12 or 20 (second series) questions with Lynda Williams
Lynda Williams
’ stories have appeared in Grain, The Humber Literary Review, and The New Quarterly, among others. She holds a graduate certificate in Creative Writingfrom the Humber School for Writers and is a recipient of the LieutenantGovernor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award. Her debut collection of stories,
The Beauty and the Hell of It
, is now available from Guernica Editions.1 - How didyour first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare toyour previous? How does it feel different?
The Beautyand the Hell of It is my debut, so it’s too early to tell, but Ican speak to how my first story changed my life. I submitted it to a contestand it won. The prize, which I still consider to be one the best I’ve ever won,was a couple mentorship sessions with Gail Sobat. The goal was to revise thestory in preparation for a reading at Audreys Books in Edmonton. I’m notexaggerating when I say Gail taught me the value of both revision andmentorship. That story is actually the first in the collection. The storiesincluded span about 15 years, so there’s an evolution to my writing within thebook, but voice and compression remain my top concerns.
2 - How didyou come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
I didn’t.My first paying gig as a writer was for a local newspaper when I was still inhigh school and I started submitting poetry to literary journals when I was 15.It took me four years to get my first publication credit. I was still writingpoetry when I started university and happened to take a creative writing class.I was one of two people in a group of twenty writing poetry and next to thetitle of one of my poems the prof penciled the words: Pam Houston CowboysAre My Weakness. I didn’t read it right away, but when I did, it blew meout of the water. That collection changed my perspective on short fiction. Upto that point I thought stories were a punishment teachers assigned in highschool. I should also add that I read a lot of novels and when I picturedwriting a book, that’s what I envisioned—until Pam came along.
3 - Howlong does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writinginitially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear lookingclose to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
I neverresearch stories before I write them. They usually begin with a line bouncingaround in my head, and sometimes I just repeat it to myself obsessively as I goabout my day until I’m compelled to sit down and write. Other times I’ll writethe line in my notes app or on a scrap of paper and free-write for a bit. ThenI sit back to assess what I’m working with. I’m already revising at this point.Sometimes the initial draft comes quickly (there’s one piece in the collectionI drafted in the span of an afternoon), but usually there’s a point where Ipause in the middle. This probably wouldn’t happen if I outlined, but I learnedearly on that I write to discover what will happen and knowing the outcomekills my enthusiasm. Some drafts changed dramatically, and others stayedremarkably true to my initial vision. It varies so much from piece to piece.
4 - Wheredoes a work of prose usually begin for you? Are you an author of short piecesthat end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a"book" from the very beginning?
I find theidea of working on a book to be very intimidating. The very suggestion of itactivates imposter syndrome, so I work on short pieces and try to gather themaround a theme. It’s easier to admit that you’re writing a book when 2/3 of itis already written.
5 - Arepublic readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sortof writer who enjoys doing readings?
Publicreadings make me incredibly nervous, but I also find them very energizing.Making an audience laugh is one of the greatest pleasures of being a writer. Soas much as I agonize over readings, I do believe they are central to thecreative process.
6 - Do youhave any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions areyou trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the currentquestions are?
I didn’tgive a great deal of thought to theoretical concerns in this collection. Myoverarching concern as I was writing the stories was how do women push backagainst expectations of how they should behave. I often refer to theseexpectations as the “loveliness imperative”—the patriarchal notion that womenshould make themselves appealing to men in everything they do. It isunfortunately an evergreen topic. Above all, my goal is to make my readers feelsomething, so I try not to intellectualize what I’m doing while I’m doing it. Ithink the current questions of our time centre around the climate crisis andgenocide.
7 – What do you see the current role of thewriter being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think therole of the writer should be?
I’m anordinary schmuck, but on a good day I can write a paragraph that will make youfeel something and perhaps even cause you to reflect on what you believe. I’mnot a moral compass, but it’s my job to think critically about whatever sh*tthe world is shoveling.
8 - Do youfind the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (orboth)?
Essential.Feedback isn’t always easy to receive, but I’m always grateful when someonetakes the time to read my work and reflect on it. It might sting at times, butit can also open up possibilities for the work that you didn’t recognizeyourself.
9 - What isthe best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
It’sactually something I started telling myself to deal with hard mental healthdays years ago: You can do some of your best work on your worst days. Whichessentially means show up.
10 - Whatkind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How doesa typical day (for you) begin?
When I’mimmersed in a story, I try to wake up before my inner critic (between 4:30 and5:00), so I can start typing before I’m fully awake. But not every day is awriting day for me. Sometimes I find other ways to touch the work—submitting orrevising something old—and that tends to happen in the afternoon. I dofreelance copyediting as well, so if I’m not writing a story, the day oftenstarts there.
11 - Whenyour writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of abetter word) inspiration?
I return to my favorite books: Austen’s Persuasion,Pam Houston’s Cowboys Are My Weakness, anything by Lorrie Moore, Carver’sCathedral to name a few. I bake because it feels creative to me, but it’snot remotely related to writing. If I’m still struggling I look for lighterreading. Something outside my genre.
12 - Whatwas your last Hallowe'en costume?
I was apirate.
13 - DavidW. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other formsthat influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
McFaddenhas a point to the extent that books are in conversation with other books, butwhen I think about what influences my stories, music and movies are top of thelist. Nearly every story in the collection has a soundtrack, one song Ilistened to on repeat while I was working because it evoked in me the feeling Iwanted to evoke in readers. Movies are interesting. I watch them to escape,which means a lot of them are mediocre, but sometimes there will be a fantasticscene buried in an average film and it will just haunt me. I’ll reinvent thesituation and give my own characters a better chance. Love Does Not Insist wasinspired by a scene in a movie with two minor characters that had a plot linethat eclipsed the rest of the film. I watched that scene over and over tryingto figure out why it undid me and then I found a song that did the same thingand the rest is history.
14 - Whatother writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your lifeoutside of your work?
Everyonenamed in question 11, but also mentors like Danila Botha & Alissa York, andpeers like Su Chang.
15 - Whatwould you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Mentorother writers at the beginning of their journey.
16 - If youcould pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately,what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
Assuming Ihad different aptitudes, a musician.
17 - Whatmade you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I trieddoing other things, but writing is the only thing I’ve ever been passionateabout.
18 - Whatwas the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Book: Verminby Lori Hahnel. I love how she puts Calgary on the map and her range isincredible. Film: John Candy’s Delirious.
19 - Whatare you currently working on?
Morestories. More women misbehaving, but this time I’m working with themes ofbetrayal.
