Author: Thinking key to writing

By Monica Bryant
Diversity Institute Fellow

07.29.02

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Novelist Tina McElroy Ansa told Diversity Institute fellows that the most important part of writing is thinking.

“When you have your antennae up, I think you start seeing stories,” she said.

The fellows are people of color with no formal journalism experience or training. They undergo an intense 12-week course to learn how to work as reporters in daily newspapers.

Ansa said people are hungry for opportunities to share their experiences with journalists. Journalists, she said, must be willing to listen.

“You could certainly use that … connection to share with the larger world what people are thinking, which is what you’re supposed to be doing,” Ansa told fellows.

Writing is all about respect, she said, and she encouraged the fellows to find their own writing styles, respect themselves and their work.

"When you’re doing all the things that you’re supposed to do, you’re in the state of grace, and things come to you,” she said.

Ansa, who is a 1971 graduate of Spelman College, says she is in a state of grace and doing what she seems destined to do – writing fiction.

Ansa says she spent years listening to her grandfather’s stories on her family’s porch and listening to strangers’ stories while sitting in her father’s juke joint. She says she now tells her own stories, her way.

“I see myself as a very organic writer. One idea grows out of the other,” said Ansa, who worked at The Atlanta Constitution and Charlotte (N.C.) Observer before branching off to become a freelance journalist and eventually a fiction writer. “I’m a storyteller. I love a good story.”

Ansa said writers often pull the covers off others with the stories they tell, but doing so often means they also pull covers off themselves. She said books create a safe arena for discussing issues that otherwise might be ignored.

Ansa was born in Macon, Ga., the youngest of five children. Her odyssey into writing began while growing up in the 1950s in what she calls a storytelling tradition.

"Coming from a small town is an interesting piece of baggage,” she said.

Ansa said when people change jobs or move to a new location, they sometimes forget to unpack the “good baggage” that they carry with them, baggage such as stuff they know inherently because of where and how they grew up.

“I’m really nosey,” Ansa said. “That’s part of my baggage. I’m interested in things. You have to tap your past and be open to storytelling.”

About 50 fans attended a public book signing and reception held for Ansa on the second day of her visit at the Freedom Forum. They heard Ansa field questions from her ex-college roommate Wanda Lloyd, who is now executive director of the Diversity Institute, and they heard Ansa read from her latest book, You Know Better. The newly released novel focuses on the relationship between three generations of women known as the Pines living in the mythical town of Mulberry, Ga.

Gail Crawford, of Nashville, says she is Ansa’s biggest fan.

“I think she’s profound in so many ways,” Crawford said. “She writes so well. She has so much to say.”

Ansa said she is sometimes amazed at the fact that she has been able to establish an identity as a writer.

“It takes a lot of nerve, a lot of bravery to stand up and say, ‘I’m a writer,’” she said. “You’re a writer because you write. You’re not a writer because you have a job as a writer.”

Her other novels include Ugly Ways and The Hand I Fan With. Her most popular work, Baby of the Family, has been adapted for an upcoming film. Her husband headed up that project.

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Articles, photos by 2002 Diversity Institute Fellows
Collection page for articles written by 2002 Diversity Institute Fellows.  07.23.02