I am the founder and coordinator of Wadadli Pen. I am also a working writer and published author. I thought it might be useful to round up some of what I’ve said about the being a writer from the various interviews over time, especially in this 2012 round of interviews supporting the release of my latest book Oh Gad!In part, because a question I get often is ‘how do I become a writer?’ (or more directly how do I become a published writer?) Now, these interviews were promotional and so excerpting them here can’t be interpreted as anything but self-promotional, so I’ll try to step lightly; but I also hope that it provides some insight on process and the business of writing. For full interviews, you can go here:
“I write because of the questions I can’t shake…The ways people interact will always compel me I think, as I try to figure out why people do the things they do; hurt each other and so on. I’m an avid people watcher and absorb and store things, small things, instinctively for later use. I believe that the outsider characters, the people who don’t quite fit will continue to be a signature of my fiction because I understand these people in way I don’t really understand people who walk into a room and fall instinctively into the rhythm of things, people who belong without even trying. I believe that family dynamics will continue to compel me; the back drop of that will likely continue to be Antigua, as it’s the space I know best. But I don’t limit myself. I’m curious and so I’ll go wherever my wandering mind takes me.”
On process from an interview with Sandra Sealey posted to Shewrites.com
“I write from character a lot, I try to figure out who they are and I find their rhythm…I’m able to use the emotions and experiences of my life to tap into them a little bit better. I like the flow that happens when the character is coming through, and my fingers are moving across the page and I’m not so much writing it as trying to keep up with it as it reveals itself to me…. I love getting to know my characters and discovering things about myself and my world through them, even as I use my world and myself to discover them. I love that when it’s flowing everything real slips into the background and they become real; I love the compulsion I feel to get it, to get them, to race with them to the finish, without rushing it, of course, and I love that burst of joy I feel when we get there.”
“… it’s not enough that you know the characters and think they’re interesting or whatever, you have to help the readers see and feel them as well, and to do that you have to know them in a multidimensional way… Who are they? What do they want? What is their truth (don’t compromise on telling their truth)? Why should we care?”
“… it has not been easy… Fact is you could be the most talented in the room and still go unnoticed. But what I did and still do is continue to imagine, read, write, research, network, and grow, and most of all, write. And, when time and resources allow, I take up the opportunity to put myself in environments where all of the above is possible.”
“…the thing that you’re never really prepared for when you step out and say, I want to be a writer, is that feeling of vulnerability, because your work will be judged and may be found wanting. As a writer, I’ve experienced bad critiques, lots of rejection; and I have to remind myself that I’m not alone in this. It’s the path. It requires sacrifice, lots of sacrifice. Plus, you’re never prepared for how much you have to do to promote the book, how proactive you have to be…I know I’ve got to do all I can no matter how much it takes me out of my comfort zone.”
“One of the things I emphasize and encourage (with Wadadli Pen) is that the submissions be Caribbean in spirit simply because I want to debunk this whole idea that writing happens elsewhere to other people doing ‘important’ things; simply because I want us to embrace the value in our own lives, our own stories; simply because I believe any writing that comes from an authentic place stands a better chance of connecting with the reader than writing that tries to be something it’s not. Similarly, the details that inform my work come from all that helped shaped my reality and imagination growing up in Ottos, Antigua; and my reality, visioning, and concerns as a person living in the modern day Caribbean.”
“…you can survive criticism and live to write another day…as far as my writing mentors go, once I worked up the nerve to share my work, they provided frank (sometimes too frank) and helpful feedback that helped my writing to grow once I could open myself to hearing it. Also, when someone whose opinion you respect sees you and believes in your potential – and in the potential of your work – you believe in it a little bit more as well.”
DISCLAIMER: By definition, you’ll be linking to third party sites from these Links-We-Love pages. Linked sites are not, however, reviewed or controlled by Wadadli Pen (the blog, the Wadadli Youth Pen Prize nor coordinator/blogger Joanne C. Hillhouse); and Wadadli Pen (the blog, the Wadadli Youth Pen Prize and coordinator/blogger Joanne C. Hillhouse) disclaims any responsibility or liability relating to any linked sites and does not assume any responsibility for their contents. In other words, enter at your own risk.
