Susan Orlean Won’t Rest On Her Laurels

Susan Orlean doesn’t color inside the lines. Consider her seminal work of nonfiction, The Orchid Thief — the inspiration for the equally beloved yet even more unconventional film, Adaptation — which begins with the arrest of a horticulturist, before morphing into a history of orchid collecting, then exploring Orlean’s own yearning for that kind of all-consuming passion.

“The stories that are most rewarding are often the ones that really fill you with a cold dread as you begin, because you’re inventing something that doesn’t lean into a template,” the New Yorker staff writer tells Bustle. “It requires a lot more imagination, and I think it’s perfectly natural to stop and think ‘I could have just done this the easy way. Why didn’t I?’”

But as Orlean has shown time and again, she’s never been drawn to the easy way. In her new book, Joyride — her first memoir, inspired by the 25th anniversary of The Orchid Thief — she reflects on this impulse and how it’s shaped her singular writing career. She recounts career highlights like the profile she wrote on Hawaiian surfer girls that was adapted into Blue Crush, but also the heel turns: how she turned down a Macaulay Culkin cover story for Esquire, opting to interview an ordinary 10-year-old boy instead; her decision to try her hand at television writing for the first time in 2021, when she joined the staff of HBO’s How To With John Wilson; her relatively recent choice to start a Substack.

“I’m at a point where I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I found my very comfortable perch within it. But I think it’s exciting and fun to stretch and try these other things,” says Orlean, 69. “They make me feel like a beginner again: a little challenged, a little scared. I think it’s actually very enlivening and exciting to say ‘Here’s something I don’t really know how to do, so I’m going to have to learn.’” After such an illustrious career, why not take a joyride?

Below, Orlean reflects on gardening, her writing process, and the moments when she “sulks and rages.”

On her source for creative problem solving:

The book that I leaned on the most was called Literary Journalism, a collection of [essays from] different writers. A lot of times, I would think, “Well, how do you introduce a new character? How do you do this in an artful way?” And I would flip through the book and I would find an example of someone doing that. I wouldn’t imitate it, but it would show me how someone had solved the problem. That inevitably prompted me to solve it in my own way.

On the importance of taking breaks:

Leaving my desk and doing something physical — whether it’s exercise, gardening, ironing my pillowcases — just anything that doesn’t engage me mentally gets me out of a rut. I think it’s really important not to torment yourself if you’re stuck. But I don’t really believe in the idea of writer’s block. I think there’s something else going on. And it’s usually that you don’t know what it is that you’re trying to say.

On celebrating small wins:

If I've hit my quota, I'll sign off for the day and do something that feels like a treat. It can be something really simple like just taking the dog for a really nice long walk, doing something fun with my husband, or going to get a massage. I think it's a good habit to reward yourself. But if I have a bad writing day, I sulk and rage.

On her newly upgraded workspace:

I have a pretty big L-shaped desk that I got from Ikea. It's really more like a table. It doesn't have drawers or anything other than the tabletop, but I have two monitors on it, which is a new development for me. My son talked me into getting the second monitor, and I’m hooked. Highly recommend.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.