Renowned Author Sergio Troncoso Provides Invaluable Advice to Student Writers

The Parallax student literary magazine and the Upper School library combined forces to host an incredible visit from acclaimed author Sergio Troncoso! He shared with students and faculty how his background, such as growing up as a child of Mexican immigrants, influenced his writing. He read aloud from his book Nobody’s Pilgrims, which explores the relatable themes of finding community in a difficult political climate, especially as a young person, so students could get a sense of his storytelling style. As a university writing professor and judge on prestigious award panels, he provided students with invaluable insight and advice about writing, and he was extremely generous with his time.

He highlighted the need for discipline: to write every day, no excuses. “Your goal as a creator should be to keep going,” he encouraged students. Writers also need to read as much as possible, he explained, to understand on a deep level how a story is constructed. Just as a car mechanic would train by taking apart many cars, a writer must learn how to take apart stories to gain control over the craft. He emphasized that, with every word, a writer manipulates the reader to experience any desired emotion.

Sergio stressed the importance of overcoming the ego to be brutal with rewrites. A method he uses to ensure that nothing is superfluous? He writes everything by hand. The labor of it forces him to slow down and guarantee that each word is selected on purpose. He compared writing to music, advising students to read their work aloud to themselves to get a sense of their rhythm, pacing, and tone. He told students, “You’re trying to create a movement, like a symphony, so when your reader reads it they get transported, like in a dream.”

Attendees listened raptly and asked thoughtful questions. One student asked him how to deal with criticism. He answered by acknowledging that, if they write, they are going to be criticized and rejected, but they can’t let that stop them.

He galvanized his listeners by telling them to write what they care about in that moment. “Think about it. You’re probably inspired by something right now. There’s something always churning in you. That’s what you should write about. Sometimes you don’t even know where you’ll put that piece. That’s okay, just keep writing.” He added, “When you write what you care about, the reader will typically care about it, too.”