over.

CCK: Love it! Thank you so much, Haili, for sharing your insights with us today! I am taking away so much from our discussion today, and I can’t wait to read more of your work in the future!

HB: Thank you, Caitrin!!!

CCK: Readers, I hope you check out Haili's novel They All Fall in Love at the End, which you can find on Amazon and Bookshop.org. Also, don't forget to add the title to your Goodreads reading list!

More about Haili Blassingame:

Haili Blassingame seated indoors with one knee up, wearing patterned top and jeans, calm expression; books and framed art behind her. — Author Haili Blassingame

Haili Blassingame is a producer for the show 1A from WAMU and NPR. She writes literary fiction about love, desire, and the decisions that feel impossible to make starring plucky, loud-mouth female protagonists of color. Her debut novel is called THEY ALL FALL IN LOVE AT THE END. It has a hot-pink cover.

She's also written a New York Times Modern Love essay about breaking up with her boyfriend and a piece in The New Republic about Kamala Harris and Gretchen Whitmer.

Haili has been a guest on the Modern Love podcast, NPR’s Life Kit, and NPR’s 1A. She previously worked on NPR’s Code Switch and Weekend Edition. Haili lives in Washington, D.C with her 10,000 books and no bookshelf.