Sue Orr: I write for myself; it's a wonderful, surprising bonus if others like the work enough to publish or read it.
What is your latest collection of short stories about?
It's a collection of 10 modern, mostly New Zealand stories, but each also tips its hat in some way to a classic short story masterpiece of the past. The book's title refers to a famous Russian quote regarding Nikolay Gogol's 1842 devastating short story The Overcoat – "We have all come out from under Gogol's overcoat." The quote seemed to invite an exploration of the idea that the most powerful themes in storytelling are finite in number, yet perennial.
What keeps you writing?
I've always written – previously as a journalist and speech writer– I don't really know how to do anything else. I started writing fiction in 2005. The world of fiction seemed to offer unlimited possibilities to write about truth – there's always another story to tell. However, it's usually a forceful character that puts the first words on my page.
Where and how do you write?
I'm not very self-disciplined. I need isolated, silent places away from my home to write. I drink lots of very strong coffee early in the morning, then I sit down. I don't stop until the coffee wears off – mid afternoon, usually. A big part of writing is not writing, rather thinking about where a story is going, or why it's not working. I do a lot of that later in the day.
Who do you write for, and do you discuss your writing with anyone?
I write for myself; it's a wonderful, surprising bonus if others like the work enough to publish or read it. Discussing what I'm working on is something I find difficult. However, I belong to a writers' group, Bill Manhire's Masters in Creative Writing class of 2006, and we still meet regularly to critique each other's work.
What is your favourite aspect of writing? Least favourite?
The best moment in writing comes when you're "inside" a story – actually living in the fictional world that you've created – and the characters have taken over the process of writing. There's nothing quite like it – your fingers can't move fast enough across the keyboard. The worst part is when you've spent days trying to shape an idea into a story and you come to the sad realisation that, for reasons you don't know, it will never work.
Which writers made you want to write?
Alice Munro, Raymond Cheever, Grace Paley, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Richard Ford and Italo Calvino. The first time I thought I might be brave enough to try and write fiction was after going to hear Louis de Bernieres speak in Wellington, sometime around 2004 after he'd written the Latin Trilogy. He talked about writing in the context of living an ordinary life. I realised that the prerequisite for being a writer was to actually write something, rather than daydream about it.
Which writers excite you most now?
That same group of super-hero writers continue to inspire me. While researching From Under the Overcoat, I found the very best of 18th and 19th-century writers concerned themselves with the very same ideas, as do my other current favourite writers, Marilynne Robinson, Elizabeth Strout, Tim Winton, David Vann ... it's that perennial thing.
What's next?
In 2011 I will start working on a novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment