Writerly Wednesday with Claudia Wair!

Welcome to our first, more formal, edition of Writerly Wednesdays: featuring an interview with the incredible Claudia Wair! Whenever & wherever I can, I’ll be getting in touch with fellow writers and authors of differing experience levels. If you’ve enjoyed the recent editions of #WriterlyWednesday (see on my Facebook Author page here), I think I can safely promise that you’ll love this new format.

The questions I’m asking here are some I’ve come up by a variety of methods (*cough* the internet *cough*) that I thought might be interesting… But if there’s anything you’d like to know about our guest writers, comment below & I’ll be sure to chase up some answers.

Please give a big, warm internet hand of welcome to Claudia Wair!

1. Hi Claudia! Please give us a little bit of background about yourself: where are you from, what do you do for a day job, and what are some of your interests and hobbies?

I’m a tech writer and editor by day. I live in Virginia. Other than writing fiction, my hobbies are reading, camping, traveling, and lots of sci-fi TV and movies.

2. Speaking of hobbies, tell us a bit about your writing journey: when did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?

I knew in second grade that I wanted to be a writer. But the real, deep desire hit me later, when, as an actor, I had the chance to write a play. I realized that I loved the applause to my writing more than to my acting.

3. What are some of your favourite books, and why? Do you think your favourite books have influenced your writing form and style?

• Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: not just the brilliant characters but the use of language.
• Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend: the complex storytelling
• Octavia Butler’s Fledgling and Parable of the Sower:
  • With Fledgling, she takes an old idea and makes it completely new, and includes people who look like to upend a pretty tired trope
  • Parable of the Sower: Butler foresaw our current political climate.
• James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son: I felt understood after reading it for the first time, like I was no longer alone, no longer invisible. That my stories were valuable, even if some people say that they aren’t.
• Sheri Tepper’s Gate to Women’s Country: This is the book that gave voice to my own eco-feminist ideas.

They’ve all influenced me enormously

4. Pick one book that you think is seriously underrated—why?

Tad Williams’ Otherland: Excellent storytelling; complex characters of different cultures depicted without a whiff of stereotypes or tropes; sci-fi and fantasy at its best; and it predicted the direction that the internet and social media have taken…just read it!

5. What do you love to write? What do you hate?

I love sci-fi and fantasy and quirky literary pieces. Please don’t make me write horror or romance!

6. Do you find writing energising, or exhausting? Is it ever a struggle to sit down and write &, if it is, do you push through that feeling, or take a break?

It can be either. Energizing in the first flush of the idea or when the words are flowing. Exhausting when there’s a deadline looming.

When it’s a struggle, sometimes you have to step away, stop trying to force things.

7. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

When I get stuck, I like to write with pencil and paper. It helps for some reason.

8. What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to do in a story, but haven’t quite managed yet?

I have a list of words that I love the sound of that I want to use in a story someday.

9. Tell us about one time where your writing surprised or shocked you (good or bad!).

I was challenged with writing a horror story (I do NOT like horror) and surprised myself with how easy it was to get into the mind of my serial killer. I guess that’s good as a writer. Kind of icky for everything else!

10.  If you could have a familiar/muse to help you get your writing done, what form would it take and why?

My familiar is a fox, cute but crafty, and able to ferret out ideas from where they hide. Unfortunately, he likes to nap, and is therefore unreliable, particularly when deadlines loom.

11.  A fox is a wonderful familiar… even if he’s a little unreliable! (But who doens’t love a good nap?) So, even when he’s not helping you along, what does your writing process/schedule look like: how often do you write and how does writing fit in with the rest of your busy life?

I’m in a new place right now, trying to sell a book. All my time and energy has been going to marketing for the last few months, so I can only catch a few hours of writing time during the week. I’m hoping to get more organized and get back to having a weekly word count goal.

12.  Selling a book: that’s exciting! (Anyone who’d like to know more about Claudia’ current project, check out her socials below). It also means you’ve got a book to sell, a feat in and of itself! What’s the one piece of advice you would give to other writers that has served you well in your journey so far?

Sit your a$$ down and tell the story. Don’t think of it as “writing;” sometimes that can be intimidating, and you feel pressured to some impossible standard of perfection. Just sit down and put the story on paper. Then go back and clean it up, tweak it, and generally fix what needs to be fixed, until you have the result you want.

13.  Great advice, Claudia! Personally, I love it: getting words on the page is always the first step. But, please, don’t leave us hanging! Where can we find your published work and your social media profiles/webpage/blog?

You can find me at claudiawair.com, @CWTellsTales on Twitter and Instagram, Claudia Wair, Author on Facebook, and I occasionally blog at Medium.

Many thanks to the brilliant and imaginative Claudia Wair for joining us for Writerly Wednesday–if you have any questions or thoughts for Claudia, please leave them below! Remember, like I mentioned in last week’s blog post, writing communities are important… so reach out to other writers and connect!

I’ll see you next week for the next run of Writerly Wednesday.

— Ana.