Here you’ll find stories, interviews, reviews, poems; you name it…a totally subjective showcase of (mostly) Caribbean written (sometimes visual and audio visual) pieces that I (Joanne) have either personally appreciated or which have been recommended (and approved) for posting/linking. If you’re looking for the winning Wadadli Pen stories (and I hope you are!), click on ‘Categories’ and go to the respective year for ’2004 Winners’, ’2005 Winners’, ’2006 Winners’, ’2010 Winners’, 2011 winners… You can also see the Best of Wadadli Pen special issue at Anansesem which has the added feature of audio dramatizations of some of the stories.
http://tonguesoftheocean.org/2010/06/what-you-cryin-for -The causes and symptoms of crime take centre stage in this piece ‘What you Crying for?’ by Anku Sa Ra, well complemented by the Stevie Burrows image entitled, appropriately, ‘Crime’. Tongues of the Ocean is a multi-media site and this is one of the postings that have, in addition to the written, an aural presentation of the work.
http://tonguesoftheocean.org/2010/03/marassa-jumeaux/ - Geoffery Philp’s perspective on Haiti had an interesting “angle” on things. And for those who think Anansi is always up to no good for no good reason, check out his ‘Anancy Song’ here
http://tonguesoftheocean.org/current/ - This leads to Xan-Xi Bethel’s ‘Sister, Love’, a poignant piece on Haiti, complemented by Lindsay Braynan’s touching image ‘Help a Sistah Out, Man’.
http://visitstsomewhere.blogspot.com/ - The St. Somewhere Journal features new writings from across the Caribbean. Among your blogger’s faves in the Autumn 2010 issue are Kittian writer Carol Mitchell’s ‘Kept Promises’ on Page 4 and Trinidadian Shakira Bourne’s ‘Crossing Over’ on Page 6. While you’re there, check out my story ‘Somebody!’ on Page 30 and my essay ‘On Writing’ on Page 37.
I remember watching a group of kids at the national Youth Rally recently (Nov. 2011) chat and walk about during the Antigua and Barbuda National Anthem remembering how we couldn’t even twitch to scratch our nose singing the anthem every morning on the grounds of Holy Family School. How times have changed. It’s for this reason that I found the article ‘Tales out of School: Singing the National Anthem Word Perfect’ by Mary Quinn to be at once sobering and amusing.
I’ll be the first to admit, I have my reservations about self-published material; while I appreciate the frustrations of the traditional route, and the desire to bypass them (been there, done that), there’s a part of me that believes the hurdles help ensure that what’s turned out is the best it can be – in terms of physical quality of the product and the quality of the content (stumbling over basic grammatical errors, plot gaps, character inconsistencies or other things that should have been caught and refined in editing takes away from the reading experience). That said, I’ve read poor material from the traditional route and really good self-published works (usually where the writer exercises the patience and good sense to invest in editing). So, with self-publishing more accessible than ever, as you consider the best route for your literary baby, I’m happy to share this article balancing both arguments while ultimately making a pro self-publishing case (in specific instances). Incidentally, the site is the online home of Bahamian writer Nicolette Bethel where there are other interesting postings on a range of topics.
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This is just one of the interesting points made in Susan Lowes’ article on Social Relations in Antigua in the 1940s: “In fact, it was by traversing this terrain that young people often came to know their “class.” Thus a young man would suddenly find that he was not allowed inside the gate of a close school friend, and realize that he was socially unacceptable to his friend’s parents. Or men who were good friends nevertheless did not visit each other inside their houses; those who reported that they were “very close” often got no further than the veranda. Women, as keepers of the indoors, controlled the most intimate types of socialization, ranging from house visits to marriage. Men, in contrast, socialized outdoors, on the streets and playing fields, in rum shops and clubs, arenas where they were less constrained by indoor standards of respectability. It was by and large the women who policed the distinctions of social class: who knew, and cared about, the genealogies, who determined who their children could socialize with inside the house and who had to remain an “outdoors” friend, and so on.”
