Name: Antonia Hayes
Tell us a little bit about yourself …
I’m from Sydney, but have been living in Paris since 2006. I studied English literature at uni because I loved reading and that love naturally progressed into the burning desire to write. I also take photos.
What are you working on right now?
I’m working on yet another draft of my manuscript. It’s my first novel, called ‘Relativity’, which is about physics and families. It’s been many years in the making and I’m getting there, but still needs more work and polishing to make it 100% literary fiction magic.
What are you planning on doing with what you’re working on?
Publish, win the Booker Prize obviously, or at least get on the long list. But more realistically, buy a new laptop with any money I make and keep on writing.
What about joining groups and clubs and associations?
The most important work you do is alone in a dark room. But one of the most valuable things I have ever done is take part in a six month writing course at the Faber Academy in London. It’s run by UK publisher Faber and Faber and they have both long and short courses in many cities all over the world (London, Paris, Dublin, Edinburgh etc). All the courses are taught by wonderful writers and professionals in the publishing industry, so not only did I get to met and learn from some amazing people, but I also made friends for life with the other students there. It’s so important to have trusted friends who not only know how difficult the writing process is, but can also read your work and offer you priceless feedback. Sometimes you need fresh eyes on your work to see where there might be problems.
Take us through the process of creating you current project – the time frame, the tears, the sweat, the cups of tea and glasses of wine.
The idea for my novel came one night when I couldn’t sleep back in 2005. I wrote about 20k words enthusiastically then, but put it in a drawer because I got stuck and gave up once I hit a roadblock (only about 5 of those original words are still in the manuscript). I tinkered with it a bit now and then, but came back the novel seriously at the end of 2008. It was a weird turning point. I thought, hold on a second, I can really write, I can finish this. So I started treating writing like a job in 2009. Sometimes I would work the hours of a banker to get the first draft done, and there were lots of tears, and tea, and wine, and all nighters. But it was in the process of writing that I realised that this was something I loved to do, and wanted to always do. So the sweat and tears and pulling out my hair are always worth it because when I’m writing I’m in my element.
If someone came to you and asked for your advice on achieving the writerly dream, what would you say?
It’s obvious, but write. Write whenever you have a spare moment, write badly, write without thinking, write whatever comes to mind. You need to practice and hone in on writing and treat it as a craft and a skill. Truth be told if you want to write professionally, you’re going to need to be reasonably good at it. And you’ll never manage to write a novel or script or play or poem if you just think/talk about it but don’t write it down. Write write write. And be prepared to wait. It takes a long time to write a book, it takes a long time to edit it, and it takes a long time to do anything in publishing – it’s probably the slowest industry in the world. But it’s worth taking the time to get it right.
In closing …
Writing makes me happy. If it makes you happy too, then go for it. Set the bar high because the publishing industry does too.
Any websites/groups/competitions you want to direct people to?
Faber Academy http://www.faber.co.uk/academy
National Young Writer’s Festival http://www.youngwritersfestival.org/
(I’m on the program for some events this year, come along!)
•••
Name: Marc Vincenz
Tell us a little bit about yourself …
Born in Hong Kong of British-Swiss descent, Marc has lived in England, Switzerland, Spain, Hong Kong, China, the United States, and has traveled to remote locations such as central Siberia and the Amazon Rainforest. After many years in the Far East, he settled in Shanghai in the late 90s where he built a modest firm into a megalithic industrial design brokerage. After ten drudging years, he finally decided pack it all in and dedicate himself to his true love: the written word.
Many years before, he graduated from Duke University (USA) with a BA in Creative Writing, studied under notable authors such as Reynolds Price and Ariel Dorfman, and received the Sudler Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement. After graduation he dabbled in the music industry where he worked with Peter Katis (Interpol, Jonsi), Moby, Leon Dewan (Dewanatron, Flaming Lips), before embarking on his business career.
Now in his third incarnation, although based out of Iceland, he still travels widely, and writes a regular column for The Reykjavik Grapevine, Iceland’s English language newspaper. He serves on the editorial board for Boston’s Open Letters Monthly where he conducts an on-going series of interviews with established and emerging poets from all over the world.
His poetry has been published, or is forthcoming in many journals, including: Poetry Salzburg Review, MiPo: Poets and Artists, nth position, FRiGG and ducts. His fiction has recently received Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train’s Open Fiction contest. A novel, Animal Soul, is to be released in China.
What are you working on right now?
