1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
My first book legitimized me as a writer in my own eyes. Prior to that I’d published poetry and short stories in literary journals, and written newspaper articles in my time as a print journalist, but it was with my first book that I began to see myself as a writer.
I think my most recent work is similar to my previous work in style, tone, and form, but it’s also more lighthearted, less Romantic, less tragic.
2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
I actually started, as a teenager, with poetry, but had moved on pretty definitively to fiction by the time I turned 18. I discovered an interest in character, and then (though less so) in plot. My beginnings are still evidenced in my poetic style of prose; this is actually the sine qua non of my writing, for 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?
I find the ideas and words come pretty quickly once I start, and that first drafts appear looking close to their final shape. I don’t have any notes; I have a timeline, which I use to track what my characters are doing when (very necessary in a book like my latest, in which eight characters traverse twenty years and three continents), a rough document that I use in the moment (to compare two versions of a sentence to decide which I prefer), the main document with the novel itself, and that’s it.
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?
I often (well, for the two novels I’ve written!) start at the beginning: that is, on Page 1. After that it can be a bit all over the place, with me writing Page 2, then 3, then what ends up being 15, and 16, then what in the end will become 143 and 144. And then the ending, then maybe back to the beginning. For me it is certainly short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, though I am aware the whole way through that I am working on a ‘book’. So it’s a bit of both, I suppose!
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I do enjoy them; I enjoy feedback of any kind, to be honest, and readings—particularly the questions and discussion that follow—are a kind of feedback. I write for my own brain’s satisfaction and pleasure in getting a story down on the page, but I also write as a grateful reader; that is, as someone who feels she was helped and guided to live a happier life through the fiction she read. My fondest wish as a writer is to get to do the same for someone else.
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 don’t, really. The questions I’m trying to answer are on the level of our human experience: what makes us act the way we do? What are the consequences of our decisions? I usually use relationships (parental, platonic, and most often, romantic) as the means through which I explore those 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 I alluded to this a bit in a previous question, but for me the role of the writer is to augment our understanding of the world, and to help us live better, happier lives as a result.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Ha, both! I hate fighting over commas, over whether-or-not-I-need-two-metaphors-here, and the like. But I would also hate to go without it, because the only editor I have ever worked with—Leigh Nash, now at Assembly Press, who edited both 26 Knots and The Road Between Us—deeply parsed every line and made the book better for it. Even if I disagreed with her and the line in question stayed as it was, my understanding of my own line had deepened in having to defend it.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Can the best piece of advice come from me, having discovered it through trial and error? If yes, then I’d say it’s to end each writing day knowing where you’re going next. That way, when you sit down the next day to write, you start on a roll instead of in front of a glaring blank page.
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (journalism to non-fiction to fiction)? What do you see as the appeal?
It’s been fairly easy to move between genres. Each kind of writing brings its own satisfaction: journalism (efficiency, clarity, the odd interjection of humour if you can get away with it/the piece calls for it), and fiction (world- and character-building, the use of more poetic language, the construction of a story arc). I certainly wouldn’t be good at all forms of writing, but I would love to try them all—I’ve always been tempted to write a play, for example, given how important I think dialogue is to a story.
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?
My writing routine is very much grab-the-time-when-you-can. I’m a shift worker (I work in a pediatric emergency setting) so sometimes I work in the mornings and sometimes in the evenings, sometimes on weekdays and sometimes on weekends. If I have a number of day shifts in a row I’ll try to take advantage and write in the early morning, say at 5am, before my kids are awake. If I work an evening shift, I can write in the morning when they’re at school. I’ve learned to start with writing as my first work of the day and leave less intellect-requiring tasks (identifying, testing and then throwing out all my kids’ cap-less, dead markers, folding laundry, answering emails…) for the evening. That way my most energetic self is put towards the work that is most important to me.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
To be perfectly honest, what happens now is that I doggedly and ineffectually continue on, imagining that if I just ‘think harder’ for a while longer I’ll solve whatever problem has presented itself and come up with the finally-right sentence. At the end of sometimes hours of frustration I’ll then remember all the actions I could have taken to get myself unstuck: reading a book, going for a run, organizing a closet. I’m still learning to notice when I’m stuck and to realize I need to take a break. Thankfully, I don’t get stuck often!
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Lilacs. They were ever-present for me growing up, first as a child in Saskatchewan, then as a teenager in Calgary. And now, at my home in Montreal, I’m lucky enough to have a lilac bush in my backyard.
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?
I’d agree with that statement, in that my biggest influences have been other books. I do also love visual art, and dance, and frequent exhibitions and performances often, so I am sure those are influences, too. Films and plays have also been hugely influential.
15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
There are writers who have influenced my development as a writer, like Alice Munro (who does so much with so little), William Faulkner (who leaves much unsaid and leaves the reader to fill in the gaps), or Jorge Luís Borges (with his commanding narrative voice that impels the reader to suspend all disbelief). There are contemporary writers I’ve discovered more recently that have propulsive plots with literary execution in a balance that I admire (Damon Galgut, Claire Keegan). There are writers I read simply because they’re enjoyable to read (though they are gifted writers, also, certainly), like Sally Rooney and Elizabeth Strout.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
I don’t think there is anything! Can I cheat and list things I love to do that I don’t do any longer? If so, I’d say dancing—salsa, merengue, and tango—which I did a lot pre-kids and haven’t had time to go back to post-kids. I’d also like to travel anywhere I haven’t been and learn as many languages as I can; I think the next one I’d learn would be German (though, in a practical sense, before embarking on a new language I would try to improve my French and Spanish, which seem to undergo a steep attrition the minute they’re not used).
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?
I already have another career (as I know many other writers do): I’m a pediatrician. To answer in the spirit of the question, however, I’d probably say I would have become a literature professor. That way I could continue to keep books close, but also teach, which I love doing. (As a doctor I get to teach residents and medical students, as well as my patients’ parents, all the time.)
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
For me, the drive to write comes both from a sense of joy and a sense of duty. It is my favourite thing to turn my mind to. It is also—by my personal sense of ethics—what, if I happen to have any skill at doing, I should turn my mind to. I mentioned before how grateful I am to the novels and stories that have shown me how to live a happier, more considered life, and if I can do even in small part the same, I feel that I should.
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
When I’m writing I tend to read contemporary novels in English, so when I’m between projects I take advantage to branch out to other languages and periods. I just finished Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier, which was great. In terms of the last great film, I’d say Anatomy of a Fall, by Justine Triet.
20 - What are you currently working on?
Nothing currently! I’m taking a little six-month break between the end of editing The Road Between Us and writing something new. I always say I have three jobs: being a writer, a doctor, and a mom (though, of course, being a mom is a full-time job!). The pause will allow me to more fully throw myself into the other two; in the fall I’m sure I’ll be delighted and ready to start a new project.
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
No comments:
Post a Comment