Come Write In Anywhere! Arndís Þórarinsdóttir On Making Your Writing Go Somewhere

Our Come Write In program has partnered with bookstores and libraries around the world for four years. This November, for the first time, we welcomed community spaces of all kinds to become novel-writing havens.  Intern Steve Genise chats with Icelandic Librarian Arndis Thorarinsdottir to discuss the finer points of North Germanic linguistics, and what it’s like to be an international writer.

Arndis, thank you for joining me via the magic of the interwebs! Have you participated in NaNoWriMo in the past? 

The Kópavogur Public Library has hosted NaNoWriMo since 2007, offering Wrimos a friendly space where you can get plenty of coffee, a selection of writing prompts, NaNo bookmarks and much needed support from fellow NaNo-heros. Naturally Wrimos are welcome any day of the week, but designated write-ins were held every Saturday in November. This year was one of the good ones—five Saturdays in November!

Incidentally, 2007 was also the first year I finished NaNo myself. I managed to finish again in 2009, and sold that book in 2011. That was my first published novel. 

Tell us about your writing process! Do you plan?

For the first NaNo I completed I decided to fly by the seat of my pants. I had an idea of plot—or really, just some interesting situations—and some fleshed-out characters, but not much else. It worked out okay, in the sense that I completed a manuscript that had a beginning, a middle, and an end, but once NaNo was over I was too overwhelmed to edit it properly. The changes I needed to make were too dramatic; I simply wasn‘t up to it.

Thus came my second proper attempt, where I set off with a firm outline. I did some character-developing exercises before starting, mapped out my entire storyline, etc. I really enjoyed that, and while the end product certainly needed a lot of work, it felt much more manageable.

Having two young kids, a home to run, a husband to spend time with and a job (dreadfully time consuming, those things. Hours upon hours a day, I tell you!), I‘m very protective of my time—I don‘t have much tolerance for writing things that don‘t go anywhere. That‘s not to say that I‘m not willing to explore my story in ways that don‘t necessarily end up in the finished product, but that the exploring must have a clear point and purpose.

How popular is NaNo in Iceland?  Are you aware of a large base of writers there?

I am constantly surprised by how many Icelanders take part! There are only 320,000 of us so you wouldn’t think there’d be all that many, but the Icelandic nook of the forums is usually pretty lively.

The online writing community The Critique Circle, happens to be Icelandic in origin and has an Icelandic sister-site. It has an active group of writers, and many of them take part in NaNoWriMo every year. 

Do you write your NaNo-novel in English, or in Icelandic? 

I write in Icelandic, simply because I feel I’m more likely to write something worthwhile in my native language. However, I think it’s a fairly even split between our participants. English certainly has a larger audience, which is is tempting to writers whose native language is spoken by some 320,000 souls; there’s no doubt about that.

So I’m a big fan of the North Germanic language group, and I know that most of the languages in it form large compound words that could be a number of words in English.  Do you find it more difficult to reach the 50,000 words because of this?

That‘s a great question!  I believe it is somewhat easier to be succinct in Icelandic than in English, but it takes effort to really boil a thought down to a short sentence chiseled to perfection.

As we all know, when the story comes tumbling onto the page with that pesky internal editor blissfully absent, some unnecessary words tend to flow with the important ones. At least that‘s the case for me—my work tends to get shorter during rewriting.

The problem with getting those initial words down on the page isn‘t that we need more words, but that we need story, ideas, characters and dialogue to drive those words.

Finally, what tips would you give future participants both in Iceland and around the world?

Build up some passion for your project before you start, regardless if you’re a planner or a pantser. Too often I’ve begun—and failed—NaNo with no clear idea of what I’ll write or how I’ll have time to do it.

The best way to be happy with what you write is to be really excited about your project when you start. You need to care about those people and what’ll happen to them. That passion will serve you well and will make writing a joy rather than a chore.  Don’t count on it happening as you get going, because then you might never actually get going. 

Arndis Thorarinsdottir is the head of the Young Adult and Sci-Fi/Fantasy Department of Kopagovur Public Library.  She lives in Iceland with her husband and two kids, and has two published novels with awesome-sounding Icelandic names that we at the office can’t pronounce. Check out her work here!