Right now I’m spending most time with my poetry. Every once in a while, for a change of pace, I dig into my fiction. I am working towards having two completed collections—although, believe me these things are never really complete—by the end of this year. Thereafter I’ll definitely need a period of ‘poetic’ rest, and plan to knock my short story collection into shape.
What are you planning on doing with what you’re working on?
Most mainstream publishing houses will not even look at your work unless you have a track record of being published by reputable magazines and journals. It’s a grueling, at times, tedious process. Many rejections later (it is said that it took Stephen King over 200 submissions to get his first short story into print), and with much perseverance, many glasses of wine, you develop a feeling for what each publication is looking for. Then, when you have finally had a handful of poems published, you start shoaling your collection together.
Right now I’m trying to get my two collections of poetry in order, sending poems out to suspect magazines, the occasional competition, and starting to think about which publisher to approach. Meanwhile, it’s unbelievably important to get your word out. Possibly of all literary works, poetry is the hardest to get published and the most unlikely to earn you any money. Even the most successful need to supplement their work by teaching, touring and touting their own books. It’s a heart wrenching labour of—oftentimes, unrequited love.
Do you have an agent, are you planning on getting one, do you think they’re necessary?
No, I don’t have an agent. Markets for poetry and short fiction are very limited: mostly small, independent presses are willing to work directly with the author. You send out your manuscripts, you wait and wait. Oftentimes you receive rejections and then you send out more, until, one fine day—it could take months or even years—someone bites, or doesn’t. Meanwhile you keep on writing and submitting. It can be a very disheartening process. Poets, even Pulitzer Prize winners, generally work hand to mouth, on their lonesome; and often stick with the same press for years.
If your goal is to get published by the mainstream then you definitely need an agent. Once you’ve a finished novel or non-fiction work ready for pitch, have developed some kind of a name for yourself, that’s the time to start actively looking for one. Make sure that what ever you send out is the very best you believe it can be. Follow the guidelines to a hair. You’ll need a great covering letter and a stunner of a synopsis or book proposal (for non-fiction).
There are stories of authors—J.K. Rowling for example—who finish their first novel, send their manuscript out and quickly find the right agent. Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth a shot, but know that if you have a regular presence in some form of media, if you have some kind of an existing audience—it will be that much easier to acquire an agent.
What about joining groups and clubs and associations?
Certainly anything that drives the creative process, that helps in honing your writing skills, can only be beneficial; but be wary of getting drawn into the proverbial grey line of mediocrity.
One of the things about being a writer is that it can be a very lonely process; and, if you’re a sociable person who absolutely needs to talk to someone about what you’re doing, support from like-minded individuals can be a great comfort. Make sure, however, that you always make your own conscious decisions about the quality of your own work. Listen, weigh everything carefully, but make sure you’re really deciding for yourself.
The most important thing is to create some kind of buzz about what you are doing. The internet is the best marketing tool there ever was for the writer. Today, anyone can do their own marketing—globally. Get your word out there in any form you possibly can: as a blogger, writing for a magazine, workshops, live readings, anything that gets people to notice you.
Of course, you’re not obliged to pursue the traditional publishing route. There are plenty of authors who sell their work online in downloadable e-books, who publish and market their own books. Be wary of vanity presses: companies who take a fee to get the book into print. The goal, of course, is for someone to pay you for your words, not the other way around.
Take us through the process of creating you current project – the time frame, the tears, the sweat, the cups of tea and glasses of wine.
Every project is a little different. That said, it always takes far longer than you expected; and, as I mentioned earlier, it’s never finished. It could always be sharper, tighter, more lucid.
Presently I’m actively working on a collection of poems. This particular collection tackles a very specific theme, set in a real period in my life. It started out as a single poem, then mushroomed into a full-blown collection. After having spent close to two years writing them, I pruned some 140 poems down to around 80, then attempted to bring them together into a successive, cohesive group. Six months later I’m still working things out; some that I initially nixed, have reappeared; in other places I’ve felt another poem was needed to link the next piece, so I’ve gone ahead and written another poem. In a sense it has almost become a verse novel. It’s a long process, like a journey over all kinds of terrain: jungle, mountain peaks, marshlands, arid desert, and the bustle of the inner city of the mind.
