12 or 20 (second series) questions with Tim Ryan

Tim Ryan works and plays in and around Calgary, Alberta. He lives with his wife and daughter, a bossy cat and a curious rabbit. He is the winner of the Alberta Views short story contest. Tim’s work has appeared in The Write Launch, The Prairie Journal, Prometheus Dreaming and more. East Grand Lake is his first novel.

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?

Well, I only have one book and it has just come out, so you’ll have to check back in a year or so for reflections on how it has changed my life.  But already I have an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and pride in (finally) getting a book published and sending it out into the world (pride mixed with terror, that is).

2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?

The Hardy Boys. Seriously. I devoured them as a kid and knew that, someday, I wanted to write a book so others would read me.

3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?

The start is what takes time. Once I have a start, the writing comes quickly. But it has to be a real start, not something I forced onto paper.  That moment of a real start is everything to me as a writer.  That is what I write for. I don’t make notes, or plot or anything like that. I have a notebook where I write down lines that come into my head, but that is about it for background. Probably one of my failings as a writer is that I find it boring to know where I am going. The sense of discovery is the fun.

4 - Where does a work of prose usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?

Definitely the scene comes first and then the larger story. Sometimes, it is just an opening line. I have a notebook with lines that I think might one day be stories and stories that become projects.  But it all starts, for me, with a scene.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?

I can’t say I enjoy public readings, mainly because I am an introvert. But, once I get going, it is fun to read your work aloud. I find I lose myself in the story after a few paragraphs. More importantly, readings help me with gratitude. I always really, really appreciate the people who take the time to come out. I often get verklempt when I look up and see a crowd of people who choose to spend some of their valuable time to come and hear me read.

6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?

I am always asking about the interplay between structure and story. That is so important to me. I think the moderns made that key and there’s no sense ignoring it. I really try to make my writing one where both structure and story are interesting and raise questions.

7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?

I think a fiction writer is one of those people who can question everything and get away with it. So I hope that’s what writers keep doing. An obsequious writer should just go be a customer service rep or, better, a politician.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?

Not difficult. Not sure it is essential either. It is smart. I think having that second set of eyes at the “end” of a project is very helpful and gets the piece from finished to definitely finished. But I am usually mostly there anyways.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?

The best piece of advice on writing I have is from a fictional character, Seymour Glass. In Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters, Seymour tells his brother Buddy Glass the following:

“If only you’d remember before ever you sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would most want to read if he had his heart’s choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. I won’t even underline that. It’s too important to be underlined.”

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (short stories to the novel)? What do you see as the appeal?

I don’t find it hard because one feeds into the other. The appeal for me is that short stories provide scenes and scene-work, whereas novels are more about plotting how scenes fit together. I think to write a novel it is essential that you write short stories.

11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?

I am terrible at a routine. I do exactly the opposite of what most writing books tell you to do. I wait for that moment in inspiration. I don’t find it helpful to try and write 500 words a day or whatever, because I just end looking back and asking “what was I thinking”.  But I often will wake up with a spark and sit with a cup of tea, start to write, and have 3000 words in an hour or so. I recognize this is not the approach of most writers.

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?

I go back to reading. If I have nothing in the tank, I find that going back to being a reader is the best medicine. I just tell myself “It will come. Don’t push it.”

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?

Freshly cut grass and the smell of a sleeping cat’s fur.

14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?

Music, for sure. I can’t tell you the number of times I am listening to a song and suddenly the start of something arrives.

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?

JD Salinger. He is my go to whenever I need to remember why I write. I also return again and again to (almost ashamed to say it), Harry Potter. Not very highbrow, I know, but I am looking for comfort if I am going back there.  As for influences, I would have to put Proust, Joyce and Virginia Woolf right up there. Something about the moderns makes me aim high.  They took so many risks. Present-day writers that wow me include Cormac McCarthy, Karen Russell and Michael Ondaatje.

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

A novel in second-person voice.  I have a draft, but it isn’t close to finished. I think it is such an under-utilized voice and has so much potential.

17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?

Musician. I like to play music, but don’t have the skill to make it an occupation. But if I could be anything else, that’s what I would be.

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?

The admiration I had as a kid for writers. How they can make you get lost in a world. I wanted to be able to do that. Maybe someday I will be able to J.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?

Last great book was Foster by Claire Keegan. Unbelievable in every way. The kind of thing I aspire to.  Last great film was The Banshees of Inisherin. It still makes me think.

20 - What are you currently working on?

Mainly short stories. I have a 60,000 word manuscript that I have tucked away for a year or two that might one day be a novel, but I reached a point where it needed to rest. So I am devoting my time to shorter pieces for a while with a plan to return to that ms (when it feels right).

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