Barbara Forte Abate
FAQ
Q.When did you first decide that you wanted to be a writer?
I was in fourth grade. I'd just read Tom Sawyer and fallen in love not only with Huck Finn, but the intriguing idea of storytelling. I promptly began carrying around a little wirebound notebook where I jotted down bits and pieces of my own ashamedly similar version of Mark Twain's novel. I still remember the title and it was so ridiculous that now I won't even say it out loud to myself in an empty room!
Q.Where do you get your ideas?
Everywhere and nowhere. There are days when ideas are just crawling all over each other to get my attention, and I feel like I can grab them by the handful. So much of writing is simply keeping your eyes open and ears alert. That's not to say that they're all great or even good ideas, and there are just as many days of famine when there isn't an original thought within miles, but you just continue to look for that certain something that stands out as the particle that might possibly contribute to something that will eventually become meaningful. It could be an overheard conversation, the scenery from a car window, a song on the radio, an article in a newspaper or magazine that not only grabs my attention, but stays with me and then eventually triggers something else - possibilities that continue to spin out until I can see a story developing. And I'm sure this will sound rather uninspired, but many of my very best ideas do seem to come unexpectedly, while in the midst of the most mundane tasks: hanging out the wash (yes, honestly, I really do prefer a clothesline) washing dishes, in the shower... I keep paper and pens in random spots around the house, knowing that if I don't catch the words or images fleeing past they'll likely be lost when I most want to call them up. Even the most obscure sentence or word might eventually prove pivotal so I try to keep them all within reach.
Q.Do you model characters in your books on people you know?
Occasionally, but never in their entirety. The most interesting characters tend to have a mix of quirks and notable traits, ingredients that are generally not doled out to real life people in such quantities. And of course keeping characters too close to home can be dangerous! People are not always flattered to recognize themselves in print - unless of course they happen to come across as Mother Teresa or Batman. For the most part my characters are wholly compositions of my imagination, though possibly accented with some trait or intriguing quirk of someone I've either known personally or simply observed. I generally start with an idea of the person I think I'm writing about, but then the character will insist they're actually someone quite different as they develop. I can nearly see the characters stepping out from their paper outlines to create themselves even before I've fully figured them out for myself. It's an absolutely mythical sort of process that never fails to amaze me.
Q.Approximately how much time do you spend per day once you're deep into writing a book?
Once I think I know where I want to go with a book, I'm working on it every waking minute. Long before I actually sit down to compose a story on paper, (I prefer to write it out in longhand before typing it out on the computer.) I've been writing scenes and dialogue in my head for hours - more often days. I need to have a strong feeling for whatever it is I'm trying to capture and I can't even begin to write something that hasn't connected at least a few dots in my mind. What's more, I've learned the hard way that if I come up with some missing link - a sentence, description, or even a single word - at 8:30 in the morning I had better write it down pronto, because otherwise when I sit down ready to write at 1:00 in the afternoon, whatever it was that jolted me hours earlier will have evaporated and I'm furious with myself. In this way I am jotting constantly. Though I only write at length for 2-3 hours a day, the book is with me 24 hours.
Q. Do you let anyone else read your works in progress or do you keep your manuscripts a secret?
Early readers are very important and hugely appreciated by me. Even so, I won't share a work in progress, keeping it under wraps until I've edited the finished story several times, because I'm convinced those early drafts are just too ugly and awful for human consumption. I also won't talk about an idea or novel in progress because once I've chatted it up, the story loses its steam. Kind of like taking the loaf out of the oven before it's baked, causing it to collapse. Only when I'm satisfied that I've worked out the worst of the kinks do I feel ready for some feedback. I'm blessed with a super supportive network of friends and family willing to read and comment. My agent's another story though. I will only ask her to have a look at something once I'm confident it's polished and perfect. (Which of course it never is!)
Q.What is your favorite type of novel to write?
Mainstream fiction, which is also my favorite to read. I feel most comfortable in this genre. It's where I fit as a writer.
Q. What takes the most time, the initial draft, proofreading, or revision?
That's an interesting question for the fact that while editing is the longest process for me - I go through multiple revisions on every book I write - the first draft feels like the longest because it's the most difficult. Before I've gotten a story out completely there's a fair amount of fear and anxiety poking holes in my confidence. Fear that I'm a charlatan masquerading as an author and my novel in progress will dry up and wither away for the drivel it is. Anxiety that I'll finish only to find that what I've produced is the most vile prose ever put on paper. So yes, getting out the first draft can be mentally torturous and I know I have to push past the legion of negative interior comments and keep at it. When I start proofreading and editing I finally have a sense that the writing is at last coming to life and the thrill of creation takes over. The pressure I put on myself to develop and finish a novel is blessedly slackened and I can now mold and reshape, cut and polish, for as long as it takes to satisfy myself. I actually look forward to the process of editing most of all and the opportunity to clean up my messes. I recently finished editing a novel I wrote over ten years ago - one I've revised more times then I can count. I do think I'm finished with it now, though I've thought as much before!
Q.How do you remove yourself from your everyday life and get into your writing?
