Janet Fitch
The best thing about being a writer is being able to create and live lives which are very far from my own. As a human being, I am limited to just this one life, and I try to live it sensibly, I"m sadly a very average person. As Flaubert advised, I live a conventional life so I can live the wild life of the imagination. I disappear in my writing, becoming the punk rock queen, the suicidal young artist, a foster child, her crazy mother, a young Russian woman living through the Revolution.
Of course, this is also what a reader does. A great reader gets to live so many lives. But as a writer, I live each scene I'm writing, not for minutes, but for weeks. I am so passionate about this. That's the best part, the totality of it. I"m an absolutist, a completist, an obsessive, a marathoner. I don't like to start things, but once I do, I don't like to stop--perfect temperament for a novelist.
Another best thing is just handling the materials--the beauty of language the richness of its possibilities. I love words, putting them up against each other to see how they build, their music, like shimmering colors and scents and textures. Oh, the pleasure of sculpting a really beautiful sentence! That rush of surprising myself with an interesting word, a great cadence, an unusual juxtaposition, the perfect metaphor. I'm easily bored, and when I've mastered a skill, I'm usually done with it. But in fiction, you never master anything. You're always a beginner, you're creating everything fresh in that moment. It's always new. There's no upper limit in artistic aspiration, you never "get there." So it's continually engaging.
Best in a different way is when people read my books and I get to see all the time and energy that I've packed into every sentence, all that distillation, all that compression, blossom inside a reader, see that it's real. Not just my experience writing the book, but seeing that transfer of an intense experience. What a thrill that is!
And being a writer gives me a reason to slow down and really look at the world, look twice at that cluster of trees, now, how would I describe that? What colors are in play, how would I describe the movement of those branches, the pattern of light and dark, the texture of the trunks, the shadows moving on the ground, the feeling of desolation or tenderness or comfort?
It also gives me tools with which to think about my beliefs about life. Usually I don't even know what I think is true until my characters face various tough circumstances--and I can see, oh, really, this is what happens in cases like that. Meaning, this is what I really believe, not what I espouse to believe over a glass of wine at a party. it's not always the same, I'm much more honest in my fiction, I have to be, or it won't stand up. I get to know the world, and I get to know myself.
Of course, this is also what a reader does. A great reader gets to live so many lives. But as a writer, I live each scene I'm writing, not for minutes, but for weeks. I am so passionate about this. That's the best part, the totality of it. I"m an absolutist, a completist, an obsessive, a marathoner. I don't like to start things, but once I do, I don't like to stop--perfect temperament for a novelist.
Another best thing is just handling the materials--the beauty of language the richness of its possibilities. I love words, putting them up against each other to see how they build, their music, like shimmering colors and scents and textures. Oh, the pleasure of sculpting a really beautiful sentence! That rush of surprising myself with an interesting word, a great cadence, an unusual juxtaposition, the perfect metaphor. I'm easily bored, and when I've mastered a skill, I'm usually done with it. But in fiction, you never master anything. You're always a beginner, you're creating everything fresh in that moment. It's always new. There's no upper limit in artistic aspiration, you never "get there." So it's continually engaging.
Best in a different way is when people read my books and I get to see all the time and energy that I've packed into every sentence, all that distillation, all that compression, blossom inside a reader, see that it's real. Not just my experience writing the book, but seeing that transfer of an intense experience. What a thrill that is!
And being a writer gives me a reason to slow down and really look at the world, look twice at that cluster of trees, now, how would I describe that? What colors are in play, how would I describe the movement of those branches, the pattern of light and dark, the texture of the trunks, the shadows moving on the ground, the feeling of desolation or tenderness or comfort?
It also gives me tools with which to think about my beliefs about life. Usually I don't even know what I think is true until my characters face various tough circumstances--and I can see, oh, really, this is what happens in cases like that. Meaning, this is what I really believe, not what I espouse to believe over a glass of wine at a party. it's not always the same, I'm much more honest in my fiction, I have to be, or it won't stand up. I get to know the world, and I get to know myself.
More Answered Questions
Rachael
asked
Janet Fitch:
Janet, I'm looking for the most comprehensive collection of Russian/Slavic folklore, mythology, fairy tales, etc., but translated into English. I'm hopeful that in doing your research for your latest book you've read something like this? I keep coming across reimaginings, or mini-anthologies, or heavily edited versions of stories that are highly sanitized and less pagan than they ought to be. Any recommendations?
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