Reading time: About two minutes
Sue Dvorak says that talking about writing is usually a mistake. Instead, it just burns up the drive you’ve had to do it…
Sue Dvorak is a physiotherapist and a mother of six now-adult children. She dabbled in writing on and off over the years, then four years ago, began writing what has turned out to be a book, her first. A narrative non-fiction memoir about parenting, Apparently This is what parenting feels like was published April 15. Sue lives in Vancouver, B.C..
I was excited to talk to Sue about how she approaches writing.
Q. Roughly how much time do you spend writing every day?
I’ve learned the answer depends what phase of a project I’m in. During ‘actual writing’ or editing, an hour or more a day. Editing to a deadline, though, it’s a few multi-hour chunks spread throughout a day. Other tasks, such as research, reading about writing, or publishing, etc., I can squeeze in more randomly.
Q. What’s a simple activity or habit that makes you a better writer?
I’m a prayer-person, and I notice that a morning prayer time before writing puts me in a great head space and perspective for writing. I look at things more tangentially and critically somehow; I get more sparks. This has been a gradual discovery, a wonderful one.
Q. What interferes with your writing?
Other reasonable demands on my time that cannot be scheduled otherwise.
Q. How do you persuade yourself to sit down to write on days when you really, really DON’T feel like doing it?
At ‘writing time’ I look over the random notes I’m constantly writing to myself, on my phone or scribbled into a small, bright-coloured notebook. Reading those fragments of thought, superb vocab words, imagined dialogue, storyline connections, all rekindles the ideas that had me record them. This helps me begin.
Q. Is there a particular motto or saying that you’ve found helpful for writing?
“No one else ever has to read this. Just write.”
Q. Which stage of the writing process do you enjoy the most: researching, writing or editing/rewriting and why?
I like rewriting most: the satisfaction that comes with seeing and feeling a piece get better and better, carved out and polished. Less is almost always more.
Q. What’s one of the best books you’ve read (either fiction or non) in the last five years? [If you can’t narrow it down to one, please don’t give any more than three.]
Fiction: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Non-Fiction: This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett.
Q. What book are you reading right now?
None at the moment for various reasons.
Q. What do you think is the biggest misperception that new writers have about the act of writing?
I’d say the misperception that talking about your writing project helps you get it done – when the opposite is true. Talking about your writing burns up the drive you had to do it. Keep your ideas stewing in your head, and spill that bubbling pot with writing, not talking.
