Interview: Loree Westron, Author of Missing Words
After my interview with Fairlight Books author, Douglas Bruton, discussing his latest publication, Blue Postcards, and his approach to writing, he turned the tables on me and posed some questions of his own. Here, we continue our discussing about reading, writing, and my literary novella, MissingWords, which will be published on 5th August.
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Douglas:
I tried writing in my teens and then
again at university – nothing I wrote was worth the ink. It was not until I got
a computer (aged thirty) that I found a way to write that worked. When did you
know you could write and that it was something you wanted to do?
Loree: I remember dreaming up stories a lot when I
was a kid. I’m an only child, and spent a lot of time entertaining myself. I know
that I wanted to be a writer long before I ever wrote anything down on paper.
In that way, I think I was very typical of a lot of the students I’ve worked with who want to write, but don’t yet have the tools to do
so. I did English and Creative Writing as my first degree in the States, and
remember that I began a lot of stories that never seemed to get finished. I dropped out
of university just before my final year, so I didn’t finish the degree, either – which
says a lot about my general lack of focus back then. I did quite a bit of
travel writing in my twenties, publishing articles in newspapers and magazines,
but it wasn’t until I did my MA, at the University of Chichester, that I really
began to knuckle down and put in the time. I would have been in my late
thirties then.
Douglas: When I wrote my very first short story, I
sent it into a competition and came first. I thought I’d made it. What would
you say was your first writing success?
Loree: It was probably the first time I saw my name
in the byline of a magazine for a travel article I’d written about cycling to
Nordkapp. At the time, I thought I was going to be the next Dervla Murphy, but
my travels were never quite as adventurous as hers. As far as fiction goes, I’ve
had a number of stories shortlisted in competitions, and a few that have come
second or third, but none – sadly – that has come first. One of the short stories
I wrote for my MA came second in the VS Pritchett Memorial Prize, now called the VS Pritchett Short Story Prize, and was
published in quite a prestigious literary journal. That was probably my first real
experience of writing success. There was a party in London, with champagne and lots of literary types.
Douglas: I once embarked on a crazy writing regime, a
flash fiction a day until I had 1000 stories (in just under three years). I was still
doing other stuff: teaching, writing short stories and novels, but the flash
fiction stuff was a way of putting in the hours of work that it can take to
become a better writer. What would you say has helped you be a good writer? (In
anticipation of you playing the modesty card, here, I define ‘good writer’ as
being good enough to be published.)
Loree: Reading has certainly been a factor. Anyone
who wants to write seriously, has to read – both for pleasure and as a student
of writing. Reading helps a person to develop a sense of what works in a story
and what doesn’t. Workshopping with other writers has also helped me to hone a
critical eye when looking at my own work. Teaching has done that, too. There’s
also an element of stubbornness in my writing process. If I have a sense that a
story is good, I’ll keep coming back to it – sometimes over a period of years –
redrafting and chipping away at it.
Douglas: I used to have a writing shed and now I have
a study; but in the end I learned that all I need is time to be by myself and
an idea. Do you have a writing place and a writing process, and how rigidly do
you keep to this if you do?
Loree: To write properly, I need to have separation
between me and the rest of the world. I can’t write in a café or a classroom.
Nothing more than notes and character sketches, anyway. I’m too easily
distracted. Hemingway had a catwalk between the top floor of his house in Key
West and the spacious study where he wrote, surrounded by his books and
memorabilia from his travels. That would be my ideal – somewhere that I could
completely disconnect and have time to think, unobserved. I’ve turned our
second bedroom into a writing room where I’m able to do that. I usually wake up
about 6 a.m., make a pot of coffee, and write for two or three hours before
going to work at my day job. And by ‘write’, you understand, I mean both
putting words down on a page and ‘thinking about writing’. I do that pretty
much seven days a week.
Douglas: I have always edited as I go and don’t really do much to what I write once it’s been laid down. That, for me, is my failing. What is your process for editing your work?
Creative Writing tutors always tell their
students to switch off the internal editor when writing their first draft and to just
let the words spill out onto the page and lay where they fall, but it’s something I’ve found
nearly impossible to do, myself. I tend to edit as I go along, too, sometimes taking
whole hours to write a single paragraph. I’m very slow. That’s my failing.
