Member Spotlight: Alicia J Rouverol

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Flannery O’Connor said, “I write to discover what I know.” I’m not far afield from that. Writing – ever since the age of 8 – has been a medium for understanding, for clarifying thought (that one’s close to Joan Didion’s “I write to know what I think”). Most crucially it’s about locating myself and others in the world through story – whether through oral history, capturing a narrator’s perspective through spoken word, or in fiction, fabricating characters’ spoken word, to articulate a vision of the world. The line between fiction and non-fiction can indeed be thin. If I’ve learned anything from writing over the decades, it’s that. Story is how we make sense of the world; anthropologist Barbara Myerhoff beat me to it in her use of the term homo narrans (‘storytelling human’).

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Increasingly, I’ve come to believe that ‘writer’s block’ doesn’t really exist. Yes, if you’ve not written for years on end, one might call that a ‘block’. But otherwise, I’d say brief lapses in writing are the fallow time needed in the creative process. One writer I once studied with said that the time spent thinking (away from the computer) was as important as the writing itself. I couldn’t agree more. To get myself back to chair, I make all manner of pacts with the writer ‘devil’ in me; mostly, though, I rely on chocolate, tea (or coffee!) and music (instrumental, on repeat!) to get in the zone.

What is your favorite time to write? Time of day once factored in. That was before children, when I set 2 pm as a kind of magic hour, when really it simply allowed me a great deal of procrastination time. After having kids, I found myself leaping to the laptop when they were down for naps. Now, working around teaching or research, I steal the moment – any moment – when I can.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Let go. It was my tutor Geoff Ryman’s advice to allow my characters to dictate their own actions; this does happen once the novel is fully in swing. In short story that process runs somewhat differently: I sometimes feel writing is about listening. Not just for snips of dialogue or ideas that feed the work, but more about listening to one’s own muse. Good reading helps; but some writers like Jeanette Winterson (who was also my tutor) insist that they never read whilst writing. I’m not convinced there are magical practices; I think it’s about figuring out what works for you.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? The desire to counter all the current false narratives, faux news, uninspired (and God help us, truly damaging) thought, currently in circulation. If that sounds critical, so be it. We’re in an age in which independent thinking and intellectualism are under serious attack; anyone who isn’t registering this is not paying serious attention. What excites me most about being a writer in today’s age – and what keeps me up at night (and it does)! – is the far-flung hope that words on the page will make some kind of difference.

Alicia J Rouverol’s Granite Rock is out now with ‎Bridge House.