Discovery, Study, and Lots of Rewriting: Fiction Writing with Yvonne McArthur
Yvonne McArthur is a 29-year-old writer from Guatemala, currently living in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. Yvonne and I were co-writers on a video game project for three years, which was a new (and frankly, nerve-wracking) prospect for me at first, since my writing has almost always been a solitary practice. I was relieved and excited to find that Yvonne was an incredible partner, with much more talent in thinking outside the box than I have, and who always motivated me (by example) to spend a little more time crafting the immersive details of our game’s fantastical world. What I’ve read of her fiction has always been vivid and colorful, full of distinctive characters I loved getting to know. As I got to know her better, too, I’ve learned so much from her adventurous spirit and dedication to the craft we share. Whether you’re also a writer or a different kind of creator, I hope you find encouragement in her interview below!
How did you fall in love with writing?
I think it’s because I always loved reading. I fell in love with stories. We also had a lot of guests over growing up, and I loved that they would tell us stories, too. It was kind of a natural segue from my love of hearing stories to trying to become a storyteller.
I studied Creative Writing in college just because I didn’t know what else to do and I knew I really liked it. I’d always had this big goal of writing a book one day, but I didn’t know if I’d really want to do that or not. Then after college I worked for a year at a non-profit organization just writing articles for fundraisers and stuff, and after that I was like, “Okay, now I want to see if I really want to write a novel.”
I challenged myself to write 50,000 words in 30 days (Nanowrimo style), and it was rough, but I did it. I looked at my work afterwards and it was horrible. It had no plot, no antagonist, and everything from ferret smugglers to a toga wearing ghost who’d faked his own death. So I started a new draft, and then a new one after that. That was over five years ago, and now I can’t imagine not writing. The more I write the more I fall in love with it and the more I want to do it as a career. I try to work on my writing every day because it’s my long game. My dream is to make a living writing books.
What do most people not know about your type of work or your personal creative process?
I think most people don’t realize how much editing is required, at least at my stage of the game where I’m still learning the process and what works best. “What? It’s not done yet?” “No, I’m just writing it again.” [chuckles]
What other creative outlets have been a part of your life?
I got into pottery in college. I did a couple female busts on my own, and then recently I’ve started using polymer clay to do a little sculpture. So that’s been really fun, I love the 3D and that it’s tactile and I don’t have to be on a computer. I also love cooking and baking, just kind of Ratatouille-style, smelling everything and deciding what smells good together. [laughs]
The past two years in particular for you have been a unique ride of different jobs, locations, and roommates. How have you kept your writing time sacred through all the craziness of everyday life?
I think the answer is the same no matter where I was or what I was doing. I had to make writing a priority. If a day goes by when I don’t write, I feel lousy, and the more time that goes by without writing, the lousier I feel. It takes time to get to that point. It’s the same with lots of other healthy habits in our lives. I think they’re called “positive addictions” and they take time to develop. It is a disadvantage to have a varied schedule, or be moving from place to place. The more upheaval there is in your life, the harder it is to hang on to those healthy habits. We all notice that when we go on a trip it’s way harder to eat healthy and keep exercising and all of that. Keeping the end goal in mind and knowing what’s motivating you helps a lot.
I do shift work now, so I can’t choose a particular time every day when I’m going to write, but I do make it my goal to write every single day. If it’s a really busy day, I might only get in 15 minutes. Other days I can put in four hours or more, but even 15 minutes a day will add up.
I had that same goal when I was on my four and half month road trip. I didn’t always make it, but having something to aim for helped me put the time aside. Sometimes we’d be sleeping in our car because it was too cold outside, and I’d be typing on my computer at 10pm in the dark in the middle of nowhere until my battery ran out… but it was fun, it was a good experience.
That trip was wonderful on another level — I had all these cool life experiences that I can now pour into my writing. I met all these people with totally different lifestyles and thoughts and passions than me with completely different stories, but they were all beautiful and poignant in their own way.
Sometimes we feel this pressure to be practical and rational, which is really just code for doing what everyone else is doing, going to work and putting money in the bank. And sure, that’s important, but I don’t regret any of the things I’ve done that didn’t fit that mold. I’ve volunteered at a chocolate factory, a surf hotel, a permaculture ranch, and a couple organic farms. I opened and closed my own tea business, and I spent a summer recording my grandparents’ stories. Anything you can do to widen your life experience, to meet people and see the world from a different angle, is so valuable because ultimately that’s what writing is about: refreshing our view, altering our perspective, strengthening our bond to what’s truly important and finding that connection to our fellow human beings.
What helps you recharge your creative batteries?
Reading books and definitely getting outside and being active. Nature. Then hearing other people tell stories, that always inspires me as well. Learning new things, in science or health, learning about trauma at work… I just love learning, so when I’m learning something new in my own life I get excited and find it easier to go to my writing.
What always gets you excited about your craft?
I get excited when I’m writing and it’s flowing and it just builds on itself and keeps going. I have a hard time when I have no momentum and I haven’t done any writing for a while. Then I know I need to just push through that period and give writing the time. Maybe it means standing in front of my computer for a few hours without getting anything visibly done. But once I get into it and it flows, that excites me and I can keep going.
I also get excited when I start to see the story come together and the characters becoming vivid and three-dimensional and alive in a way that is almost beyond me. It feels kind of silly to say it because so much of the time writing is just pure hard work, but there’s also an element of transcendence when I see my visions and passions and disjointed thoughts become something I couldn’t have foreseen. I couldn’t write if I didn’t care about what I was writing, if the themes didn’t matter to me deeply. Those things get me excited, and I hope that I can share my work and have it matter and touch other people’s souls.
