Gail Scott on how Writing is a lot like Living

Gail Scott, author of The Obituary and Spare Parts, talks to blogger Rob McLennan about her creative processes and about the theoretical concerns that underwrite her craft. For Scott, writing is not a strictly goal-oriented endeavour, but a gradual unfolding of ideas and connections - much like life itself. The Obituary came out last year from Coach House:

Rob McLennan: How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?

Gail Scott: Your question puts a lot of emphasis on arriving at the ultimate product. I’m always working, which is the same as living. One investigation folds into another, producing a piece of work that immediately raises new questions in my mind. The main concern being to compose appropriate sentences and relations between them for a particular intersection of space and time. Sentences come from everywhere but will be fashioned « on paper » in a way that makes sen(ten)se to my own ear ; my ear is a secret agent.

RM: Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?

GS: Of course I have theoretical concerns. Writing is thinking. A story on some level, like a good poem, is a performance of a rhetorical posture. To really make it work requires tremendous artistry. The fundamental theoretical question is how to write, and that is a how to that is nourished by many vectors of thought and creative impulse.

Read the full interview here.