Author Spotlight: Daniel Paliwoda

In my blog, I’ve written a few times about famous authors and their books. Among them have been John Kerry, Madeleine L’Engle, Anne Tyler, Joy Harjo, and the Korean authors Min Kym, Kyung-Sook Shin, Eugenia Kim, and Yoojin Grace Wuertz. With this blog post, I’m trying something new—profiling authors I know personally.

First up is my former colleague and now friend Daniel Paliwoda. Dan and I met when we were both on the faculty of the US Military Academy at West Point. We both taught English there for a few years before moving on to other opportunities. 

Author Daniel Paliwoda (My Writer’s Notebook/Daniel Paliwoda)

Among Dan’s many accomplishments is his book Melville and the Theme of Boredom. As the title clearly delineates, this book is about the author Herman Melville and the theme of boredom in his works. It was published in 2010 by McFarland & Company, which, according to its website, is an independent publisher that produces approximately 350 academic and general-interest nonfiction books per year and is “best known for the serious treatment of popular culture.”

For the past several years, Dan has been working on the manuscript of his second book. This manuscript, tentatively titled Living with Katyn: A Personal and Literary Odyssey, not only tells the story of the Katyn Massacre, but it also deals with some of Dan’s research experiences, including his detention and interrogation by Russian security forces and his witness to a racially motivated attack in a Moscow subway station, as summarized on his website. Interestingly, he first became interested in writing about the Katyn Massacre when I knew him at West Point, and I remember him talking with much passion and vigor about the topic.

Dan keeps a blog, where he writes about diverse subjects, many of them related to his writing and his writing process. He can also be found on Facebook and Instagram where he maintains author pages. If you’d like to communicate via email, you can contact him on his website.

Following is an interview I conducted with Dan, which we edited collaboratively.

When did you first know you might become an author?

This question isn’t an easy one to answer. As a 1980s teenager listening to hard rock music and playing the electric guitar, I fancied myself as a “songwriter.” The lyrics were corny, but I imagined myself as a poet like Walt Whitman or Charles Baudelaire. Of course, those songs/poems weren’t any good, but I considered myself as “published” by the fact that I had written them. Later, when I completed my M.A. thesis on Herman Melville, I didn’t see myself as an “author.” Beyond the thesis committee, my wife, and my late friend Steve, no one else would read it; hence I wasn’t an “author.” Months later, another graduate student contacted me about my Melville thesis. He was interested in my academic writing. Huh? Me?

Even when I completed my doctorate, also on Melville, I felt I was an incomplete “author”; I needed to publish the dissertation as a “book,” which I eventually did, but again, I didn’t feel like an “author.” Of course, I was an “author,” but something was impeding me from viewing myself as one. Only when I discovered my next major writing project, the Katyn Massacre, did I feel like an “author.” The Katyn project was my first significant project as a “Ph.D.,” not simply as a “graduate student.” You can say I was going through an identity crisis. Only when I realized I was an “intellectual” did I see myself as an “author,” too.

What or who motivates you to write?

My writing motivations are varied. My wife and children always have encouraged me. My late friend Steve, who was my university writing professor and then later a dear friend, became like family and inspired me; now, his spirit and memory continue to inspire me. My Katyn book manuscript editor who is also a close friend is an important affirming presence. My classroom students and their questions have generated deeper thinking and hopefully better writing. And of course, the many artists I have fallen in love with—not only literary ones. I love music! I am an amateur guitar player, and music played an enormous role for me while completing the Katyn manuscript.

What is your favorite part of your writing process and what do you most like about it?

I enjoy brainstorming and mapping my ideas. I feel like an explorer. “Oh, what’s that?” or “What if I go down this path; what will I find?” I like to find the “big picture” for a writing project, and I spend hours, even months wrestling with ideas in my mind before committing those ideas into actual written words. I convince myself that the mental exercises I perform build my confidence. Once I can “see” the writing project and “feel” the ideas, the writing becomes easier.

Where do you do most of your writing and why is that your chosen place?

When I wrote my dissertation on Herman Melville, I wrote the draft everywhere: the university library, park bench, inside my car… I mean everywhere. At the time, I was a father to a young child, and I quickly learned I needed to organize my time. My son needed me, and I refused to compromise my relationships with him and my wife because writing would take time away from them. My wife is a nurse who works the night shift, which served to help me concentrate my time. When I had put my son to bed, I would take a brief nap, waking up at 10 PM. I’d drink coffee and write at the dining room table. I would write until 4 or 5 AM and sleep. Then I’d take my son to preschool and go teach at university. Repeat.

