Rachael Lavon: short stories, percolation, and the mystery of non-linear time
“You've got the whole thing in bite-size; it's like a cupcake as opposed to a full cake.”
The world of the short story is intense, a quick plunge into a universe crafted just for this story, and then you’re right back out. And if you don’t take a minute to think about what you just read, it’s as if it never existed. Without all of the extra elements it takes to sustain a novel, great short stories are intimate and contained, a snapshot of unexplored terrain with a deeper and narrower mission than a novel could aim for. Its focused plot will ignite a question, a thought, but doesn’t take the time to put it out: we’ve got to move on.
Rachael Lavon describes herself as a reader more than a writer, “All of my writing comes from my reading.” She wrote serial stories for Mishpacha before short stories captured her imagination and talent. Today she is Fiction Editor for Family First and editor of Calligraphy, Mishpacha’s bi-yearly short story collection.
You did long-form serials years ago, but you’ve become the queen of short stories. How does the short story restrict you? How does it free you?
I help develop serials for Mishpacha, so I'm on the other end also. Every serial chapter is a short story within a larger arc, there are so many moving parts to keep track of while writing a serial, it's a lot of work. But there's something so simple and gratifying about writing and reading a short story. You've got the whole thing in bite-size; it's like a cupcake as opposed to a full cake.
I did some writing in high school and won a big national contest. But later on, I didn't know how to get my career started or get my writing into Mishpacha, so I put it on hold. I already had three or four kids when I started with a couple of smaller serials. The pressure of getting a chapter out every week was enormous, and I sort of decided serial writing was not for me. I just love a short story because I can do it all in one go.
I work very, very hard on my short stories. I tend to be a little obsessive about them, I'll spend five or six weeks on one short story. It's a passion and a hobby, and I want it to come out exactly the way I envisioned. It took me a very long time to realize that I could accomplish that goal; when I first started writing short stories, they never really lived up to what I had in mind. This is advice to writers: the more you write, the better you get. I wrote and wrote, and at this point, I feel like I'm able to capture my vision onto paper, but it takes so much work. I wrote my earlier stories faster, but now it’s a craft that I put a tremendous amount of time and effort into.
Short stories, in Calligraphy and elsewhere, seem to be able to branch out into interesting topics, themes, settings, and characters much more than novels. Why do you think that is?
When we get a submission at Mishpacha, we’re looking for something extremely different and fresh that we haven't seen a million times. In a novel or serial, you have all those interesting characters and their development throughout the course of a long novel, so there can be some cliche aspects that we've seen before because you have space to weave in other elements; it’s okay if some chapters are a little slower and not every paragraph glistens. In a short story though, every sentence has to pack a punch in a short amount of time. So there needs to be some twist, some fresh angle, something different, something that makes me think, ‘Wow, we haven't seen this before.’ It doesn't have to be action-packed though, it could be an emotion that nobody's tapped into yet, for example.
Here’s how I picture your process: You write a story, cut it up into little pieces, and glue it back together in some arbitrary order. I’m thinking of Six Days in October, The Problem with Yael. We live our own lives linearly - what does this non-linear structure do to a story?
It’s so funny what you said about cutting it up. I feel like it adds mystery and keeps the reader thinking. It took me a very long time to write both of those stories. For The Problem with Yael, I used an omniscient point of view, like a godly narrator. So I was able to head hop between Yael, Chayala, Kivi, and the neighbor and be in all of their heads. So I felt like I didn't have to go in order.
I used a non-linear structure in Six Days in October because I felt the plot itself wasn't as fresh as I wanted it to be. It was really a normal story, a cute romantic comedy, and I felt like I needed something more. I happen to have a whole thing on this; we don't want Chani and Boruch in the kitchen stories anymore. After House of Mirrors, which was a solid serial but not so “different”, I went through a bit of a crisis in my writing. I was like, I can't do this, writing these ‘Chani and Boruch in the kitchen talking about finances’ stories are crushing my soul. I almost stopped writing but then got back to myself and started experimenting with other things.
I did fan fiction, like Mimmy and Simmy marrying Yossi and Laibel, and I did some historical stuff. I have to give all the credit to Bassi Gruen, editor of Family First at the time. She was so accommodating. Anything I sent in, she was like, “This is great, this works.”
Were your historical stories part of rediscovering your writing?
