If you haven't already, please take a few minutes and read "Red, White, and Blueland", then return here for an interview with the author!
----------Interview by Renee Roberson
WOW: Welcome back Amy, and congratulations! We're excited to learn more about you and your process for writing and creating thought-provoking essays. Writing about our personal experiences can be therapeutic, but sometimes it’s difficult to arrange our thoughts into a cohesive essay form. Do you have any tips for writers just starting out in creative nonfiction?
Amy: I think most writers, whether conscious of it or not, pull from the well of their own experiences. We’re shaped by the world around us and the events that mark our lives. Personally, I never set out to write full-on creative nonfiction, so I’m not sure about tips. Being a romance writer, I’d always preferred immersing myself in a world where I knew a happy ending was guaranteed. But as we all know, real life holds no such promise. And the more I tried to incorporate my experiences through the lives of my fictional characters, the more I realized it wasn’t resonating with me any longer the way it had before. It felt hollow and two-dimensional. Somehow, not genuine. So, I made the decision to drop the pretense and dive into the deep end of creative nonfiction. I thought it was going to be scary to pull back the curtain all the way, but it turned out to be the thing that opened the floodgates to deeper, more powerful writing for me. I began to keep a notebook, jotting down any experience, brief interaction, or conversation that struck me for whatever reason. Then I dug into the memories of things I’d pushed aside over the years—the fear that comes with getting older, my father's death, friendships I’d lost, people I’d met during my travels, and the broken hearts scattered along the way. I pulled all those feelings together and then incorporated them into a specific event or scenario in my daily life. So, I would say if you’re just starting out, make notes of the things that happen to you during the day. It could be a brief interaction or passing someone on the street. Or maybe a song that takes you back to a certain place and time. Were you happy, sad, angry? Sit with those emotions. Write about them under the cover of a fictional character if you have to. And then dissect that character until it’s stripped down to its raw components. You might be amazed that underneath all of it, it’s you. At least I was.
WOW: That's solid advice! As writers, I believe first and foremost, we are observers. What happens when we mix those daily observations with our memories and emotions is magical. The last line of “Red, White, and Blueland” is so powerful and poignant. Writing the final sentence in any short story or essay can be intimidating. Did you struggle at all with figuring out how to wrap up this piece in a way that would resonate with the reader?
Amy: I’ve always been more of a panster than a plotter, so it’s rare for me to know how I will close out a piece. This one was no different. I just know that for everything I write, I want to do my best to make it stay with the reader. I love it when art/movies/books make me think about them for days after the movie credits roll or I turn that last page of the book. I want my readers to feel that. I want them to take whatever they can from my work and come to their own conclusions about what it means to them or how it makes them feel. For this one, when I thought about that day in New York, the one thing that kept coming back to me was how cold my feet were. It was bitter, and the wind made standing outside almost unbearable. I even considered abandoning the tour. When I’d gotten to the end of the piece, I knew I had to circle back to my cold feet because, through everything I heard and saw, in the back of my mind was the constant throbbing. My feet were the main character that day—a nagging, inconvenient reminder of how uncomfortable I was with so many things in the world.
WOW: You have to love the double meaning there and I applaud you bringing that physical and emotional discomfort through in your piece. Like you mentioned above, this winning essay revolves around an excursion you took to New York City as a form of distraction, and you’ve also discussed other trips in other essays. We’d love to hear about some of your favorite journeys!
Amy: I love learning about other cultures and meeting new people. London has quickly become one of my favorite places. I visited last month and wish I could have stayed longer. I have a soft spot for Italy and hope to retire there someday. Australia and Spain had the best food. The most wonderful thing to come from my writing journey, aside from the creative outlet it provides, is that I’ve made friends all over the world through my various virtual writing groups. After only knowing these supportive, creative, wonderful souls online, it’s been amazing to actually meet them in person when I travel. The world has become so much smaller through the power of the internet. The days of writing letters to a pen pal from middle school French class seem so long ago. Now, I can get on a plane and meet the people I’ve only known through a screen for years, but who’ve had as much of an impact on my life (if not more so) than people I see every day. And with the recent passing of my nineteen-year-old dog, I feel like I’m on the precipice of some pretty cool adventures. I’ll miss her, but Japan has been calling to me in my dreams for a little while, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the wind blows me next.
WOW: What amazing journeys you've had! I just read One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle and truly felt like I was transported to Positano. I can't wait to visit there and try the food and wine! To many of us, our writing spaces are sacred and help us to be our most productive. Living in a historic home, we’d love to hear about any special areas you’ve created for your writing.
Amy: I’ve tried a few different places in my home to write. I’ve tried music, having plants around, and sitting outside on my patio. But at the end of the day, I always seem to end up sitting on my couch with my laptop on my knees. As much as I want to make some kind of zen space for writing, this old couch seems to hide all my creative secrets under its cushions.
WOW: Ha! I love that. You’ve experienced success in writing competitions and are working on a novel when you’re not at your full-time job. Are there any other dream creative projects on your list to tackle?
Amy: Right now, I think I need to dust off my manuscript and dive back in. Halfway through the second draft, I lost steam. I turned to writing competitions to keep the creative juices flowing so I wouldn’t become stagnant. But I also found that it served a greater purpose. Pouring my energies into the Flash Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction pieces improved my writing more than I realized. They took me to greater depths with my creativity and helped me understand more fully what kind of writer I want to be moving forward. I have a renewed passion for my novel and am looking at it with fresh eyes and a new perspective. I look forward to completing the edits to produce a more polished and tightly written novel, so I can finally start the query process.
WOW: You've got this, Amy! Looking forward to reading more from you in the future.
