Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Kathy Fish's Dream Writing Day

Katrina Denza recently interviewed the amazing Kathy Fish.

Here's how Kathy describes her dream writing day:

"I always begin with notebook and pen. I don’t think I’ve ever started any writing at all on the computer. I need time to scribble. And it’s all over the page. If something feels like it might be good I circle it. After awhile something clicks and I know I’m ready for the keyboard. I’m very unstructured. I don’t give myself a time limit or word count goal. Coffee is always involved. I know the writing’s going well if the coffee gets cold.

"A typical writing day is spent messing around on the internet for longer than I ought to until I’m seized with guilt and shut it off. I stare out the window a lot. I take my dog for a walk. I pour another cup of coffee. Maybe after two hours I start to scribble in my notebook. I look out the window some more. My dream writing day is when I get past all of this and go into that beautiful trance, where I forget everything and look up, finally, two hours later and have before me something that feels real and right and pretty decent. A dream writing day is when it feels effortless."


Kathy's book "Wild Life" is a master class in the art of flash fiction. Highly, highly recommended.

2 comments:

S Kay Murphy said...

I know that "trance" well, and I love being enthralled by it!

Andrew Roe said...

It's magical when it happens, isn't it?