Blog
Rebecca van Laer on Finding Drama in Daily Life
by Writing Workshops Staff
A month ago
The most compelling stories might be hiding in your morning routine, your text messages, and the seemingly insignificant moments that fill your days. Rebecca van Laer, the Hudson Valley-based author of the novella HOW TO ADJUST TO THE DARK and the forthcoming CAT (Bloomsbury's Object Lessons series) has built her literary career on this very principle: transforming the quotidian into the profound.
After publishing an experimental novella that blended poetry and prose, van Laer found herself drawn away from "high concept" material and toward the rich terrain of everyday experience. What began as writing about life with her partner and their cats, complete with the endless repetition of feeding schedules and litter box maintenance, evolved into a sophisticated exploration of how mundane moments can unlock the deepest questions about our lives.
This philosophy forms the backbone of van Laer's upcoming workshop, Everyday Drama: Shaping Memoir from Diaries, Notes, and Journals, a four-week intensive that promises to revolutionize how writers approach memoir.
Rather than mining trauma or seeking dramatic turning points, participants will learn to excavate their personal archives, from diary entries, marginalia, text messages, Notes and app scribblings, for narrative gold. With a Ph.D. in English from Brown University and expertise in queer and feminist autobiography, van Laer brings scholarly rigor and creative intuition to the craft of contemporary nonfiction.
Her approach challenges conventional memoir structures, embracing instead what Natalie Goldberg calls the "zigzag nature of how our mind works." Through close readings of Jamaica Kincaid, Sheila Heti, and Lydia Davis, students will discover how fragments, juxtaposition, and dilated moments can create tension without relying on traditional three-act structures. The result? A new toolkit for writers seeking to transform the overlooked details of daily existence into compelling literary art.
Below you'll find our interview with Rebecca for our Meet the Teaching Artist series:
Q&A with Rebecca van Laer
Writing Workshops: Hi, Rebecca. Please introduce yourself to our audience.
Rebecca van Laer: I'm a writer based in the Hudson Valley. I'm the author of two books: a novella, HOW TO ADJUST TO THE DARK (from Long Day Press), and CAT (Bloomsbury's Object Lessons Series).
Writing Workshops: What made you want to teach this specific class? Is it something you are focusing on in your own writing practice? Have you noticed a need to focus on this element of craft?
Rebecca van Laer: After publishing my first book—an experimental novella that blends poetry prose—I wanted to write something more "commercial." But the more I found myself stretching toward genre tropes, the less interested I became in the material. Alongside that project, I started writing about my everyday life with my partner and our cats. Living with cats mean constant repetition. Aside from the routine of feeding, scooping the litter box, and so on, I say the same things to my cats—and to my partner about our cats—again and again. But mining this seemingly mundane and even silly material became a way for my nonfiction to open up into big questions in my life. I'm very interested in the ways that using material close at hand (rather than grasping for something "high concept") can improve your craft and, most importantly, help you create work you feel invested in.
Writing Workshops: Give us a breakdown of how the course is going to go. What can the students expect? What is your favorite part about this class you've dreamed up?
Rebecca van Laer: On the first two weeks, we'll look at readings from Jamaica Kincaid, Lydia Davis, and Heidi Julavits and think together about how the seemingly mundane (gardening, cows) takes on consequence. We'll complete generative exercises during class time, and students will have the opportunity to share their work for quick feedback (if they wish!). In the latter two weeks, we'll continue to look at literature, but the focus will shift toward workshop so that everyone can share an in-progress piece of memoir.
I'm very excited about our week on "juxtaposition" in particular. We'll complete some exercises aimed at shifting scale, tone, and perspective—craft tools that are talked about too infrequently in nonfiction.
Writing Workshops: Who was your first literary crush?
Rebecca van Laer: Sylvia Plath
Writing Workshops: What are you currently reading?
Rebecca van Laer: Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional (a novel in diary entries and a study of daily life on a convent—right up my ally)
Writing Workshops: How do you choose what you're working on? When do you know it is the next thing you want to write all the way to THE END?
Rebecca van Laer: I usually talk about a project for a long time before I actually start working on it. In a sense, I'm doing a kind of audience testing, finding out how the general idea lands with my friends and collaborators and what comes to mind—the texts and films they mention and the questions they ask. I often read and watch these things before getting started. There's also an element of social pressure; people start to ask how the project is going, and I can only admit that I haven't actually started it for so long.
I feel best when I'm actively generating new material, so inevitably, once I finish one project (whether a book, a short piece, or an interview with another writer), a hole opens up in my morning routine, and I'm able to bring all my long-gestating ideas to the page.
Writing Workshops: Where do you find inspiration?
Rebecca van Laer: In my daily life; in conversations with friends; in film and literature; in old drafts, fragments, and notes from my own past.
Writing Workshops: What is the best piece of writing wisdom you've received that you can pass along to our readers? How did it impact your work? Why has this advice stuck with you?
Rebecca van Laer: When I was in my 20s, a small press was supposed to publish my first book. I ended up withdrawing it, which was the right decision, but it felt crushing at the time. My friend and colleague Poupeh Missaghi told me that, eventually, that would feel like a blip. That I should just keep going. I interviewed her more recently for the Creative Independent, and she shared some similar wisdom: "as long as you're alive and you're a writer, as long as you're a creator, you will find new things that you will be drawn to." The headwinds of the market and publishing industry can seem insurmountable. But if you want to make art, it has its own rewards. You just have to keep going.
Writing Workshops: What is your favorite book to recommend on the craft of writing? Why this book?
Rebecca van Laer: Matt Bell's Refuse to Be Done is so helpful for prose writers. It's filled with practical advice for generating new work, but most of all, there's advice for writing and revising in three stages. If you feel like you'll never reach "The End," pick it up!
Writing Workshops: Bonus question: What's your teaching vibe?
Rebecca van Laer: Laid back. We are here to make friends!
Van Laer's approach to memoir—finding profound meaning in life's repetitions and quiet moments—offers writers a refreshing alternative to the trauma-centered narratives that dominate contemporary nonfiction. Her emphasis on using "material close at hand" rather than grasping for high-concept ideas provides both practical craft advice and a philosophical framework that can sustain a lifelong writing practice.
Ready to transform your everyday observations into a compelling memoir? Join Rebecca van Laer's Everyday Drama: Shaping Memoir from Diaries, Notes, and Journals workshop and discover how the mundane moments of your life might contain the seeds of your most meaningful stories. As van Laer reminds us, sometimes the most extraordinary narratives are hiding in plain sight, waiting to be discovered in the fragments of our daily experience.
