Ask the Author: Margo Christie
Answered Questions (5)
Margo Christie
Knowing that people the world over have read and been touched by my book.
I've gotten feedback from as far afield as New Zealand, British Columbia and Spain, as well as all corners of the continental U.S. While I immensely enjoy hearing that These Days is well-written, it's even more gratifying to know that my young protagonist, Becky Shelling, and her struggle for self-definition gave a reader a sense of fellow-feeling; of not being alone in their heartache and joy, because someone else has been there, felt that.
I've gotten feedback from as far afield as New Zealand, British Columbia and Spain, as well as all corners of the continental U.S. While I immensely enjoy hearing that These Days is well-written, it's even more gratifying to know that my young protagonist, Becky Shelling, and her struggle for self-definition gave a reader a sense of fellow-feeling; of not being alone in their heartache and joy, because someone else has been there, felt that.
Margo Christie
My second novel, tentatively titled "Memory Motel," has been in process for several years now. I'm a slow writer. It takes a while for a concept to germinate in my mind and in my heart before it I can effectively put it on paper. Then, once it flows, it flows non-stop until it's finished. That was the process for These Days.
Additionally, I'm working on a collection of travel-based personal essays and expanding and improving my fiction writers' workshop: Dressing Up and Baring All, which is inspired by the concept of costuming in burlesque.
On November 7, 2015, I will travel to Denver from my new home in Tampa to present Dressing Up and Baring All at the Standley Lake Library in Arvada, in conjunction with the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. I've devised some new exercises and am super-excited to give them a whirl. See my website for details: www.margochristienovelist.com
Additionally, I'm working on a collection of travel-based personal essays and expanding and improving my fiction writers' workshop: Dressing Up and Baring All, which is inspired by the concept of costuming in burlesque.
On November 7, 2015, I will travel to Denver from my new home in Tampa to present Dressing Up and Baring All at the Standley Lake Library in Arvada, in conjunction with the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. I've devised some new exercises and am super-excited to give them a whirl. See my website for details: www.margochristienovelist.com
Margo Christie
By taking a break from the seriousness of it.
Before writing THESE DAYS, I spent most of my creative life as a visual artist. I've done everything from painting and drawing to jewelry-making and stained-glass. I'm also an occasional burlesque performer and a ballroom dancing hobbyist. All art stems from a deep need to create something beautiful and inspiring, but writing is more soul-baring than any of the other arts. Perhaps this is why writers get blocked: We worry a lot about how readers perceive us on a deeply personal level.
When I'm blocked, I spend a few weeks making a series of drawings or practicing a new dance. Since art and dancing are things I don't take as personally as writing, I do them without the pressure to be "right" or "acceptable." Then I return to the keyboard with a mind less restricted.
Above all, I avoid comparing myself to other writers. Just because someone else writes and is successful following a certain regimen doesn't mean I have to follow their regimen. We all have different processes; our wells are filled at different intervals from different sources. Not all writers write every day.
Before writing THESE DAYS, I spent most of my creative life as a visual artist. I've done everything from painting and drawing to jewelry-making and stained-glass. I'm also an occasional burlesque performer and a ballroom dancing hobbyist. All art stems from a deep need to create something beautiful and inspiring, but writing is more soul-baring than any of the other arts. Perhaps this is why writers get blocked: We worry a lot about how readers perceive us on a deeply personal level.
When I'm blocked, I spend a few weeks making a series of drawings or practicing a new dance. Since art and dancing are things I don't take as personally as writing, I do them without the pressure to be "right" or "acceptable." Then I return to the keyboard with a mind less restricted.
Above all, I avoid comparing myself to other writers. Just because someone else writes and is successful following a certain regimen doesn't mean I have to follow their regimen. We all have different processes; our wells are filled at different intervals from different sources. Not all writers write every day.
Margo Christie
By observing, reading, and writing.
I'm a people watcher. Sitting on a park bench or in a coffee shop watching people interact inspires me to think about where they've been; who they are under their laughter; what they may have lost; what breaks their heart. Also, since I write from an historical perspective, old buildings speak to my soul. Near my longtime home in Arvada Colorado, I became very inspired by a rundown motel turned apartment complex, dating from about 1950. Walking by the place or sitting on a wall across the street from it, I imagined the people its walls have seen; the travelers and transients who spent nights, weeks or months inside those box-like rooms. Where did they come from and why were they there? What sort of life would drive someone to actually live in a motel?
I gain a lot by reading good fiction. My writing stems from personal experience, so my favorite stories are those that sound and feel like they were lived by the author. Be it a best-selling novel or a good short story, fiction that carries that sense of authenticity always inspires me to put my own stories on paper.
I also read books and articles about writing. The process of writing can be grueling, but there's nothing like the feeling of having created a cast of characters and an intriguing scene from the deep recesses of my heart. I'm inspired to read that I'm not alone in the process; that other writers feel these things, too.
In writing, one idea often leads to another. A bad idea tweaked becomes a workable idea which becomes a good idea. Writing is a very organic process - The characters breathe life off the page when the writer puts fingers to keyboard and plays around with them.
I'm a people watcher. Sitting on a park bench or in a coffee shop watching people interact inspires me to think about where they've been; who they are under their laughter; what they may have lost; what breaks their heart. Also, since I write from an historical perspective, old buildings speak to my soul. Near my longtime home in Arvada Colorado, I became very inspired by a rundown motel turned apartment complex, dating from about 1950. Walking by the place or sitting on a wall across the street from it, I imagined the people its walls have seen; the travelers and transients who spent nights, weeks or months inside those box-like rooms. Where did they come from and why were they there? What sort of life would drive someone to actually live in a motel?
I gain a lot by reading good fiction. My writing stems from personal experience, so my favorite stories are those that sound and feel like they were lived by the author. Be it a best-selling novel or a good short story, fiction that carries that sense of authenticity always inspires me to put my own stories on paper.
I also read books and articles about writing. The process of writing can be grueling, but there's nothing like the feeling of having created a cast of characters and an intriguing scene from the deep recesses of my heart. I'm inspired to read that I'm not alone in the process; that other writers feel these things, too.
In writing, one idea often leads to another. A bad idea tweaked becomes a workable idea which becomes a good idea. Writing is a very organic process - The characters breathe life off the page when the writer puts fingers to keyboard and plays around with them.
Margo Christie
Write what you know from your heart, and understand that not everyone will love it. There are as many different literary tastes as there are unique human beings. Differences are what make the world interesting. You can't write like your favorite author, or be a smashing success with a certain topic in a certain genre just because someone else was. (I'm thinking here of the number of religious thrillers that were attempted in the wake of Dan Brown's success). Sure, you can be inspired. But in the end, if the voice isn't authentically yours, it's a mere cheap imitation.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more