Ask the Author: Elizabeth Guider
Answered Questions (7)
Elizabeth Guider
HI there, GARY,
I believe I answered this via Facebook but if not, apologies. I'm in Los Angeles and yes, it would be lovely to meet up for coffee. If not before Christmas then early in the new year. Always easier to communicate via email rather than all these websites: elizabethguider@hotmail.com. Meantime, trust you are well and staying safe. what a world, right?! Elizabeth
I believe I answered this via Facebook but if not, apologies. I'm in Los Angeles and yes, it would be lovely to meet up for coffee. If not before Christmas then early in the new year. Always easier to communicate via email rather than all these websites: elizabethguider@hotmail.com. Meantime, trust you are well and staying safe. what a world, right?! Elizabeth
Elizabeth Guider
Excellent question from a fellow journalist who is also an author. Shifting from a journalist’s mindset—where getting the facts right is crucial—to a creative mindset—where never letting the facts get in the way of a good story is crucial—is not easy or automatic. At least not for me. One thing that helps, I have found, is being strict about the stages of my writing process. Once I have a coherent, if necessarily fluid, outline in hand, I write a first draft concentrating on the STORY and the CHARACTERS, and never do searches on the Internet. Things I don’t know or things I want to introduce to set the time, place and specificity of the story, I simply put XXXs on the page and only come back to deal with them in a second draft. It’s important not to let facts, or knowledge of a period or a place, or whatever to clutter or slow down the flow of the narrative. Similarly, since we’re all highly opinionated, it’s important to make sure our own views of a subject—God, country, politics, sex, love, etc—are either filtered through the perspective of one character or another or through the lens of a very purposefully knowing (or knowingly officious!) narrator, and not just thrown in because that’s what I the author think or believe. In this regard, I remind myself occasionally what Samuel Goldwyn purportedly told film directors whenever they too obviously tried to make a political statement of one sort or another with their movies: “If you want to send a MESSAGE, call Western Union.”
Elizabeth Guider
One of the best things about being a writer is the chance to think about people’s lives with more empathy, and in creating characters, trying to reveal something useful or affecting about the human condition. The other great pleasure for me, having been a journalist for so long, is the chance to engage differently with the language. Relishing words, grappling with narrative structure, and trying to perfect a tone and voice are fun — and rewarding —things to work on in and of themselves.
Elizabeth Guider
My next novel will, barring unforeseen delays, come out at year’s end. Like my others, it’s a family saga, though this time focused on a father, who has recently lost his wife — and is now being pursued by several women, all of whom have a particular talent in common. The title is under wraps, but does reflects that talent. It’s set on the Central Coast of California, which itself is a character in the book, as it were. A joy to write.
Elizabeth Guider
To paraphrase the old adage (and vary the percentages if necessary), writing is 10% (or 20%?) INSPIRATION, and 90% (or 80%?) PERSPIRATION. You have to be motivated enough by the story you want to tell to dedicate a consistent amount of time, energy and focus to sitting down and actually writing. On almost a daily basis, if possible. I find that starting out is the hardest part but that it gets easier—and more fun—once drawn into the process.
Elizabeth Guider
Getting inspired to write can take many forms but in my case, the urge usually hits me when I suddenly think of a line of dialogue that I want one of my characters to utter or a descriptive phrase I want to embed somewhere in the draft. Or, sometimes it’s just because I want to escape the cares of the day and sit at my desk, or even in bed, and write. Alone, undisturbed, no Internet searching. Music, especially Bach or Mozart, sometimes helps; and a strong cup of Peets’ Luminosa coffee keeps me at it for a few hours.
Elizabeth Guider
The germ of the idea for Our Long Love’s Day came from a seminar I attended back in graduate school. Rumors of an illicit dalliance between a professor and student surfaced, unsettling the class. Ironically, the seminar dealt with a genre of English poetry in which the concept of carpe diem — as in “seize the day” — was front and center. That became the underlying theme of my novel, which is, in fact, centered on a couple of academics. Their marriage implodes when the husband, a professor of Metaphysical poetry, opts to throw over his wife (and children) for the apparent attractions of his favorite student. The title of my book is indeed from a poem by one of those poets. Some of you will instantly recall it.
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