Interviewing myself

I was tagged by Kristen, a real writer, who wants me to play with other blogs! It's been a long time since I've stepped into the blogosphere to be sociable, but it's nice to be back.

1. What am I working on now?

I don’t ‘work’ on pieces of writing, they work on me! My writing comes to me in moments of extreme emotion, although lately I have been trying out a few new concepts that I keep hearing are fashionable with ‘serious’ writers like:

Writing daily

Writing to deadlines

Writing to word limits

Writing in a theme

My writing is not something that can be tamed, alas. So I resign myself to deadlines that make a whooshing sound as they pass (I love you Douglas) and irresponsibly late nights finishing two thousand words that won’t let me sleep otherwise

!

I write idealist political commentary, self-consciously literary travelogues and outraged feminist tracts here on my blog

I write comedic Fringe plays that need to be translated from my rather overworked jokes into something more natural; monologues are my thing

I write in a diary and a journal every day - two years ago I spent three months tweeting that day from twenty years of diaries. It was the most intense learning experience and survey of my life I have ever embarked upon, and I still have nine months to do sometime

I want to eventually write Radio Plays for the BBC, incredibly political full-length plays for the Australian stage and I want to write at least one subversive love story for the screen

I used to write 15 letters and postcards a week when I had writer’s block - I have thousands of dollars of stationary in my house waiting for me to do that again

I feel an untrustworthy urge to go back and start writing academically again, but my Honors year (a thesis on History in Science Fiction and Fantasy) tipped me into four years of writer’s block, so I don’t know why I have that urge


2. How does my work differ from others in its genre?

Well, actually, despite all the different forms my writing takes, there are two main styles in which I write - in the style of Alan Coren or in the style of Douglas Adams.



In general I like a footnoted epigram, a historically correct pun and as many poetic conventions as I can reasonably use while not falling into poetry itself - I am a truly untalented poet.



3. Why do I write what I do?

The words make me happy. The jokes allow me to breathe easier. When I re-read the writing later and don’t recognise it, that makes me scared that there is another Claire inside my head that is much cleverer than me. So I write to keep her from turning her attention to other, less socially acceptable pursuits, like politics or having children.

4. What is my writing process?

Ah, you are sweet. A process. What a fine thing that would be ...

I put words on a page at completely inconvenient times, edit it myself if it is important and give it to whoever wants to do something with it.



My words are for others, always, so I guess my process is opening my mind up and letting it stomp around on the keyboard until I fall asleep with the light on and my teeth unbrushed.

To answer the same questions if inclined, and in their own indomitable (and yummy food inclined) way, I nominate:

Ariel

Tegan

Thomas