"I’ll write a whole scene just to set up one joke"

An interview with author Katherine Heiny

Katherine Heiny writes perfect books about everyday people and their lives. It sounds so simple but oh how rare it is to elevate this kind of subject matter to such life-affirming heights. Heiny takes family life, friendship and relationships and renders them profound with her tender and insightful prose. And my god, she’s funny.

The character Audra in her 2017 novel, Standard Deviation, is one of my favourite comic creations. She’s brash and nosy and never stops talking. She should be awful but she’s so charming, funny and well-meaning that you can’t help but love her.

“Graham had often wondered how Audra got people to tell her everything about themselves so quickly. Once he had asked her and she had said vaguely, “Oh, I don’t know. I guess I think life is too short for all that crap about ‘Where are you from?’ and "‘Do you play the zither?’

The zither! On what planet was “Do you play the zither?” considered small talk?

I could quote so many funny lines but I’d basically end up transcribing the whole book which would be silly. Please buy it instead.

Heiny’s 2021 novel, Early Morning Riser is also utterly wonderful and she has a story collection, Single, Carefree, Mellow, from 2016, which I’m saving for holiday.

It was really interesting to hear from Heiny about how she refines story ideas, translating funny experiences into her writing and the books that inspire her. Hope you enjoy!

Are you working on a new book at the moment? 

I have a new story collection called Games and Rituals out next year. One of the stories is loosely based on the time in my early 20’s when I wore a bridesmaid’s dress to a temp job. I’m not a fan of the ageing process but being older does give me more stories to draw on.

What are your writing habits?

A lot of times, my day starts with me bouncing story ideas off my husband and him suggesting various plots and me telling him that they will never work.  And then I change my mind and decide he was completely right and is, in fact, a genius.  (He is remarkably patient with this process.) I try to devote the late morning hours to writing every day because I think I’m most productive then. As I get closer to finishing a project, the time expands until I’m writing eight or ten hours per day.  But that’s totally debilitating and I can’t do it indefinitely.

How have you changed your writing process over time?

When I first started writing, in my early twenties, I tried to write a story about anything funny that happened to me. Like the time a man eyed me through the sneeze guard of a salad bar in midtown Manhattan and then told me that I wasn’t his type and also that the ends of my hair were brushing the Thousand Island dressing. That was it — the whole story.  I couldn’t figure out what to do with it beyond the first paragraph.

Now, many (too many!) years later, I still love it when funny things  happen to me. For example, I was so eager to get my second Covid shot that I rushed to my appointment wearing jeans and a turtleneck with tight sleeves and then had to take my shirt off in front of a room full of people. That made me really happy and made me want to write, but the difference is that instead of believing that the incident itself was the inspiration for a story, I’ve learned to let the idea of the incident inspire me. I no longer feel the need to rush to my desk and begin a new piece about something that happened fifteen minutes ago — I just funnel the humour and inspiration into my current project. 

You've said that your one-line zingers are the first thing that come to you when you're writing. Do you save up funny ones you've heard in conversation or said yourself?

I don’t keep a journal because I’m pretty lazy and also because I’ve discovered that things get funnier the more I turn them over in my mind and improve them. But when I have an idea for a story, the first thing I like to think about is which parts can be funny. Humour in my writing is very important to me and I’ll write a whole scene just to set up one joke.

Why do you think you write what you write?

I love all kinds of books but when I first started writing, I had this weird idea that books had to be SERIOUS. I’d read Heartburn by Nora Ephron and loved it, but that seemed like a one-off or some exception or something. I read a lot of Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro and Joan Didion—all wonderful writers but not especially comic ones.  Then I read Bridget Jones Diary and High Fidelity (I read them back-to-back) and it was like my head cracked open.  I realised a novel could have humour and melancholy at the same time.  I was thirty years old at the time, amazingly.  I can be kind of slow on the uptake.

Tell me about some books you love to recommend.

I just read We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman. It’s about a woman whose friend enters hospice and it’s written with so much love and compassion that it made the idea of hospice almost welcoming. I know that sounds off-putting but it’s a very funny, brilliant book. I really loved Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan. It was the first book to make me laugh out loud during lockdown and I’m forever grateful. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado is astonishing—a fierce, funny, dazzling exploration of domestic violence.

Can you recommend a podcast that you’ve loved? 

I recently listened to Maddie, a podcast about the Madeleine McCann case and it was excellent. Like the rest of the world, true crime continues to fascinate me.

How about a TV show? 

I loved Insecure. The writing, the acting, the story arcs—all so funny and brilliant. I could barely watch the series finale because every time the screen would fade to black, I’d be afraid it was the end. When it did end, I felt so bereft. 

What are your reading habits?

I think that rereading books is comfort reading and it’s my absolute favourite thing to do.  There are a lot of books I read every couple of years – Misery, Gone with the Wind, The Stepford Wives, Notes on a Scandal, Into Thin Air, The Accidental Tourist.  This list goes on and on. I’m always afraid the books will feel stale but they never do. I always find something new to admire.

What's your ideal holiday reading scenario?

Oh, gosh. Probably being snowed in somewhere with a big stack of books and lots of champagne. But the beauty of books is that they transport me. I first read We Need to Talk About Kevin in a service station in North London when my car had a flat tire and I remember it as a very happy afternoon. 

Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny is out now. Make sure you read Standard Deviation too.