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– This is not a written piece but rather a piece on the power of writing and the danger of a single story. It’s one of the more circulated TED talks on the net, featuring Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie, author of Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, and The Thing Around her Neck – which I read and reviewed in the Blogger on Books. On the strength of the latter book and the TED talk – which I can relate to so much as a girl from the Caribbean – she’s a new favourite of mine.
http://summeredward.blogspot.com/2010/06/caribbean-picture-books-importance-of.html - Interesting piece on illustrations for Caribbean children’s literature; perhaps particularly interesting to me given that it ties in with our effort in 2011 to generate art to support the Caribbean children’s literature themed word entries for Wadadli Pen.
http://tonguesoftheocean.org/waves-and-murmurs/senior-lecture/ - Olive Senior, former winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, was actually my workshop leader when I attended the Caribbean Fiction Writers Summer Institute at the University of Miami back in 1995. Here she speaks at the Bahamas Writers Summer Institute in 2010 on ‘Writing and the Politics of Imagination in Small Spaces’. It’s a lengthy but interesting read.
“I find that in order to write your characters well, you have to be a little bit in love with them, even the ones that aren’t lovable at all.” – from Nalo Hopkinson’s 5 Minute Interview on Date with a Book.
“There was an idea I wouldn’t have been able to conceive of [the narrator] Precious’s life unless I had lived it,” said Push writer Sapphire. Push, some of you may know is the book that birthed the academy award winning film, Precious. Read her full comments on fact/fiction and assumptions/labelling here. This struck me because I’ve actually gotten a lot of the same assumptions (or questions) about my books – The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight – that the stories were biographical when they are in fact fiction (and no more biographical than any other work of fiction, in fact less so I’d say). Never thought of it as racism though since most of the questioning came from my own community. Hm.
The Farming of Bones remains my favourite book by Edwidge Dandicat, one of my favourite contemporary writers. In this interview, she talks about the book (good reading).
This interview with Tiphanie Yanique is quite engaging and revealing, plus how many of us can say Maya Angelou read a poem of ours while we were still in high school.
http://maudnewton.com/blog/?p=9295 – as I post this, I haven’t yet read Marlon James’ books (though they’ve been recommended to me time and again, especially Book of Night Women) but I found this interview quite interesting. My favourite line comes in the section where he talks of his struggles writing a love scene: Someone once scared me by saying that love isn’t saying “I love you” but calling to say “did you eat?” (And then proceeded to ask me this for the next 6 months). All that and he’s a Buffy fan; I think I’m going to have to book mark his blog (
http://marlon-james.blogspot.com/index.html ) and get to reading those books.
http://antiguaspeaks.com/news/?p=204 – Linisa George’s Brown Girl in the Ring – inspired by the children’s nursery rhyme and her experiences as a dark skinned sister growing up in a shade conscious society – is a staple of not only her When A Woman Moans productions but the local (i.e. Antiguan and Barbudan) performance poetry scene. In this article, she discusses the piece with her sister-friend and collaborator, ZIA.
http://sheroxlox.tumblr.com/post/1640248532/she-rox-tameka-jarvis-george - “Write from your heart. Write about your experiences good or bad. Everything in your life happens for a reason, so let those moments big or small be your inspiration to teach or help other people.” – excerpt from interview with Antiguan author of 2010 release Unexpected. Follow the link to read the rest.
- She Rox Lox – Zahra Airall’s rendering of locked women who are just beautiful.
http://tonguesoftheocean.org/2010/06/crime – This Steven Burrows piece calls to mind for me the Bob Marley song ‘Johnny Was’: “woman hold her head and cry, ’cause her son has been shot down in the street and die”…a commentary on the unsettling state of affairs on our streets and in our homes.
) – Summer ’08, walked a good road that summer, which calls to mind another Frost favourite, 
