What is your writing day like? When and how do you create?
My days tend to very eclectic because I have a very fragmented life! I usually get up around 5am, do half an hour of yoga, then get started with a pot of tea on hand. At the moment, I am studying, working a part-time job, contracting as a freelance writer and editor, and writing my own books. Plus, I have two kids (out of four) still at home and my mum living with me temporarily. And I volunteer in a couple of places. Hence the fragmentation. I spend a lot of time trying to pull my mind into one place (and make it stay there), so when I’m working on something creative, I find it best to try and do that in the morning. Once I’ve arrived at writing, I find it easy to stay there, because I enjoy it immensely, and then it stays with me too, throughout my day.
Where do your best ideas come from? How do you develop them further?
My ideas tend to arrive of their own accord, like shards of something sparkly and promising. Some ideas stick around longer than others, and they are the ones I turn into stories and books. Some slip away, but I try to write everything down in case I need it later, and I am a writer who circles back to and reuses and rehashes old ideas. When I have an idea I intend to develop, I carry it in my head for a long time, gathering fluff and more shards until it has enough substance to record. Then I write it all down in one go, a bit like a mind map and see what is there. That gives me a very loose framework to start fleshing out and consider in terms of the progression of a story. Having explained that, I think it sounds like quite an arduous process; and it is right that I am not a particularly fast writer (but would like to be).
What is the work you are most proud of so far? Why?
I am currently in love with the latest book I have had published, Not A Babe, mainly because I am really pleased with the publisher’s (One Tree House) production of it, and also how well they are promoting it (and also because it is so wonderfully relieving when something actually makes it into print). I am also very pleased that the book appears to be finding a readership with women of all ages, even though officially it is young adult novel.
But in terms of being proud, I have a soft spot for a picture book that I produced with Deborah Hinde a few years ago called Enough. The story is about a community pulling together in times of need to make sure everyone has enough (a subject close to my heart) and the illustrations (by Deb) beautifully depict the sort of typical New Zealand community that I grew up in (in Hamilton), and Deb grew up in (in South Auckland). We were lucky enough to get a grant from Copyright Licensing NZ to produce the book, which we were very grateful for, as it was not the sort of topic that many mainstream publishers would be interested in (social deprivation and community resilience).
What is something you dream of achieving with your work?
All my life I have dreamed of ‘living as a writer’. I am not sure actually what that would look like, which may be why I never feel as if I am achieving it (even though I spend all my days, one way or another, immersed in writing matters). But I guess, like many of us, I dream of having more time to write, and of producing more work, not specifically a particular book. Having said that, I am about to embark on writing a novel for adults as part of the study I am doing, and that is something I have always wanted to do. I wrote several novels for adults when I was younger, but they were all pretty dire, and undoubtedly part of my ‘writing apprenticeship’.
What is the one thing you would say to aspiring children's writers?
Can I adopt some advice that I hard Kate Di Goldi give as part of her 2011 Margaret Mahy Lecture (and she herself was citing something Annie Dillard said)? Kate talked about the need for writers to know what their singular fascination is - the thing that preoccupies them and them alone, and that they are drawn repeatedly towards - and to write about that. To know and circle and grow your bone (as she said). That advice has stuck with me, and I have found it endlessly useful in my efforts to avoid the bland and rehashed topics, and to try and draw story from something else. This has led me to receiving many rejections ("Who wants to read a book about homelessness?" as one publisher once said to me), but I think has also helped me find an authentic voice and write about things I care about.
You can follow Sarah on Facebook here
www.sarahjohnson.co.nz
Comments
Post a Comment