With Robyn Rossit
Photo Credit: Mitch Krupp
The Almost Wife touches on some sensitive topics, such as suicide and psychological trauma. How do you navigate such sensitive and heavy topics and how do you prevent yourself from becoming personally impacted by them while writing?
The Almost Wife is a domestic thriller, a psychological thriller, and this genre does tend to deal with harder topics, like trauma or spousal abuse, as many genres do. The key, I think, is pacing, to offer the reader those “thrills” that they expect, but then also offering breathers and perhaps humor to give the reader a bit of a break, before charging forward again.
But how does a writer avoid being emotionally impacted by those tough subjects when writing? I’m not sure we can avoid it. I joke with the fiction writers I work with that if we weren’t already anxious going into this occupation, we certainly are once we’re in it, as we spend our days thinking up the worst possible things that can happen to our characters, and as we’re writing those events, we live it. Not only that, but we relive those fictional events again each time we rewrite (and any project requires a great many rewrites). Both the research and the writing of difficult topics can be stressful to process and leave a writer emotionally raw, especially if we are sensitive, which many writers are.
That’s one of the main reasons writers tend to avoid writing conflict on the page, in the same way we do in our everyday lives. But conflict avoidance makes for very dull fiction and leads to what is likely the most common problem writers deal with: the passive protagonist who observes and reports but isn’t fully engaged in their own conflict. So, a large part of the writer’s job is to put on a kind of emotional armor and purposefully gain distance from the subject to write the scenes of conflict that are necessary to any novel. In a sense, we’re actors, playing a role, so in the same way an actor both makes use of their emotions to portray a character, but at the same time “pretends” or keeps an emotional distance, writers have to strike a balance in using their own emotional engagement to create an emotional scene for the reader, while at the same time maintaining a kind of distance. I still put off writing the hard scenes until I feel emotionally ready. But I also still feel disturbed by the difficult scenes that I write, as I should. Our job is to engage the reader on the emotional level. We never want to shy away from the hard subjects, like trauma, in fiction. These difficult subjects and the emotions they create are the engine of the narrative.
Where did the idea for The Almost Wife come from? Was there a spark of inspiration or did you stumble across the idea while writing another book and saved it until you could flesh it out into its own story?
There wasn’t a specific idea or spark for this novel. It was more that I wanted to write a thriller as I really love the structure. When it comes to subject matter, I was working within the confines of the domestic or psychological thriller and the subjects that these novels deal with. The only personal inspiration, and it’s a big one, was this: we made the trek across country from rural BC every year to spend summers on Manitoulin Island to be with family. But moving back and forth between these two very different regions, I found it hard to fully commit to either location and deeply homesick for both. You’ll see that ache and indecision as an undercurrent in The Almost Wife, where the protagonist Kira struggles to make a choice between two lives, one on Manitoulin and one in the city.
My favourite part of The Almost Wife was the setting in Manitoulin Island. What is it about this area that you found the most inspirational?
I absolutely fell in love with Manitoulin, and anyone who spends time on the island knows just how magical it is. I hope my own affection for the island comes through in the book. The unique beach and forests provided not only the setting for the action, but the mood and the tools for conflict. And, of course, I used some details as plot devices, like the lack of reliable cell service that we dealt with there until the cell tower was installed, and the “sweet spot” where we could actually make calls. The setting is a character in its own right. Having said that, the Manitoulin in The Almost Wife is a fictional Manitoulin, just as the Shuswap of my previous novels is a fictional Shuswap. If you know the region, then you’ll recognize parts of it within the fiction, but it’s still very much an imagined landscape.
Authors tend to have interesting web browser histories. What was the strangest thing you had to research while writing The Almost Wife?
Oh, my god! Every day I’m looking up weird things! I guess for The Almost Wife the strangest was likely looking up how to go about getting a DNA sample from a partner for a paternity test without him finding out.
What would you say is your most interesting writing habit or quirk?
I used to wear my dad’s old mustard coloured sweater when I wrote. I had to wear it. Go figure. I have fewer obsessive habits now that I’m older (or I like to think so), but I still have to circle my desk several times before I sit down to write, tidying up or finding little chores to do. Once I get into the flow, of course, I don’t want to leave. But it seems I have to settle into writing like a dog into its bed. I also do a great deal of writing while walking. On Manitoulin, I started writing The Almost Wife while walking the boardwalk at Providence Bay.
As someone who has taught creative writing and now mentors other writers, what is the most rewarding part of sharing your knowledge?
The social aspect to teaching is what I enjoy most. I mentor emerging writers, but I also work with my peers, other published writers, as they work out structure and other elements of their new projects. Brainstorming over the story and structure and in particular rethinking situation so that the protagonist is more firmly centered in their conflict is hugely fun, like putting together a complex puzzle. I really enjoy tossing around these ideas with another writer. It’s play! And, of course, seeing a writer learning the craft to the point where they can tell the story they really want to tell, their own story, is hugely gratifying.
Now that you’ve published your first thriller, will there be more thriller titles from you in the future or do you have another story planned in different genre? If so, what can you share about it?
I’ve been using thriller elements in my fiction from my very first novel, The Cure for Death by Lightning, have taught and worked with other writers on the thriller structure, and The Almost Wife isn’t actually my first thriller. I’ve written four hi-lo thrillers for adults working to improve their literacy skills. (The thriller structure really engages a struggling reader and keeps them interested in the story.) It was in writing these hi-lo thrillers that I fully fell in love with the structure. I approached my agent about writing a full-on commercial thriller thinking she would talk me out of it, as I’m known as a literary writer, but she encouraged me to jump in, found me a supportive editor at HarperCollins, and The Almost Wife is the result. I’m under contract to write a second for HarperCollins, which I’ve just about completed, and I already have ideas worked up for the next one. So yes, you’ll see more thrillers from me. They are so much fun to write. I’m also incorporating much of what I’ve learned in writing the thriller structure into upcoming literary projects. The next thriller is set back in BC, in an inland rainforest. Spooky!
What advice would you give to aspiring authors who are trying to navigate the publishing world?
My advice to aspiring authors is the same as my own mentor Jack Hodgins gave me: don’t be in a rush to publish. So many writers are self-publishing these days, often before the project is anywhere near finished, and even traditional publishers will sometimes publish a book too soon, before it’s fully cooked. If a book isn’t fully developed, then it will likely just sink on publication, and the writer will have lost the chance to create something truly exceptional. And if a first book doesn’t find an audience, then publishing the second book is that much harder. So, take your time, learn your craft, develop the conflicts in your novel, and find supportive mentors and editors who can help you learn the ropes. Be patient and understand that writing fiction is a very complex and high-level skill set that simply takes time, practice and mentorship to learn, much like learning the piano.
What is your must-read book recommendation and what book has had the most impact and influence on your writing?
My must-read book recommendation is Michelle Good’s Five Little Indians. Every Canadian should read this book to gain perspective on the lasting impact of residential schools.
The book that has had the most impact and influence on my writing? Wow. There are so many that I would find it hard to narrow down to just one. I can tell you the two books that I most commonly recommend to other writers when talking about craft: Jack Hodgins’ A Passion for Narrative as a good practical guide for writing, and Toni Morrison’s Beloved, as the subjects in this novel are deep and thought-provoking and the writing is masterful, but still highly entertaining and accessible. A balance I always aspire to reach.