Maddie Dawson, author of The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson joins us today on From Left to Write for an interview about her book The Stuff That Never Happened and about her life as a writer.

Read the inspired book club posts about The Stuff That Never Happened by the From Left to Write bloggers .

Q: Where is your favorite place to write?

A: I have two places I love to write. One is my back porch, where I can look out at the woods and listen to the birds while I’m writing. This is a good place to be when I am listening to the voices of new characters and hearing the shape of the story they’re telling. But sometimes the back porch is just a little too close to the rest of the house, where there are all kinds of unfortunate distractions, such as the kitchen where I might need to think about what I’ll cook for dinner, or the bathtub, which if it was just a little cleaner, I could concentrate sooo much better on my writing. At that point, I need to get myself to my local Starbucks, where, believe it or not, I actually can get a lot done. I plug in my headphones, curl up in one of the armchairs, and I can write for hours, fueled by Starbucks iced tea and enough background noise to keep me truly focused on my project. I know this doesn’t make any sense at all, but it works for me.

Q: What was your favorite book as a child? As an adult?

A: I was reading all the time as a kid. I was THAT kid, the one with her face in a book, and I read so much that I actually can’t remember any absolute stand-out favorites. I loved all the Beverly Cleary books, the Donna Parker series, (I recently found one on eBay and was transported back to being 9), Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and a whole bunch of books that belonged to my mother and which I wasn’t supposed to be reading! As an adult, I love Anne Lamott, Alice Munro, Allison Winn Scotch, Susan Straight, Stewart O’Nan, Mark Haddon, Elinor Lippman, Lorrie Moore—oh, you see what happens when I get asked this question? I tend to go on and on. I love so many books!

Q: Are you in a book club? Tell us about it.

A: Big sigh. I am not currently in a book club, even though I would love to be. I had to abandon my book club while I was writing my novel. It’s way too much fun to read other people’s books when you’re at a tough spot in writing your own book! But then…well, your own book doesn’t get written and pretty soon you have to go get a real job.

Q: Do you a tip for writers? (e.g., how to overcome writer’s block, find your voice, routines, etc.)

A: My tip for writers (and I teach writing workshops, so I’m always saying this to them—I can feel them rolling their eyes even while I’m typing this) is to WRITE EVERY DAY. There is no substitute for actually sitting down and getting the words down; that’s where inspiration truly lives. You may think you can create and compose while you’re walking around in the world thinking about your book—but that’s an illusion. The real stuff only happens when you’ve trained your mind to create every day and given it a space and a mandate to then do it. And then it’s like magic. You sit down, do your little crazy ritual to get started (a friend of mine can only write once she’s won a game of Solitaire on her computer), and then let your mind wander free. You’ll be surprised at what starts to develop. (One caveat: Not every day is absolutely heaven on earth when you’re writing. Some days you can sit there for hours and the words and inspiration won’t come, and you may be tempted to throw your computer out of the window.  Give yourself a break. The next day is bound to be better.)

Q:  What’s your favorite thing to do on the weekend?

A: Oh, this is a hard thing to admit—but my favorite thing to do all the time is write. I would be writing all the time if I had the choice. I know, I know. This makes for a very boring, one-note life, and after a while you have nothing to write about because you have no new experiences. So I also love hiking, talking about writing, going to the beach, eating lunch out, talking to my friends, teaching writing workshops, traveling to new places, talking about writing some more, and eating dinner out. And oh yes, I like to cook. But I must be appreciated in order to cook. And then I don’t particularly like the cleaning up part. [Read more...]