Ask the Author: Sarah Schmidt
Answered Questions (4)
Sarah Schmidt
I'm working on a novel that I first had the idea for around 2011. Like See What I Have Done, this new novel also came to me in a dream: a woman driving her car toward a mountain. In that car is a child. Nothing is what it seems.
Sarah Schmidt
I met Lizzie Borden in a second hand bookstore when a pamphlet about the Borden case fell off a shelf and landed at my feet. I wasn't interested in the case whatsoever. I put it back and left the shop.
That night I dreamt of Lizzie sitting at the end of my bed and she told me, 'I have something to tell you about my father. He has a lot to answer for.'
It was one of the creepiest and most unsettling dreams I'd ever had but I ignored it, tried to go back to sleep.
I had the same dream every night for a week. So I decided to write the dream down hoping it would go away. That was the very beginning of See What I Have Done.
I had no idea it would take me 11 years to write it.
That night I dreamt of Lizzie sitting at the end of my bed and she told me, 'I have something to tell you about my father. He has a lot to answer for.'
It was one of the creepiest and most unsettling dreams I'd ever had but I ignored it, tried to go back to sleep.
I had the same dream every night for a week. So I decided to write the dream down hoping it would go away. That was the very beginning of See What I Have Done.
I had no idea it would take me 11 years to write it.
Sarah Schmidt
I'm the worst when offering advice but here's some that might be helpful:
* Decide to be a writer and do that.
* Write. Write when you don't feel like it, write when you do feel like it.
* Writing is a part of you, will take from you, has the ability to nourish you so only write the book or story you need and want to write.
* Don't be afraid of your own voice.
* Don't worry about how long something is going to take you to write. Take your time, redraft, reconfigure. Every draft you do will make you a better writer and the more hours you put in each day, each week, the better you will be. There's no such thing as 'wasted' time when you're creating something.
* Read widely, read critically. Learn from other writers, figure out what you do and don't like.
* Listen to criticism but be wary of spite dressed as critique
* Go for a walk
* Pay attention to your dreams
* Some days will be really bad. But hey, at least you turned up to the page. Well done. You're writing.
* Decide to be a writer and do that.
* Write. Write when you don't feel like it, write when you do feel like it.
* Writing is a part of you, will take from you, has the ability to nourish you so only write the book or story you need and want to write.
* Don't be afraid of your own voice.
* Don't worry about how long something is going to take you to write. Take your time, redraft, reconfigure. Every draft you do will make you a better writer and the more hours you put in each day, each week, the better you will be. There's no such thing as 'wasted' time when you're creating something.
* Read widely, read critically. Learn from other writers, figure out what you do and don't like.
* Listen to criticism but be wary of spite dressed as critique
* Go for a walk
* Pay attention to your dreams
* Some days will be really bad. But hey, at least you turned up to the page. Well done. You're writing.
Sarah Schmidt
Writer's block is a hard one, mainly because I'm never really sure what it is for me. Sometimes writer's block is the inability to get words onto the page quickly and so by the time I get there, the exact words have gone. I always feel like I'm trying to catch up. Other times I feel like I've never written in my life and those are the days that are most hard.
The only thing that gets me through this is to turn up everyday and write through it and accept that I'm about to write something pretty ordinary. At some stage I know I'm going to catch up with an idea. It may not be in its 'purest' form but I manage to grab something.
Another thing I do when I'm having trouble with characters is to write them a letter. I ask them what they want and feel, if they got any sleep, blah blah blah and the more I ask, the more they respond and then I ask them something specific and in that moment I've been let back into the novel and I'm working. It's also a great way to figure out who they are as people.
But lets be honest: sometimes characters are awful humans and no matter how hard you try they give you nothing. Turn up to the page anyway.
The only thing that gets me through this is to turn up everyday and write through it and accept that I'm about to write something pretty ordinary. At some stage I know I'm going to catch up with an idea. It may not be in its 'purest' form but I manage to grab something.
Another thing I do when I'm having trouble with characters is to write them a letter. I ask them what they want and feel, if they got any sleep, blah blah blah and the more I ask, the more they respond and then I ask them something specific and in that moment I've been let back into the novel and I'm working. It's also a great way to figure out who they are as people.
But lets be honest: sometimes characters are awful humans and no matter how hard you try they give you nothing. Turn up to the page anyway.
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Feb 21, 2018 05:30PM · flag
Sep 04, 2021 08:20AM · flag