Now, my children are older; however, I still adhere to that early dictate: manage my time so that the writing doesn’t compete with my loved ones. Another difference between the Melville project and my current Katyn work is that earlier I handwrote the entire dissertation, but now I type the whole manuscript. Initially I handwrote this manuscript, too; however, I found it took too much time. For example, 60-plus pages took me over three weeks to transcribe. It felt like double work. In other words, I was wasting time. So, now I sit and type in “The Blue Room,” the family room noted for its vibrant blue painted walls. I still rely upon actual notebooks to jot down handwritten notes or to brainstorm.

Whose books do you most like to read and why?

I haven’t read a book for pleasure in a long time; in fact, I can’t remember what that book was or when I read it. Because I teach university writing and literature courses using essays, novels, poems, etc., I reread them. I read and grade student essays based upon those texts. I miss that experience of just reading a book with no obligations toward it; however, I do listen to audiobooks. Even when I listen to a voice actor reading a book, my book choices often are “work-related” ones, books that I would teach at university. Nonetheless, the books I teach are among my most cherished ones.

My last graduate-level literature course was on the Russian novelist Dostoevsky. He is my favorite artist. His philosophical and psychological breadth taught many lessons about writing and reading. For that course, we read everything; however, I stopped reading midway through Demons because the writing beautifully overwhelmed me, and I didn’t have the time or strength to read The Brothers Karamazov. So, both Demons and The Brothers Karamazov will be the first two books I will read because I want to read them, not for a class but for me.

What advice do you have for aspiring authors?

Write daily. Doing so helps to curb writer’s block. While drafting my current book manuscript, I was plagued by terrible writer’s block. During the early years of writing the chapter drafts, I wasn’t consistent; I didn’t have a pre-fixed writing schedule. And when I did write, I doubted each word, phrase … everything. I also teach university writing classes, and when my writing students encounter similar writing difficulties, I have an entire lesson plan on writer’s block. For some reason, I didn’t heed my own advice. Why not? Ugh. I undermined myself with doubts like, “I can’t write that,” “What will people think of me when I say this,” or “What am I writing about, again?” I became angry with myself for giving in to this undermining of myself, my writing self. I had enough; I reached a breaking point. I told myself I needed to finish drafting the manuscript by the end of 2020. The world was shut down, and I had time; however, a close friend died, and I mourned.

The following year, I asked another friend to be my manuscript editor. We negotiated a schedule: I will deliver Chapters 1, 2, and 3 by this date. At first the process was slow going, but it was progress. These early drafts were fragmentary, but they had potential. I needed someone to nudge me, to corral me, and to remind me that I do have something important to say. We established another due date for more writing content. Then a breakthrough occurred: the manuscript’s message began to become clear. And that insight was the first impetus to revise. A new, stronger confidence arrived. Writing the manuscript felt like therapy when I eventually came to terms with my uncertainties and even guilt about writing the manuscript. Once I achieved this victory, the writing flowed.

Therefore, find yourself a community of supporters, especially a community of fellow writers or teachers, and write. Even though the manuscript is now complete, and I am reviewing it currently, I continue to write everyday: my blogsite. And I credit my blogs as the main reason I don’t experience writer’s block. The blogsite functions as my notebook; releasing weekly blogs keeps me accountable.

Anything else you'd like to share?

Be open to changing up your writing process. While drafting the Melville book, I couldn’t listen to music because it would distract me. At first, I applied that same condition to writing the early drafts of the Katyn manuscript; I’m unsure whether doing so was effective or not. During the last two years of writing the Katyn manuscript, I realized that I needed to re-evaluate everything: transition from handwriting to typing, writing environment, everything. I experimented with the Pomodoro Method [see the original archived website describing this technique]; instead of setting a time clock, I used particular musical compositions (from Gregorian chants, Black Sabbath with Dio, to ambient sound) as my timer. I discovered that certain musical pieces entranced me, liberating me from writer’s block. The music’s rhythms or forcefulness would provide the energy and timbre of my written words. I am convinced listening to music while composing my own creative work allowed me to finish (finally) my Katyn manuscript. I would have surprised my younger academic self about this reliance upon music to finish writing!