Interview with:Brian Austin [brian]
WRITING
 | What did you first read? How did you begin to write? Who were the first to read what you wrote? The love of reading is among my first memories. My Mom, who raised seven kids, rarely sat down. But if a task could be done with one hand, she would have a book in the other hand. She read thousands of books. I'm guessing some of the "Dick and Jane" stories were among my first reading. From the time I discovered the school library it was my favorite room. I'm sure my Mom read my "writing" before I knew my "a,b,c's. It was also my Mom who encouraged me through the years and challenged me. |
| What is your favorite genre? Can you provide a link to a site where we can read some of your work or learn something about it? I have read very broadly. I take great delight in much older poetry and a broad range of modern poetry, although I confess that some modern poetry leaves me unmoved. A wide selection of fiction, especially historical fiction tends to catch my interest. I am slowly accumulating a collection of some of the great old classics, nabbing hard-cover copies when I come across them.
I also read many non-fiction books, often for research purposes, or because something has simply caught my attention and stirred my interest. |
| What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write? When I'm working on a novel and well into the story, the creative process consumes me. I live and breath the story. Poetry occasionally flows faster than I can type -- but the operative word there is "occasionally."
Like many writers I struggle more with limiting my focus than with writer's block. I'm overwhelmed by too many ideas far more often than staring at a blank screen or a blank piece of paper with nothing to write.
I thrive on the re-writing, editing process more than on the first draft. Perhaps it's the poet in me, but polishing the language and honing the craft brings a thrill I rarely feel as I hammer out a first draft. Yet, paradoxically, some of my best poetry is raw, and every effort to polish the language strips it of something vital. So I have learned to trust my instincts and not tamper much when something has spilled onto paper with a vitality all its own. |
| What type of reading inspires you to write? Writing that energises. In fiction it is writing that at 1:00 am I ache to read one more chapter. In non-fiction it is writing that catches me in the story, that energises. In poetry it is more than beauty of language. It is sometimes even harsh language and raw, caustic word choices. But there is an element to it that can't be put into prose, something similar to the complexity of sound in a symphony, yet one thread of sound dominates. It is never so deeply layered that I can't follow that one thread of sound. It may in fact be very simple. But I'm fascinated by the language -- yet not distracted by the language. There is an elusive balance there that some beautiful language misses, while some harsh language reaches. |
| What do you think are the basic ingredients of a story? I'm not convinced the classic hero, villian, conflict and resolution mix is essential. What is essential though, and probably far more important if those classic elements aren't there, is for the writing to resonate with the reader. Simplicity, and respect for the intelligence of the reader -- give room to tell a story as if telling it to an intimate friend over a cup of coffee.
If as a writer I'm doing my job well, I don't tell you my character is scared. The tension in your body as you read tells you the character is scared. I don't tell you how deeply a young mother grieves the loss of her infant. I show you the towel wrapped around leaking breasts, the laughter at some joke, that changes to shuddering sobs.
A good story is simply that, story. It's not all the background information I want you to understand. It's me, as the author, knowing that background information so intimately that it enlivens the story without slowing it down. |
| What voice do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? As much as possible I like to do initial writing in first person (if I can manage a couple key things) The character must be enough unlike me that it's me putting myself in his/her shoes, not me telling my story. If the character is female there are some areas I won't go, especially inside the mind.
First person writing is both freeing and limiting. There is an immediacy to it that makes it much easier to stay in the showing, rather than telling mode. The limiting factor is that in true first person, only what that person is aware of can be shared. The narrator's voice is out of bounds as well as any opportunity to get inside other character's heads.
Much of the time I will attemp to write each character's story in first person, then do a rewrite into third person. It tends to keep much of the immideacy and intimacy of first person story-telling while opening all the possibilities that are closed to first person writing.
What proves far more challenging is writing initially in third person and then changing to first person. The freedoms third person allowed must be severly trimmed back, sometimes reducing key characters to little more than skeletal caricatures. |
| What well known writers do you admire most? Randy Alcorn, Francine Rivers, Angela Hunt, Sigmund Brouwer, Luci Shaw, Robert Service and many, many others. |
| What is required for a character to be believable? How do you create yours? Dialogue has to feel authentic. Quirks of speech and unique mannerisims need to be described clearly enough that the character can be visualized, without belabouring them. Any character who is too perfect, who has no flaws, is very difficult to identify with. A villian with no good qualities is as hard to believe in as a hero with no weaknesses.