What is a daily (or regular) discipline you’re following right now, related or unrelated to writing?
Just trying to do it every day — and I keep trying different things, like today the first thing I did was get up and write, and I’m going to try that for a while and see if that helps me get more focus because I’ve been having trouble focusing lately. [Is there a particular time of day when you tend to write most productively? Are you a night owl or an early bird?] Probably more of an early bird. But it also depends on how much time I give it in a block, and how disorganized I feel from the day so far, which I think is why it’s easier to do in the morning because I haven’t done a million things already.
Another discipline I’m doing is mat exercises, like yoga-type exercises, and that’s been kind of fun. I’d never done anything like that before. I don’t know if that really relates [laughs], but it helps me feel healthy and alive.
In what ways have you improved over the past few years? What do you still struggle with?
I think that my writing style and voice have improved. What I need to work on still is story structure, and figuring out how to outline so I have a more efficient process and I’m not rewriting my book a hundred times just to figure out the best possible story. I think that’s what I’m learning right now: I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. I can use other people’s process and their thoughts on craft to encourage myself and to learn. I don’t know, something I feel like I’ve heard is that you have to discover it on your own, and that’s true to some extent, but there’s no reason why you can’t learn from other people. I didn’t do that for a long time because I just figured you learn it on your own and it’s a process of discovery. But I think we’re always discovering things about process and ourselves and art, and we can do that together, and get further, faster. If only I’d known this when I started!
Even if you never “succeeded” in your craft, what would keep you writing anyway?
I would keep writing, for sure. For me it’s kind of a spiritual experience — when I’m writing I feel more connected to life and more connected to my Creator, and I think that’s really valuable. I also just feel more purposeful, like I have something to aim for and something to work towards when a lot of life just seems… I don’t know, like all these temporary gains, like earning money to buy eggs and vegetables. That’s certainly necessary but maybe not inspiring. [laughs]
What are your creative goals right now?
My goal right now is to complete an outline of my novel and have the plot pretty well blocked out, and then go into another draft better prepared, and hopefully this one will be one of my last for this novel. [chuckles]
Are there any tools, books, or other resources you would recommend to others starting out in fiction writing?
I’ve been reading some books by K M Weiland and she actually has a whole blog called Helping Writers Become Authors. She’s written several resources that I’ve just found recently and they’ve been really eye-opening and helpful. One of them is Outlining Your Novel. I always figured there was no way I could outline a novel. I was envisioning an essay outline, which I never even managed to do in high school English class — I would just make up my outline after I’d written the essay because I couldn’t foresee it at all. But her method I think I can actually do because it’s more like brainstorming, and then you’re trying to answer all the “what if” questions and take it deeper. So I’ve been doing that, and then also reading her book on story structure. I mean, you always hear there’s a climax and a resolution and all that stuff, but she breaks down what actually needs to happen at each point, and that’s been really illuminating as well. I can see where my novel thus far has failed on those points and that’s why the first 60% of my manuscript has been boring and not gone anywhere.
Attack of the Copula Spiders by Douglas Glover is another great resource. One of the things that he talks about is how to make your story or your writing dynamic on the level of a sentence, so it’s all about contrast and how to make your sentences alive.
I love Scrivener, even though I don’t know how to use all of its features. [laughs] I’ve found that super useful in my novel-writing.
Jeff [Yvonne’s brother] already mentioned this in his interview, but the Optimize podcast is great. Learning how to optimize your life is crucial, just to be healthy as an individual and be able to come at your work refreshed and with all the energy that you can give it. It helps to be healthy physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. I don’t mean that we can’t write powerfully when we’re in a place of pain or brokenness. I just find that from the perspective of writing as a discipline I do better when I’m sleeping eight hours a night and eating healthy, because being disciplined in one area helps me be disciplined in the others.
What’s also important is just being in a good place with relationships and people that support you, and who you can bounce ideas off of. Which for a long time, I didn’t do — I wrote in secrecy. At the beginning that was helpful because I wanted to answer those questions for myself, like “Do I really love this? Do I want to do this or not?” I didn’t want anyone else to say I should do it or shouldn’t do it based on the quality of my writing at that point in time. But once I answered those questions, my problem was that I didn’t answer them consciously, and it was more of a sub-conscious thing: I realized that I loved it but I didn’t think through why I was still being so secretive about it. So I kind of missed out on all the feedback and the synergy you get from working with other people and bouncing ideas of off them. I think there’s a place for secrecy, but then there’s definitely a place for feedback and critique. I definitely would like to start building more of a network of people who are writers or readers and want to journey together.
What other advice or words of encouragement would you give to other creators in your field?
Well, I’m kind of in a weird place myself right now, feeling a little discouraged with how long this novel is taking me, and just the pain of getting feedback that you don’t really want. [laughs] Or feedback that is less encouraging than you’d hoped. I’m just realizing that writing is really important to me and adds so much value to my life, and even if it doesn’t go anywhere or become anything, I think it’s helping me become a better person, or at least helping me remember how awesome life is and get through life with more joy. Life’s full of mysteries and wonder and really cool stuff!
I would encourage anyone to just keep plugging away and reach out to others. That’s what I’m learning. I tend to go it alone and I want to do it in community more now, and I think there’s power in that. Keep plugging away, try to find your community, and give it all you’ve got!
