The Muse Upon My Shoulder: Discussions of the Creative ProcessFEATURE
A Conversation About the Art of Interviewing with Syliva Skaggs McTague
Your book is divided into sections based on writers of a particular genre. Are there differences between interviewing poets and fiction writers? Not particularly. To some extent, writers of a genre concern themselves with different issues, for example, writers of fiction consider plot and character while the playwrights talk about the effect of certain directors and actors. Can you talk about the process of putting the book together in terms of how you decided to structure it? Each interview stands as a separate testimony. But in deciding to juxtapose the writers by genre, I considered that some of our readers might be drawn more to poetry than to fiction for example. What can we learn about the craft of writing from the interviews? It’s reassuring to learn that professional writers confront some of the same blocks in writing that amateurs do. I like the way we learn about each writer’s interests and quirks, and how they transformed in their writing. It’s interesting and entertaining to me to learn, for instance, how David Trinidad really loves pop culture and wishes to memorialize it, while Beth Henley, like many of us, loves the way that creative writing gives her something to think about while she does some of the more mundane chores of her day. Meanwhile Bud Schulberg talks about doing some of the last revisions of the screenplay while both he and Kazan were in a depressed funk. That interview reminds me that strong writing can occur with or without one’s best energy. A unique element of the project is that you interviewed the interviewers. What can we learn from the interviewers that we may or may not get from the writers? The interviewers call attention to the way conversations are staged. They’re the directors who consider how to draw out revelations from the writers. You talk about how the interviewers go into an interview extensively knowing the work of the writer so they are knowledgeable about the author’s complete body of work and are able to discuss, not just ask questions. In what ways did you prepare to interview the interviewers? In interviewing them, I wanted to draw attention to their roles in making the interview work. I wanted to find out about their motives and their consciousness of their plan. It’s a paradox of sorts that in the best interviews, we barely get to know the interviewer, yet to an extent, each one sets the tone of the interview and makes it happen. This chapter brings out the interviewers as individuals who help create dynamic conversations.
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Photograph © Albry Montalbano