1. What inspired you to write the prose poem/microfiction which will appear in Writing To The Edge?
My research at the time was focusing on interruptions to the mundane. I ended up writing a lot about public transport and concepts of privacy in public spaces. I was thinking about the way people negotiate the balance of public anonymity and the sense of being observed and overheard.
2. Tell us about your process. (Do you start sparse and widen out, or do you write down every possible association and cut back? Do you research the subject matter you are writing about? Is it pure intuition?) Take us through an example if you want.
I write way too much to begin with. Circle space is an arrangement of extracts from long, laborious pieces. I’m much more comfortable with fragments than with stories that have somewhere to go. It’s an intuitive process and it often doesn’t work. I think of my writing as a collage, it’s all about the cutting up, the ruthlessly discarding and the puzzle piece rearranging.
3. What advice do you have for other writers? (About the first or last line? About how to choose the title? Do you follow any rules?)
My only advice is to just keep going. Write as much as you can, about absolutely anything, but don’t write thoughtlessly. There is no point.
4. Who or what inspires your writing?
My writing is inspired by moments of disruption. I am inspired by books that make me forget the world outside my bedroom and by moments that I can’t get my head around.
5. Tell us what you do if you haven’t written anything in a while and you want to get started writing again? Could you share your favourite writing exercise with our readers?
When I notice that I haven’t written much in a while I focus on reading. If that doesn’t help I force myself to go back to journaling, writing at least one sentence a day. I’m not too strict with myself. Then again, I’m never really not writing. It’s more that I jump between creative writing and academic writing. Moving from one to the other depending on what I’m locked on to.
