Leading with curiosity is a writer’s secret sauce

Many of the teens who used the high school library where I was the teacher-librarian loved books about dogs. Some were also required to write a research paper about something they had learned about by first reading a book. The book could be fiction, memoir, etc. It just had to incite their curiosity so they could dig deeper.

I bought Susan Orlean’s “Rin Tin Tin” because it sat in the intersection of student interest and class requirements.

After reading it, a student might research dogs and how they were used in World War I, silent movies, or early TV dramas. I, too, love dogs, so I read “Rin Tin Tin.” It was an odd and wonderful book, hard to pigeonhole. I then realized that Orlean was also the author of “The Orchid Thief,” which was transformed into the weird and wonderful film “Adaptation.”

All of us who’ve enjoyed Orlean’s work, both in the “New Yorker” and in book form, will love her memoir “Joyride.” The details of her childhood in Shaker Heights, Ohio as her mother’s favorite child are sweet. Her wild young adulthood makes the reader wonder how she will emerge as the wildly successful writer she is. (At one point, she needs to have her nose cauterized after ruining it by snorting cocaine.) Her first marriage to a stinting man who couldn’t share in the joy of her success doesn’t bode well either. He actually sabotages her first book launch party by sharing news of his extramarital affair hours beforehand.

Eventually, Orlean has a more joyous life with a second husband, a son and stepson, and a lot of animals. Her adventures cover both coasts and she lives moving back and forth between Los Angeles and New York.

All of this makes a great story for any reader. However, there’s a bonus aspect of “Joyride” for writers: Orlean’s discussion of her writing career.

Kirkus, the book review website, calls this addition an “MFA in nonfiction writing,” which is quite an over-the-top assertion. [Digression: since when does Kirkus like anything?] While the memoir is not an MFA stand-in, it is an overview of how she created space for herself in major magazines, some of which are no longer publishing.

The most important takeaway about Orlean’s career is how she allows curiosity to lead.

Orlean is very curious about things that seem odd, things that don’t seem like they would make interesting subjects for articles or books.

Rich people like to collect rare orchids? So what. But she investigates and comes up with a great article, later a book, and then a very much altered story in the movie “Adaptation,” starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep.

And while Orlean has more than an average person’s good luck, it’s her tenacity in diving into subjects that often leads to that luck. A few examples:

She goes to Hawaii to interview surf girls. She learns that none of them are surfing any longer and have no interest in being interviewed. In an ‘oh well,’ her editor tells her to enjoy a few days on the island. However, she decides to call one last woman. When Orlean laments the situation, that woman tells her that she’s looking for the wrong women and gives her the names of the surfers who eventually appear in the article “Life’s Swell,” which is later the subject of the film “Blue Crush.”

While researching for her book “Rin Tin Tin,” Orlean believes she has all the material she can retrieve. But she decides to interview Gina, the daughter of Herbert Leonard, the man who directed the “Rin Tin Tin” television show in the 1950s and early 1960s. Gina has a key to a storage facility that she gives to Orlean, while telling her she has no idea what’s there. And, bingo! A treasure trove of useful information. It’s lucky that these boxes of material existed. Orlean found that luck by continuing to interview someone who, one would think, had nothing to add to her story.

Finding luck after opening a door: this happens time and again in Orlean’s career. Ultimately, her story is one about a woman who has great ideas and pursues them. Her method of leading with curiosity is a model for all readers and writers.

Victoria Waddle is a former high school librarian and the author of three books, including the recent novel “Keep Sweet.” You can connect with her on her Substack “Be a Cactus” where she reviews books and discusses both literary topics and library book censorship.