Ask the Author: Michael Wyndham Thomas
Answered Questions (7)
Michael Wyndham Thomas
My favourite fictional couple is Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby. Their relationship is brief and they are very different: Jordan, composed and rather haughty; Nick, diffident and somewhat gauche. In their different ways, however--ways emphasised by contrast--they reveal uncertainty over, even bafflement at, the brittle world of Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, and George and Myrtle Wilson.
Michael Wyndham Thomas
I wanted to experiment with a voice that wasn't my own: that of someone from a completely different culture. I wanted to get out of my usual mode of narrative, my usual 'cast' of voices and situations, so that this new book wouldn't be my story but his. As to whether it'll work, well, I guess I'll see...
Michael Wyndham Thomas
Sometimes inspiration is reluctant to arrive. But sometimes, it might just be an overheard snippet of conversation or a particular phrase, or (increasingly for me) the look and feel of a certain place. That said, inspiration can come from any direction. You sometimes feel like a goalie in thick fog, wondering where the ball will come from next.
Michael Wyndham Thomas
I'm working on a fictionalised memoir of a traveller from a wholly different part of the world to me: where he travels, what he experiences and what his experience teaches him (or not).
Michael Wyndham Thomas
See where your imagination takes you. It might take a while before you hit on an idea that really fires it (I know that it did with me) but just enjoy the act of creation. This can be tricky, but try and avoid fads: ie, the sense that 'I should try something like that because everyone else seems to be doing it.' Whatever the fad of the moment is, it might not be for you and it might take you away from the discovery of your real voice.
Michael Wyndham Thomas
The freedom to explore new imaginative possibilities, to create people and situations and see what happens. If my luck's in, characters will start telling me what they should say and do. With poetry, the appeal is in using language in a way that goes beyond the often dry, pragmatic usage of everyday life.
Michael Wyndham Thomas
I think it best not to worry overmuch about this. I used to, but now I find that 'freewriting', simply following a free-association of ideas, can get me back on track. If it doesn't (or not immediately), at least I have some new writing possibilities to which I can return later.
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