Tell Us About Yourself, Lawrence Allan
September 2023's CTBC author on cocktail guests, writing origin stories, and more.
This coming Saturday, September 16, I’ll be sitting down with Lawrence Allan, a crime and comedy novelist based in Los Angeles.
Our live (and later recorded!) conversation will focus on the craft of writing and the ways in which the work of others—including Lisa Lutz, author of The Spellman Files series—inspires him, so I wanted to play a little “Getting to Know You” here.1
Comp Title Book Club (CTBC): Thanks for chatting with me, Larry! When did you start writing?
Lawrence Allan (LA): I feel like I've always been writing. I remember doing my own comic book adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back when I was a wee lad. But it was in high school that I took a serious interest in it, starting with short stories. I moved into playwriting for a very long time, followed by lots and lots of unsold pilots and a couple of screenplays. And now I'm here writing novels, and it feels so good and so right.
CTBC: I know that both screenwriting and novel writing have their gatekeepers, but I’m so happy you’ve found your niche with novels. If you could have any two writers, living or dead, over for coffee or drinks, who would they be?
LA: That's easy. My two biggest influences: Raymond Chandler and Kurt Vonnegut. I sort of imagine they would bristle at each other. I feel like they would be of two different worlds and each would have opinions, especially once the drinks start flowing. I also imagine that I would not be able to keep up with those drinks and I would have a massive hangover the next morning and wonder if I made a horrible mistake. Spoilers: I did. I should have invited them separately on different evenings.
CTBC: Yes! Like you, didn’t Chandler write both novels and screenplays? (And can we change the rules of this thought exercise so you can invite a third writer over? I want to be a fly on the wall for that cocktail party.)
Switching gears, do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
LA: Finish. Finish the thing you’re working on. Work at whatever pace works for you (don’t let others tell you how you should be doing it), but finish. Then worry about making it better. You can’t make anything better if there is no thing.
CTBC: That’s great advice you’ve just dished out. What is the best writing advice anyone ever gave you?
LA: Put exposition in dialogue in a scene with conflict. It will not feel like an exposition dump.
CTBC: That’s a good one, somewhat similar to what I discussed with Tríona Walsh, the false sense of momentum created by writing an exposition including a walk-and-talk or characters inside a moving car.
What’s your favorite part of the writing process: drafting, revision, pitching?
LA: Revision. It’s funny, I used to love drafting, but I've come to like revision more. I get to deepen the work, and that’s rewarding for me.
CTBC: If you’re not writing or reading, what are you most likely doing?
LA: Does thinking about writing count? No? OK. Good chance I'm making something, building something, or painting something.
CTBC: Thanks for the chat, Lawrence. Looking forward to a deeper conversation on Saturday!
Lawrence Allan is an award-winning novelist who is Midwestern as f@!k. He loves heroes who use humor to cover up their own trauma. His debut novel, Big Fat F@!k-Up, is a finalist for the Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel and won two Claymore Awards at Killer Nashville, including Best Comedy. His work has appeared in Shotgun Honey and the crime anthology WRONG TURN. He studied improvisation at The Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis and clowning and at Commedia Dell’arte, a physical theater school in Blue Lake, California. He holds an MFA in playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin and lives in Los Angeles.
Say hello to Larry on all of the social platforms!
Insta: @writeLarrywrite;
Facebook: facebook.com/writeLarrywrite
Newsletter: LawrenceAllanWrites.substack.com
X (formerly Twitter): @writeLarrywrite
If you aren’t sold on this month’s interview by the end of his answers to this questionnaire, there may be no hope for you.