I'm always amused with the disclaimer in most novels, "any resemblence to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental." My reaction is "Liar!" I believe every convincing character is a composite of actual people, usually with some parts of the author thrown into the mix. Writers don't spend all their time with their fingers on a computer keyboard. They watch and listen to people, they focus on the way they walk, on the voice that goes up at the end of a sentence, making a question of a statement, on the body language that says something different from the voice. Then they search, sometimes desperately, for language to share that little distinction that sets one character apart from all the others. |
| Are you equally good at telling stories orally? I'm not great at off-the-cuff story telling, but love to do poetry readings and dramatic monologs. I'm a firm believer that most poetry combines so many of the same elements as music that it must be heard out loud. There are people who can read the score of a symphony and hear the music in their head. They are exceptionally rare and I don't rank among them. When a poem really grips me I find I must read it out loud. I am never more fully alive than when I am sharing a poem verbally. People who never read poetry are sometimes astonished that it's not the boring sing-song stuff or nursery-rhymes they remember from school. It comes alive to them too. |
| Deep down inside, who do you write for? I write much of the time for myself. The joy of creating with language is more than sufficient reward, although I seek publication as often as possible.
Like many writers and other artists, I'd probably starve to death if writing provided my only income, but I don't know how to leave it either. |
| Is writing a form of personal therapy? Are internal conflicts a creative force? At times writing is therapy, especially in the midst of grief or when other very painful things happen. I tend to think most clearly as I'm putting words on paper or into a computer file, so often writing helps me clarify things in my own mind. |
| Does reader feed-back help you? Feed-back helps a great deal. It says, first of all, that somebody actually reads this stuff. A bit of praise goes a long ways. However, the most helpful feedback is from other writers who know and respect you enough to dare to say, "I really liked this part, but. . . " and point out weaknesses or inconsistencies. Hard-hitting critiques are painful to receive, but do far more for my writing than flowery praise. But I'll still put up with a bit of praise once in a while. |
| Do you participate in competitions? Have you received any awards? I've had two novel manuscripts short-listed in competitions. I've received a modest number of awards and/or honerable mentions for articles or letters to the editor published and for poetry. |
| Do you share rough drafts of your writings with someone whose opinion you trust? Often I will share rough drafts. I'm part of a writer's group and frequently share something I'm working on with them. The feedback is invaluable. |
| Do you believe you have already found "your voice" or is that something one is always searching for? With poetry I feel strongly that I have "found my voice." Often when editing suggestions are made the poem looks better on paper but it's no longer alive when I read it out loud.
I'm not so sure in fiction writing, or with non-fiction articles. |
| What discipline do you impose on yourself regarding schedules, goals, etc.? My routine has been drastically altered in the last few months after vision loss reached a level where I had to leave a job I loved. I was typically putting 20-30 hours a week into writing-related activities, though eye-strain had me backing off that somewhat. Learning to take advantage of the larger print size so easy to format on the computer screen, I'm just beginning to get back into a routine again, with perhaps 20 hours a week at this time.
Perhaps my biggest challenge now is that eye-strain has taken much of the joy from reading, except with large-print books or on the computer screen where I can make the font any size I want. I have a hunch that writers who stop reading are like people who head into the desert without carrying adequate water. Things dry up pretty fast. |
| What do you surround yourself with in your work area in order to help your concentrate? My work area is very cluttered. I won't call it an office, because that suggests organization.
I usually have a couple of dictionaries beside me, and piles of paper in front of the monitor. |
| Do you write on a computer? Do you print frequently? Do you correct on paper? What is your process? I prefer to write and edit on the computer. For some reason though, I always catch mistakes and typos when I print a draft that I have missed on the computer screen, so I almost never submit something for publication that I haven't done a final proof-reading on paper. |
| What has been your experience with publishers? Generally good, although often frustrating. So long as I remind myself the publisher's priorities are different from mine and it's not personal if they can't use what I submit, I can accept "thank you for submitting, but. . ." responses without too much difficulty.
I greatly appreciate when publishers point out things that would make a piece of writing work better for them, rather than just sending a form letter. |
| What are you working on now? I've just signed a publishing contract with Word Alive Press for a novel, Historic Fiction for YA set in northern England in 892 AD.
I've also been working on an older novel manuscript trying to deal with some significant weaknesses that are stubbornly resisting change. |
| What do you recommend I do with all those things I wrote years ago but have never been able to bring myself to show anyone? Revisit them every once in a while. Celebrate the fact that some things about them embarrass you now. There's probably no clearer proof that you are improving as a writer. If you have them in a computer file save a copy with a new name and play with it for an hour. Bring your new skill to the task and see what you can do.
If you don't have them in a computer file, retype one or two when you're going through a dry spell. The editing part of my brain always kicks in when I'm retyping something, and often as I fix up a sentence here or there, the creative side of my brain also kicks in. Some of those old dusty manuscripts are true treasures. Often they have great weaknesses, but a passion that's sometimes lost in more polished writing. It's a lot easier to take something that has passion and improve the writing than it is to inject passion into something that is technically good, but stale and lifeless. |
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Brian Austin
Durham, ONT, Canada
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