Following Hemingway’s example, I read whatever I wrote the previous day, making
little tweaks if needed, then continue from there. Once a story is complete, I
put it into my metaphorical drawer for a while and move on to something else. Eventually,
I’ll go back and redraft. With a short story, I might do fifteen or twenty
drafts before I’m satisfied it’s as strong as it can be.
Douglas: I once won a short story competition and part
of the prize was a place on a week-long Arvon course of my choosing. I wasn’t
sure about doing the course, but I did. I met a great bunch of people and we
have continued to meet up for writing retreats together. They are a great
support. Have you ever attended a writing course? If so, what was the course
and how valuable was it?
Loree: I think those sorts of courses are great.
There’s something very liberating about being around other writers and creative
types because you don’t have to explain yourself. Everyone understands what
it’s like – the challenges of the creative life. I once did a three-day
residential blacksmithing course at West Dean College, in West Sussex, and it
was wonderful to feel fully immersed in that world. My MA was also a
wonderfully creative and supportive experience where I really began to feel
like a writer. I was part of a very small cohort of about twelve people, and
I’m still close to a number of my writing colleagues from that time.
Douglas: I think I read somewhere that you were doing
a PhD (correct me If I am wrong) – and so to a question you asked me: do you
think creativity is something that can be taught and if so what was the most
important creative lesson you learned?
Loree: I completed my PhD in 2013. It was a
largely independent period of intense study and writing, so didn’t include a
taught component – although I did work very closely with my brilliant
supervisor, Alison MacLeod. She nudged me in different directions from time to
time, but pretty much allowed me to forge my own path. As far as creativity
goes, the period where that really blossomed was during my MA. I was fortunate
to be tutored by a group of wonderfully talented and inspiring writers at the University of Chichester, who introduced me to authors I probably wouldn’t have discovered on
my own. It was also a time to experiment with style and form. As you said,
yourself, creativity is something that’s in all of us, so it doesn’t need to be
taught. However, it does need nourishing, as you put it, and also coaxing.
Douglas: My agent has just announced that he will
retire at the end of the summer so I will be agentless once again. Do you have
an agent and if so, how did you get your agent and what do you think is the
value of an agent?
Loree: No, I don’t have an agent. But I am very keen
to get one. I find the idea of having to
sell myself – in the sense of convincing publishers that my books and stories
are worth their time and money – onerous in the extreme. That side of things
messes with the creative space and can be hugely time consuming. I would gladly
pay someone else to do that job for me.
Douglas: Your book, Missing Words, is about a postcard and a mail sorter called
Jenny; I believe you once worked in the postal service in some capacity – how
important was your experience in writing the book? Do you feel you have to
write what you know?
Loree: Yes, I worked in the Royal Mail sorting
office here in Portsmouth for a couple of years, and though it was a very
monotonous job, I really enjoyed it. After a while, sorting letters became automatic, so my
brain was freed up to think about other things. It was very good for my
creativity. And I was good at the job, too, like Jenny. I like stories that include some of the intricacies of a job that can only be described if
you know it – or aspects of it – in some detail. So although I don’t think you
have to know something, personally, before you can write about it, I do think
it helps. It cuts down on the research you have to do to write with
authenticity. That’s also why I did the blacksmithing course. I now know what
it smells like and sounds like, and how it feels to touch the wrong end of a hot iron bar!
Douglas: I have sometimes had people send me bits of
their work asking for feedback and advice on how to proceed towards
publication. What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
Loree: My advice is always to read the best in
whatever field of writing a person wishes to be published in – so they
internalise an understanding of what good or great writing looks like. It astonishes me,
sometimes, that many people who want to write and publish books don’t really
read very much – and aren’t actually interested in reading. That seems quite
arrogant to me, as if they are saying they have nothing to learn. I’ve already
mentioned my lengthy process of redrafting, but that is something I also find
essential. Ultimately, I think every writer has to have a good level of
self-belief. So if they’ve done the time – reading, writing, redrafting, etc –
and truly believe in what they’ve written, then my advice is to persevere. Keep
at it. Keep learning and developing the craft.