Normally I will spend somewhere close to twenty hours per week, considering each and every word, line and thought. At times, it clicks immediately; other times, it takes years to get a single line right; but somehow, slowly, you get a feeling whether a particular piece is going to make it—whether the words are in synch with each other; and, of course, if a particular poem adds to the momentum of the whole. The shorter the narrative, the more distilled the image, the more brain cells required. Robin Robertson, the poet, once told me: ‘Poetry is to prose what a single malt is to a pint of good beer: stronger and more concentrated but not necessarily better.’ You’ll certainly kill more brain cells with a bottle of Lagavulin than with a pint of Fosters.
Although I occasionally bounce my work off my wife or other writers, I go entirely by instinct. I quite often get irritable when I can’t seem to crack a particular piece. On the other hand, when it clicks, you’ll see me beaming around the house for hours. For me, the important thing is not to overdo it. Be critical, conscious, tough with yourself, with your work, but also give yourself room to breathe. Personally, I have a tendency to get bogged down in the mire.
There are writers—Hemingway is an example—who fix their daily writing schedule almost like a day job; or those who set themselves some kind of weekly word-count target. Some writers will say it’s important to write every day no matter what; even if all you manage is to spew a bunch of gobbledygook. Everyone is different. You have to find your own pace, although there is much to be said about being disciplined.
If someone came to you and asked for your advice on achieving the writerly dream, what would you say?
Few writers make it to the big league. Don’t expect to become the next J.K. Rowling, Gore Vidal or Margaret Atwood overnight, if ever. Stick to your guns. Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Do everything in your power to make every single word count. Get your work out there in any form you can. Try your best to be well organised. Keep a record of everything you are working on. If it doesn’t seem to work, put it aside, come back to again later. Meanwhile start working on something else. Don’t be put off by rejections. Keep on sending your stuff out. Work out which markets and readers are best for you, research the editors, the current contributors—does your work really fit?
If you don’t seem to be cracking the proverbial literary nut, pick up your favorite novel or poetry collection and re-read it, considering all the reasons why you love it. Take a breather. Then have another go at your own work.
Subscribe to as many journals and magazines as you can, go to book fairs, writer’s festivals, attend workshops, get yourself an MFA if you think you need it, get familiar with the markets, the writers. Go for it.
Closing comments – why do you do what you do?
Why? It’s in the blood. To me it’s something basic like breathing.
What drives you to pursue such an elusive dream?
I’d like to say it’s something like the pursuit of truth, but I’m not quite so idealistic as I used to be. I guess in the end, I’d have to say I’m not happy unless I’m writing. Ideally one would be able to make a living from it, but that remains to be seen. I am a firm believer in following the dream, that eventually all the hard work will pay off. But for heaven’s sake don’t listen to me, I’m just a poet.
Do you have anything to say about the publishing industry in general, what could improve, what you go up against as an emerging writer?
Generally—and there are always exceptions—the publishing industry is an industry like any other. You need to have a viable commodity and a potential audience. Art for the sake of art is a very rare thing, but when you have a chance to experience it please support it wholeheartedly. I fear for its future.
As an emerging writer absolutely everything appears daunting. Even after all the blood, sweat and tears of your dredging work, you are then faced with what appears to be the impossible task of getting your voice heard, your words in print. I mean, where do you start? Which magazines do you send your work to? How do you look for an agent that will even consider you?
If you’re serious, and I’m thinking whoever reads this far surely is, approach your writing career as you would any other. Follow your dream, but maintain professionalism at all times, build your contacts carefully, block by block; keep and update databases of contacts, submissions, potential markets, rejections. Never stop working on your writing. Never stop marketing yourself—be as creative with it as you can. Get yourself heard any way you can.
Any websites/groups/competitions you want to direct people to?
In my opinion, one of the best writers’ resource websites is Duotrope digest (http://www.duotrope.com). It’s absolutely free, but appreciates donations (and well-deserved). It lists over 2900 current Fiction and Poetry publications, provides an online submission tracking system and updates everything weekly.
New Pages is a great online portal that provides reviews, up to date information on literary magazines, creative writing programs, writing contests and conferences, and all manner of information on independent presses. (www.newpages.com)
The British Council Arts, provide much information on UK based periodicals and presses: http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-literature-links-periodicals.htm
Get yourself a copy of the latest Writer’s Marketplace, Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook, and Writer’s Handbook. If you can afford it, attend the AWP Conferences in the US (www.awpwriter.org), the London or the Frankfurt Book Fairs.
Good luck, and may the word be with you.
Main image by Andy Siharath on Flickr