Yes, a hundred percent. I wrote No Need for Knives which took place in the 60’s. We hadn't seen so much short historical fiction because who wants to do all that research for a short story? I'm big, big, big on research, that's my pet peeve over here. I'm a big history person, and I loved the research process, that’s what got me back to enjoying writing. I then wrote Breathe, a three-part historical story set in 1969. That brought me back to, ‘okay, I can experiment, I can keep writing.’
One month into COVID, you wrote a beautiful essay. When a shop woman asked you if you’d write a story about her, you thought -
“I can’t write a story about this. It’s too real.” And then - “You made me think long and hard about stories. It’s the real ones that are the most unbelievable, that become the center point of our lives.”
Some of your stories are very very real. About teens who don’t fit in, families dealing with their secrets. And some of them are meant to be fake, about cat traumas and Disneyland careers. But they all have that same human element you bring in. Does the theme and concept depend on the format and style at all? Can a story be too real or too fake?
You're asking, does every story have a home? Yes. I do believe that if all criteria are met (which is no easy feat) any story could work. But what I find with historical fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, futuristic, humor, and all the interesting submissions we get, is that they often lean too hard on that interesting element as the core of the story, while really we need the meat and potatoes of a short story, which is character. For character-driven stories, which is what we publish at Family First, you need to see the character go from point A to point B, and that development is the story.
You could have amazing world-building or historical fiction that is so rich in detail. But if the character doesn't move and evolve and there's no inciting incident or something that makes her have an epiphany and change, it won’t work as a short story. Bottom line, take everything away: if this wasn't on Mars, would this story work?
You’ve written about your introduction to frum fiction being Mimmy and Simmy. And somehow you’ve kept coming back to those childhood characters. Graham Greene, an English author, wrote “Perhaps it is only in childhood that books have any deep influence on our lives.” Tell me about your own journey with kids' lit, and what is it about those favorites that we can’t get enough of?
That quote resonates very much. I have one daughter who needs a story every night- she loves when I make up the stories myself so I put Mickey and Minnie Mouse in. They're baalei teshuva, they moved from Florida and now live in Eretz Yisrael, it’s an ongoing, evolving story and a lot of fun. What’s interesting is that I’ve never done kids' writing but through these nightly sessions, I see how writers are able to stick so many lessons into kids' stories when the premise is fun and holds their interest. I think that's the magic of frum kid’s literature, those lessons stay with you for a lifetime and have a lasting impact.
I definitely think the stuff I read in junior high and those childhood books left an imprint. Thinking about A Separate Piece by John Knowles, I can pinpoint that so much of my writing stems from that book. When your eyes are open to good writing, fascinating characters, and world-building, it makes an impression.
Let’s talk about your work at Mishpacha. I think all of your fans were thrilled to see your name on the front page of Family First, Fiction Editor. What does that mean?
I’m now officially part of the team, working one-on-one with our core group of fiction writers and helping them develop their fiction. We go through plots together, they'll bounce ideas off of me, and then I get those fiction stories ready for print. It's basically the same process for Calligraphy.
Years ago, Family First ran a fiction contest. It was partially my idea, and Bassi Gruen was hesitant at first. I told her, “Worst comes to worst, I'll help you go through the submissions.” So she sent me a batch to read through and asked for a one-line summary for each story and why it does or doesn't work. She didn't want a megillah, she just wanted one-quick line: there was no plot, the characters were not realistic, or the core conflict was completely unrealistic or unrelatable. As I went through the submissions, I found myself learning what makes a story work or not work. At this point, I've gone through so many fiction stories that I hope I have a skill to hone in on why something will or won’t work in fiction.
The calligraphy is the highlight of any serious reader’s year. Take me into the behind-the-scenes of the calligraphy. With so many different authors contributing, how do you ensure there isn’t overlap in style, content, or even little side details?
It's hard. We try to screen everything coming in by asking for a one-line pitch: What’s your story about? We have our core writers that have been writing for years that always produce amazing stuff, and we'll sometimes have to bump one of their stories if there’s overlap and another piece is too similar. If we see a lot of the same dynamic, like a mother-daughter dynamic in one story, then a father-daughter dynamic, then a grandfather-granddaughter, it's just too heavy in that area. So we’ll try to move a story to the next Calligraphy or rework something so that it doesn't feel like you're reading the same story nine times.