Douglas: I was recently asked to come up with one word
to ‘describe’ my book; I cheated and used two. Is there a single word that ‘catches’
the whole of Missing Words?
Loree: I hate questions like that. How do you reduce
a book down to one word? Perhaps it’s one of these: choices, determination,
forgiveness, or acceptance? At its core, the story is about ‘communication’, or the lack
of it.
Douglas: I think you are from America – born and bred?
What brought you to the UK and how do you think any of that has influenced your
writing?
Loree: I
was born and raised in Idaho, but the summer before I started university, I met
a handsome young Englishman riding a beautiful green bicycle. It was love at
first sight as far as I was concerned. He spent the rest of the summer with my
family, then continued with his cycle tour. When he returned a couple of years
later, I was eager to see more of the world. That’s when I dropped out of
university. We travelled back and forth a few times, but eventually settled
here when I was 23, so I’ve lived here far longer that I lived there.
I think living abroad for so long has
allowed me to see the United States from two different perspectives – through
the eyes of an insider who understands the whats and whys, and through the
eyes of an outsider who at times is absolutely astonished by what she sees. I
sometimes feel as though I’ve become stuck in a sort of liminal space between
the two countries. Almost every day, someone asks me where I’m from – my accent
still gives me away. But when I go back, people I don’t know – people in my
hometown – ask if I’m English. It’s frustrating sometimes. On a bad day, I question whether I can ever really belong
in either place. Most of the things I’ve written have been set in the States. I’m
working on a novel, now, that’s set in the area where I grew up, so I’m often
quite consumed by different aspects of American history and the American character. More so, I'm sure, than would have been the case had I remained there.
Douglas: Do you have other books waiting in the wings?
If not, what’s next, after the publication in August of Missing Words?
Loree: I’m working on what I hope will be the final
draft of my PhD novel, the novel I just mentioned. It has quite a complex
structure, with multiple viewpoints and two different storylines set in the
same place at two different points in history. I sent the first chapters out to
agents a few years ago, and a handful of them asked to see the full novel.
However, the consensus was that it needed to be simplified, somewhat. So I’ve
removed some of the chapters (possibly to be used in a prequel/sequel) and have made
the structure a bit more orderly. It feels very much like a puzzle, at the
moment.
I’ve also started a novel that’s partly
set in a travelling circus in the early years of the 20th century.
Douglas: The writer’s life is filled with ‘rejections’
and except for an exalted few is not really so very lucrative. There are so
many books in the world, so many voices all talking at once and so very few that
are really heard. So, what is it that makes you want to write?
Loree: I think there are two related, but distinct parts to
that question. Firstly, I write because I have thoughts and ideas that I find
difficult to express in any other way. I’m not a particularly articulate
speaker, especially when speaking off-the-cuff. Writing gives me the time and
space to put my words together, properly, the way I want them presented rather
than in the haphazard fashion they often tumble from my lips. It’s also a way
of exploring those big, philosophical questions about life and the universe and
everything else, and of making sense of the world around me. So that’s why I write. The
implied part of your question is, I think, not so much about
writing as it is about publishing. Like you, I want to leave something behind
when I’m gone. I like the idea that there will be ISBNs connected to my name,
and that in years to come, something of my time here on earth will still exist.
Douglas: What’s your relationship with cake and what’s
your favourite? Tea or coffee? Wine or beer? And aside from cycling, what other
interests do you have?
Loree: I have a long and fraught relationship with
baked goods, and find it close to impossible to resist any type of cake that’s on
offer. My favourite would be my grandmother’s zucchini and carrot cake with
vanilla and cream cheese frosting. I drink both tea and coffee, but have to
doctor tea with milk and sugar. I drink my coffee neat. I’m partial to a glass
or two of oaky Shiraz or Malbec, but also enjoy real ales. As for interests
other than cycling…, I’m really struggling, here. I’m pretty busy with work and
writing, and I’m also active in my church – so there’s not much time for
anything else to be honest. Plus, bikes are pretty all-consuming.
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More information about Loree Westron’s forthcoming novella, MissingWords, can be found by visiting the Fairlight Books website.
Reviews of Missing Words
Missing Words is available to order, now, at your local
bookshop or from the online retailer of your choice.
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