Inside the Mind of Judy Sandler: The Provocative Truths Behind ‘What Kind of Mother’
NBL: As a writer and teacher of embodied writing, I noticed you often show emotions manifest in your body. In one chapter you write, “My chest was tight as I tried to pull in air, my eyes narrowed, and a wave of frustration crept across my face and settled in my hands. I had to do something with my hands.” (170). Was this a natural way for you to write, or did you develop it in the labor of the craft?
JS: Truthfully, I tend to write without noticing emotion in my body. I am guilty of describing entire scenes without mentioning that my mouth is clenched or my hands are squeezed together. It was not until my friend and mentor, Susan Conley, read the manuscript and commented repeatedly, “What is your body doing now? How does the reader know how you feel?” that I revised many scenes to include how my emotions were manifesting in my body. I do think it adds huge value to storytelling in that as a reader, one of the only ways we have to understand what a character is experiencing is the words used to describe what is happening in that character’s body. So, yes, I want my readers to feel the tension, awkward moments, joy, and the only way they can really feel that is by the writer noticing what is happening in her body. But it took a good editor for me to understand the value of including those embodied details.
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