Lisa Young

Everyone has a different writing process. Over time, of course, some methods grow stale and new "systems" take over. Poetry I like to write first drafts of poems in the company of other poets. We read our favourite poems and then dive in and write for 45 minutes or so, and then we share what we've written. It also helps that these writing sessions take place early in the morning, before the inner critic is awake. I usually write whatever I feel attracted to write about...and I don't worry too much about the result. That comes later when I transcribe what I've written and have a look to see what material I have. Sometimes the very things that I thought were working during the writing process are flat, while other bits and pieces that I wrote that I thought weren't working become the actual material that seems to have some energy in it. In terms of editing, sometimes it doesn't work to just keep moving the original words around. I have to basicall...

Well, I'm loving it. I've found a writer that I'm totally in love with and he's helping me out - a lot. Raymond Carver. You're left to fill in some blanks. It's like a make your own adventure story, but much more satisfying. Right now, I'm barrelling through another Carver collection. Often times, I come to the end of one of his stories, and think, Is this really the ending? For example, in the story, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," the end [spoiler alert!] has everyone sitting around in the dark, in the quiet - and you can hear their hearts beating. And I'm thinking, What an unusual ending. And then I'm thinking, I just love this. He finds a way to tell something as truthfully as possible and that's so deeply wonderful. For example, in another story, Carver has one of his characters, the husband, being kicked out of his wife's house. It ends with the husband saying, "I just want to say one more thing....