You’ve done private coaching for years, and are now in that role at Family First too. What is the most misunderstood thing about writing fiction?
Fiction that shines and gets people excited takes work. If you wrote a story in one hour, even if you are the biggest name in fiction, it shows. It's like a soup that was only boiling for half an hour instead of six hours: you can taste the difference even though the ingredients are the same. When something's percolating, and those tiny details have been worked out, and the writer went back and changed and edited and refined the sentences, it glistens and shines.
From the reader's perspective, I think readers think there's more of an agenda than there is. The process really is, “Hey fiction writer, do you have anything for us? Let me know what you’re working on.” I sometimes hear friends of mine say, “Mishpacha published this fiction story and must have taken it from this current event story…” Listen, we love fiction, but we have high standards, and this is what comes in. There's no “great agenda” in terms of the Mishpacha umbrella “giving” our writers what they should write about.
You’ve done so many different styles and genres - serious contemporary drama, lighter contemporary ones, historical, the sillier spin-offs… which of the styles or stories you’ve done do you feel best represents your work?
From the feedback I get, people loved Mimmy and Simmy marrying Yossi and Laibel. I don't think that represents me, but I'm still proud of that story even though it was fun and light. I loved writing No Need for Knives, that was a story I was very proud of. It sat in my head for 12 years - that's what I mean by percolating. I came up with it in seminary, but I didn't have the skills to write it then. Thank God I had it in my mind all those years because when I finally did sit down to write it, I had gained enough skills that it came out the way I wanted it to.
That was the first time I was really proud of my work. And then there was no feedback. It wasn't absolute silence, but it wasn’t like The Problem with Yael or Six Days in October, which I got so much feedback from. Calligraphy stories tend to lean more toward the literary side, and not every single story in the collection will resonate with every reader, which can be hard as a writer when every bit of feedback is so meaningful. Family First fiction is often lighter, with more female main characters and we try to look for stories that readers can shmooze about at the park or enjoy over a cup of coffee in the morning. Sometimes those stories get far more feedback than stories in the Calligraphy collection, but I think it all boils down to providing an array of quality fiction for all types of readers.
You wrote this beautiful paragraph a few years ago -
Frum fiction takes more than its share of flak. The naysayers complain that when we create within our box, we sacrifice something in the process. And maybe that’s true. Maybe our finished product isn’t quite as glossy or polished or professional as those out there in the great wide world. But maybe we aren’t writing just to be as good as them. Maybe part of why we create is for the little girl with her kosher sandwich in Chuck E. Cheese. Or anyone else, sitting alone and looking to connect to something outside of themselves without sacrificing their standards…
Fiction can transport, uplift and connect you to something bigger than yourself. It can make you feel like part of a whole.
Can you elaborate on this? How does reading frum fiction, specifically, connect us to a whole and to our communities?
That was written explaining my upbringing, and how I lived in a very small town. I only had one or two frum friends when I was very young, and reading about little Jewish girls was amazing. So I think for a Mommy in small-town America who gets her Mishpacha and gets to read a fiction story with a shared experience - she also went through shidduchim, and she’s also raising teens, or whatever it is that we're writing about. I think it can make people feel like we're all dealing with stuff. Fiction comes from the brains of the frum men and women who are writing it, and these are often drawn from real experiences, whether our own or others. Very often, really good fiction can validate, it can make people feel less isolated, “Wow, someone gets me.”
What have you read recently that you can recommend?
I read fiction all day long as my job, so at night, I read historical works and biographies or listen to Torah Anytime’s history shiurim with Rabbi Landis. There's an amazing two-book series called The World That Was: Eretz Yisrael. It’s so well-researched and has so many details, it's incredible. The second volume just came out recently, so I'm in the middle of that now. And I love biographies, so I generally read most of the biographies that come out.
Can you give any sneak peek into something that's coming up?
I don't know if I'll be writing for this upcoming Calligraphy, I have a young baby who loves taking up all my time Baruch Hashem, but I do get to see the stories before everyone else, and I think it’s going to be an amazing collection. We also just started a new initiative at Family First: Fiction Pick of the Month. Every month we’ll be showcasing a different fiction writer. Esty Heller wrote the first story last month. We're giving our writers more space and more word count to develop richer, deeper, longer works and I think the readers are going to love it.