Because I have four children, a husband, and household requiring my attentions, it can be a challenge. If anyone actually believes that life relaxes and time becomes abundant once children marry or leave for college there's a very big surprise in store for them! I am quite protective of my writing time, but I feel I have to be. Friends and family don't always understand that calling for even the briefest chat or stopping by for a cup of tea WILL shoot my writing time for the day and it's not a happy or willing sacrifice on my part. I don't feel accomplished unless I've put something satisfying on paper. It's a continual balancing act that I'm still attempting to master.
Q. Is there a novelist or writer who has inspired you?
Absolutely. There have been so many and I read new writers all the time that leave me inspired. My first and strongest influence would have to be Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is perfection in tone, style, story, characters - the whole package. I've read it a bajillion times and on every occasion I'm newly blown away by the sheer force of Ms.Lee's extraordinary writing talents. And although I've read a few of Stephen King's novels, his humor and straight-on perspective in his book, "On Writing," remains a favorite. It's positively fantastic. I've also been fortunate enough to meet both Richard Paul Evans and Janet Fitch at book-signings, and regardless of their mega-success as best selling authors (when I met Janet she had just appeared on Oprah!), both were incredibly gracious and generous in offering personal encouragement that I utilize to this day. Closer to home is my best friend and writing comrade Janet Lawler. Janet's been writing screenplays since high school when we'd play hookey in order to sit at her kitchen table taking turns typing her scripts on her super cool electric typewriter. We live by the same code of dedicated determination and that's an enormous gift, especially at those times when the knocks are hitting the hardest. She always knows how to deflect the blow.
Q. If not a writer, what would be your second choice of profession?
That's certainly a question I've asked myself a hundred times as the pile of rejection letters multiplied to a number that rivaled the page count of my novels, and I couldn't avoid thinking that Surely it would've been easier and far more satisfying to be a brain surgeon.The world needs healers a lot more then it needs dreamers... But the reality is that aside from the fact that I don't possess the necessary wisdom to be a brain surgeon, each of us has a path we feel called to follow - regardless of inherent potholes, uneven pavement, or harsh terrain. And I know that as frustrated, disappointed, or disillusioned as I might feel at times when the writing feels hideous and the publishing world harsh and unyielding, I nevertheless understand that there is no alternate route on my radar. It's a certainty I've recognized from the beginning of this journey, the essential requirement that I dig-in, hold fast, and accept no substitutes. Writing is an act of courage as much as it is a leap of faith. I'm in this for the long haul. And really, as it is with all things of meaning and value, you have to believe. You absolutely have to believe!
I was in fourth grade. I'd just read Tom Sawyer and fallen in love not only with Huck Finn, but the intriguing idea of storytelling. I promptly began carrying around a little wirebound notebook where I jotted down bits and pieces of my own ashamedly similar version of Mark Twain's novel. I still remember the title and it was so ridiculous that now I won't even say it out loud to myself in an empty room!
Q.Where do you get your ideas?
Everywhere and nowhere. There are days when ideas are just crawling all over each other to get my attention, and I feel like I can grab them by the handful. So much of writing is simply keeping your eyes open and ears alert. That's not to say that they're all great or even good ideas, and there are just as many days of famine when there isn't an original thought within miles, but you just continue to look for that certain something that stands out as the particle that might possibly contribute to something that will eventually become meaningful. It could be an overheard conversation, the scenery from a car window, a song on the radio, an article in a newspaper or magazine that not only grabs my attention, but stays with me and then eventually triggers something else - possibilities that continue to spin out until I can see a story developing. And I'm sure this will sound rather uninspired, but many of my very best ideas do seem to come unexpectedly, while in the midst of the most mundane tasks: hanging out the wash (yes, honestly, I really do prefer a clothesline) washing dishes, in the shower... I keep paper and pens in random spots around the house, knowing that if I don't catch the words or images fleeing past they'll likely be lost when I most want to call them up. Even the most obscure sentence or word might eventually prove pivotal so I try to keep them all within reach.
Q.Do you model characters in your books on people you know?
Occasionally, but never in their entirety. The most interesting characters tend to have a mix of quirks and notable traits, ingredients that are generally not doled out to real life people in such quantities. And of course keeping characters too close to home can be dangerous! People are not always flattered to recognize themselves in print - unless of course they happen to come across as Mother Teresa or Batman. For the most part my characters are wholly compositions of my imagination, though possibly accented with some trait or intriguing quirk of someone I've either known personally or simply observed. I generally start with an idea of the person I think I'm writing about, but then the character will insist they're actually someone quite different as they develop. I can nearly see the characters stepping out from their paper outlines to create themselves even before I've fully figured them out for myself. It's an absolutely mythical sort of process that never fails to amaze me.
Q.Approximately how much time do you spend per day once you're deep into writing a book?
