Boris Fishman Masterclass

Boris Fishman, author of A Replacement Life

This past week, our writing class attended a masterclass with the author Boris Fishman, author of A Replacement Life. A Replacement Life follows Slava, an aspiring Russian writer working at the legendary magazine Century as a researcher. Slava's grandfather, Yevgeny, is a survivor of the Holocaust. But the German government beg to differ. As part of the recovery process, the German government pay Holocaust survivors as a way of trying to make up for their suffering. But Yevgeny doesn't make the requirements to receive these payments according to the German government. So Slava sets off on trying to convince the German government that he, Slava Gelman, is a suffering Holocaust survivor in order to prove the system wrong.

Sounds cool, right?

During the talk, Fishman gave us some very valuable advice on perusing a career in writing and writing itself. As I was looking over my notes from this post, I saw three things that really stood out...

1) Don't let technology take over your life for the sake of your writing; stay alert. You may see someone walking on the street and think of an idea for what could lead to your first novel.

2) Don't rely on your memory. If you see something and get an idea, write it down.

3) Revision and patience are key to being a good writer.

Of course Fishman said many other great things, but these were the three that I feel will stay with me. But he did say one thing that is not really advice, but more like a quote: Fiction is timeless; Journalism is right now.

Before I started story writing, I was very interested in Journalism. I thought it was the career that held everything I love: traveling, writing, and meeting new and interesting people. But now I am more interested in Fiction. This is very similar to Boris Fishman--he was, and still is, a Journalist, but then he journeyed into Fiction, which lead to A Replacement Life.

Because of this masterclass, I feel like Fishman will become on of the authors I look up to. His story is incredibly interesting and he puts all of his life and writing experience into his work. After attending his masterclass, I will definitely be reading A Replacement Life, as well as the novel he has coming out next year.