Yay,
Anna Leahy, Lofty Ambitions, and thank you for inviting
me to participate on this blog hop (which makes me think of the bunny hop, of
course). The idea is, literary bloggers are all
answering the same four questions about our writing process and inviting more bloggers to participate,
which I think means that by the end of the year every blog on the internet will
feature a variation on this post.
Here
is Anna’s post: http://loftyambitions.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/writing-process-blog-hop-anna/
“…My [writing] process feels as if I’ve been craving asparagus all day, but I go to the kitchen and there’s none there. Or more likely, it’s become soft and smells, probably gone bad by just a day, because I had a late class last night and sustained myself with peanut butter on crackers between tasks. Will I savor the asparagus more if I have to wait and plan for it, or will I be craving something else tomorrow?”
And
here’s where to find the always fascinating Lofty Ambitions: http://loftyambitions.wordpress.com
And
at the end of my rambling, I’ll tempt you with my invitees who will be posting
next week.
1) What am I working on?
It’s
a secret. No, not really—but it is
something in the beginning stages, so I don’t have a good “elevator speech”
prepared, mostly because I don’t quite know what it is myself. Here’s what I tell people if I am trapped in
that elevator with them: “It’s a pile of
200 pages that might be a novel or might be linked stories or might be a few
separate short stories or might be nothing but a bunch of crap.” People are
definitely eager to hear more after I explain it thus.
But,
just for you, I’ll reveal these tiny, pertinent facts:
--It’s
set in Chicago in the 1980s.
--Many
of the sections?/stories?/chapters? are composed of small pieces that started
in my monthly neighborhood prompt group.
--I’m
kind of afraid of this material, and something keeps dragging me back to it,
even after I swear I’ll give up and turn to more rational pursuits.
--Whatever
it turns out to be, I think it will be arranged in an unusual way, and even as
I hate the puzzle of trying to figure it all out, I’m also totally absorbed by these
thoughts. “Mosaic” is a word I often
chant as I stare at the 200-page-pile in frustration, and “collage.”
Maybe
this is what I should say: I am working on a novel-length word collage.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I
guess I’ll define my “genre” as literary fiction, which is such a wide open
umbrella that I doubt there’s any writer who could define similarities of the
genre beyond, I suppose, a focus on character development, language, and
voice. Oh, and not making much $$.
I
find that I like to write about things that happen in small scraps of time, and
going down deeply; I would be content to write 25 pages about fifteen minutes
taking place in someone’s life. I’ve
been playing around with form; I’m obsessed with the second person and list
stories. (Here’s a second person list story of mine in case you’re
interested!) And, like everyone, I like writing about dysfunctional
relationships. And characters who have
secrets, especially if they are unreliable narrators.
If
you can believe any of that…
3) Why do I write what I do?
I
will go off on a tangent (shock) to remember back in a writing workshop in
college where that was our first assignment, to write an essay answering a form
of that question: Why do you write? I think I was supposed to come up with an
“answer” like everyone else did—to communicate, to share my vision, blah, blah,
blah—but I (melodramatically) wrote several paragraphs about how if I knew the
exact answer, I wouldn’t feel the need to write anymore. I’m not sure if that’s exactly true, but I’m
not sure it’s untrue. It’s honestly not
something I think about much. The
stories and images I care about enough to devote my time and energy and
intellect to all seem to come from what I call “the dark place,” a place that
dwells within each of us, though it might be less scary if we simply referred
to it as “the subconscious.” But I’m
pretty sure all writing involves a fair amount of fear, so I’ll stick to “the
dark place.” See: myth of Orpheus.
4) How does your writing
process work?
Slowly,
obsessively, painfully, stoically. Grind
out a draft (computer). Set it aside and
fret: genius or fraud? (this is when I get to drink). Rewrite (on computer). Repeat (on paper). Repeat (read out loud). Multiply by as many
times as needed. Give up and declare it
finished. (I also get to drink here.)
***
My Blog
Hop invitations went to three fabulous women, so hop over there next week to
see their responses:
My
former writing group buddy and dear friend, C.M. Mayo.
C.M. Mayo's most recent book is Metaphysical
Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book,
Spiritist Manual (Dancing Chiva, 2014). She is also the author
of the novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire (Unbridled
Books, 2009) which was named a Library Journal Best
Book; Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja
California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions, 2007), and Sky
Over El Nido (U Georgia Press, 1995), which won the Flannery O'Connor
Award for Short Fiction. A sometime resident of Washington DC and a
long-time resident of Mexico City, she is an avid translator and editor of the
anthology of 24 Mexican writers, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary
Companion. She recently celebrated 8 years in the blogosphere with Madam
Mayo.
Website:
www.cmmayo.com
Read
her work: "Revillagigedo" in
Redux http://www.reduxlitjournal.com/2012/09/51-revillagigedo-by-cm-mayo.html?spref=fb
Kelly
Ann Jacobson, one of my super-talented former thesis students at Johns Hopkins
University, a recent graduate with two novels out already!
Kelly Ann Jacobson lives in Falls Church,
Virginia. She recently received her MA in Fiction at Johns Hopkins University,
and she is the Poetry Editor for Outside In Literary & Travel
Magazine. Kelly is the author of the literary novel Cairo in
White and the young adult trilogy The Zaniyah Trilogy, as
well as the editor of the book of essays Answers I'll Accept.
And
Shelby Settles Harper, another super-talented former workshop student (now
graduate) from Johns Hopkins University, hard at work on her novel!
Shelby Settles Harper holds a Juris Doctor from
the University of Colorado, a Master of Arts in Writing from Johns Hopkins
University, and is a citizen of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. Her work can be found in Gargoyle Magazine #61 (forthcoming); aaduna; Tin House online blog; Defying
Gravity: An Anthology of Washington, DC Area Women; So to Speak: a feminist
journal of language and art; Bethesda Magazine; and Outside In Literary and Travel Magazine. Shelby lives with her husband and three
children in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, where she writes for the parenting
blog Red Tricycle about family-friendly adventures in the nation’s capital.