Once I think I know where I want to go with a book, I'm working on it every waking minute. Long before I actually sit down to compose a story on paper, (I prefer to write it out in longhand before typing it out on the computer.) I've been writing scenes and dialogue in my head for hours - more often days. I need to have a strong feeling for whatever it is I'm trying to capture and I can't even begin to write something that hasn't connected at least a few dots in my mind. What's more, I've learned the hard way that if I come up with some missing link - a sentence, description, or even a single word - at 8:30 in the morning I had better write it down pronto, because otherwise when I sit down ready to write at 1:00 in the afternoon, whatever it was that jolted me hours earlier will have evaporated and I'm furious with myself. In this way I am jotting constantly. Though I only write at length for 2-3 hours a day, the book is with me 24 hours.
Q. Do you let anyone else read your works in progress or do you keep your manuscripts a secret?
Early readers are very important and hugely appreciated by me. Even so, I won't share a work in progress, keeping it under wraps until I've edited the finished story several times, because I'm convinced those early drafts are just too ugly and awful for human consumption. I also won't talk about an idea or novel in progress because once I've chatted it up, the story loses its steam. Kind of like taking the loaf out of the oven before it's baked, causing it to collapse. Only when I'm satisfied that I've worked out the worst of the kinks do I feel ready for some feedback. I'm blessed with a super supportive network of friends and family willing to read and comment. My agent's another story though. I will only ask her to have a look at something once I'm confident it's polished and perfect. (Which of course it never is!)
Q.What is your favorite type of novel to write?
Mainstream fiction, which is also my favorite to read. I feel most comfortable in this genre. It's where I fit as a writer.
Q. What takes the most time, the initial draft, proofreading, or revision?
That's an interesting question for the fact that while editing is the longest process for me - I go through multiple revisions on every book I write - the first draft feels like the longest because it's the most difficult. Before I've gotten a story out completely there's a fair amount of fear and anxiety poking holes in my confidence. Fear that I'm a charlatan masquerading as an author and my novel in progress will dry up and wither away for the drivel it is. Anxiety that I'll finish only to find that what I've produced is the most vile prose ever put on paper. So yes, getting out the first draft can be mentally torturous and I know I have to push past the legion of negative interior comments and keep at it. When I start proofreading and editing I finally have a sense that the writing is at last coming to life and the thrill of creation takes over. The pressure I put on myself to develop and finish a novel is blessedly slackened and I can now mold and reshape, cut and polish, for as long as it takes to satisfy myself. I actually look forward to the process of editing most of all and the opportunity to clean up my messes. I recently finished editing a novel I wrote over ten years ago - one I've revised more times then I can count. I do think I'm finished with it now, though I've thought as much before!
Q.How do you remove yourself from your everyday life and get into your writing?
Because I have four children, a husband, and household requiring my attentions, it can be a challenge. If anyone actually believes that life relaxes and time becomes abundant once children marry or leave for college there's a very big surprise in store for them! I am quite protective of my writing time, but I feel I have to be. Friends and family don't always understand that calling for even the briefest chat or stopping by for a cup of tea WILL shoot my writing time for the day and it's not a happy or willing sacrifice on my part. I don't feel accomplished unless I've put something satisfying on paper. It's a continual balancing act that I'm still attempting to master.
Q. Is there a novelist or writer who has inspired you?
Absolutely. There have been so many and I read new writers all the time that leave me inspired. My first and strongest influence would have to be Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is perfection in tone, style, story, characters - the whole package. I've read it a bajillion times and on every occasion I'm newly blown away by the sheer force of Ms.Lee's extraordinary writing talents. And although I've read a few of Stephen King's novels, his humor and straight-on perspective in his book, "On Writing," remains a favorite. It's positively fantastic. I've also been fortunate enough to meet both Richard Paul Evans and Janet Fitch at book-signings, and regardless of their mega-success as best selling authors (when I met Janet she had just appeared on Oprah!), both were incredibly gracious and generous in offering personal encouragement that I utilize to this day. Closer to home is my best friend and writing comrade Janet Lawler. Janet's been writing screenplays since high school when we'd play hookey in order to sit at her kitchen table taking turns typing her scripts on her super cool electric typewriter. We live by the same code of dedicated determination and that's an enormous gift, especially at those times when the knocks are hitting the hardest. She always knows how to deflect the blow.
Q. If not a writer, what would be your second choice of profession?
That's certainly a question I've asked myself a hundred times as the pile of rejection letters multiplied to a number that rivaled the page count of my novels, and I couldn't avoid thinking that Surely it would've been easier and far more satisfying to be a brain surgeon.The world needs healers a lot more then it needs dreamers... But the reality is that aside from the fact that I don't possess the necessary wisdom to be a brain surgeon, each of us has a path we feel called to follow - regardless of inherent potholes, uneven pavement, or harsh terrain. And I know that as frustrated, disappointed, or disillusioned as I might feel at times when the writing feels hideous and the publishing world harsh and unyielding, I nevertheless understand that there is no alternate route on my radar. It's a certainty I've recognized from the beginning of this journey, the essential requirement that I dig-in, hold fast, and accept no substitutes. Writing is an act of courage as much as it is a leap of faith. I'm in this for the long haul. And really, as it is with all things of meaning and value, you have to believe. You absolutely have to believe!
