20 questions for rachael lavon

Rachael Lavon is an award-winning writer who serves as the editor of Calligraphy, Mishpacha’s semiannual literary collection. Rachael has a passion for writing short fiction, essays, and articles about various topics, and enjoys coaching aspiring writers in the art of fiction. 

My ideal environment

Stick me in a place with no opportunities for procrastination and it’s like magic. I once wrote an entire Calligraphy story while waiting for my car at the mechanic.

Deadlines make me

produce. But also incredibly stressed out.

I learned the most from writing about

medical mysteries.

The professional accomplishment I’m proudest of

the stories that made it to school curriculums. It’s kind of mixed emotions though, I’m not sure how I feel about my story being some poor sixth- grader’s dreaded homework.

The best piece of advice I got was from

Avigail Sharer, who taught us that the conflict of any fiction story should be there within the first sentence of the story. I tell my writers that if they’re finding it hard to hint at the conflict within the first sentence, they don’t have a real handle on the main conflict. Stop writing and figure it out before you continue.

1

Do you remember the first story you wrote?

It was a story entitled “Underwater,” about two girls who witnessed a drowning and the guilt they carried for not trying to save the third party. The original draft was saved from the rejection pile at Family First by the wonderful editors Bassi Gruen and Avigail Sharer. They offered me the chance to work on it with them and rewrite certain parts to make it fit for publication, and of course I jumped at the offer. Basically anything I know about writing and editing I learned from them — and my grandfather Shalom Staiman a”h — who was a writer.