{"id":227,"date":"2011-04-17T09:52:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-17T09:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=227"},"modified":"2020-12-09T16:12:12","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T16:12:12","slug":"esther-morgan-talks-to-ist-about-her-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/esther-morgan-talks-to-ist-about-her-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther Morgan talks to IS&T about her process"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine Questions<\/span>

In this series Ink Sweat & Tears talks to practicing writers about their process and craft.<\/span>


1. Where do you write?<\/span> (do you have an office, room, bus or train journey that you find yourself and your writing? etc)<\/span>

I do have an office but oddly I hardly ever write creatively there \u2013 it\u2019s where the pc is and my brain associates it now with practical work. So if I have a day at home my favourite place to write is actually in bed \u2013 partly because I feel the cold but also it seems to put me in a more relaxed frame of mind than sitting at a desk. I also write on the bus journey to my day job in Norwich \u2013 many of the poems in my next collection were first dreamt up on the 588 Anglian Bus service. I try and get a seat near a window and put my ear plugs in and start scribbling \u2013 that seems to do the trick. Finally, I have high hopes of the summer house we took all summer to construct \u2013 it\u2019s tiny, but I like the idea of a space away from the house and domestic distractions. All we need in there now is a source of heat!<\/span>

2. How do you write?<\/span> (into a notebook or straight onto a computer? etc)<\/span>

I always write into a notebook. I need blank pages too, no lines \u2013 I like the sense of freedom that gives. My process seems to be to write a draft and then \u2018talk\u2019 to myself about it on the page \u2013 what\u2019s working, what isn\u2019t as I try and home in on the core of the poem. I have a tendency to try and finish things too quickly, tying everything up so it\u2019s nice and neat. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t type up drafts until quite late in the day as it makes them look finished even if they\u2019re not. When I\u2019m not working on a draft I try and write a kind of loose journal entry \u2013 notes, observations, thoughts \u2013 just to keep my cogs oiled.<\/span>

3. Roughly how much time do you spend each week on creative writing related activities?<\/span> <\/p>\n

(writing, editing, correspondence & submissions \u2013 give a daily average if possible)<\/span>
On average I guess it\u2019s about an hour and half a day, though there are phases where I don\u2019t do much and other times when it\u2019s a lot more. Half an hour of that would be on admin tasks \u2013 sending stuff out, responding to writing-related emails [answering questionnaires!] etc. <\/span>

4. What time of day do you usually write?<\/span>

My best time is in the morning, definitely. I\u2019m not disciplined enough to rise at dawn, but on a day at home I like to get underway by 8am. The first couple of hours are crucial. Things go off the boil around lunchtime [is there any poet who writes best in the afternoon? I\u2019ve never met one.] Then things improve again around dusk \u2013 I love being in the house on my own at that time of day. I find it conducive to mulling over ideas and the work done in the morning. I\u2019m hopeless at night \u2013 I\u2019d love to be one of those writers sat in a pool of light at 2am beavering away while the world sleeps \u2013 there\u2019s something really alluring about that image, but I\u2019ve never been able to function well late.<\/span>

5. Do you set yourself a daily target for writing?<\/span>

No \u2013 I suppose I try and check in to my creative process at least once a week, even if I\u2019m really busy. It isn\u2019t helpful to me to think in terms of output \u2013 how many poems this month etc. I\u2019ve written at very different paces at different times and have learnt to trust that. As long as I\u2019m making a regular space for the writing then I feel that poems will turn up eventually.<\/span>

6. What does it feel like to write? <\/span>

It depends what phase I\u2019m in. The first rush of an idea and a draft can be nervily exciting \u2013 there\u2019s the buzz as you realize you\u2019re on to something that feels genuinely new and surprising, but, for me, also the agitation that comes with wondering whether I\u2019ll be equal to expressing the idea, trying to pin it down on paper before it slips away. Then there\u2019s the scratching the head, re-assessing phase \u2013 that can start off disappointing \u2013 oh, I didn\u2019t get it right first time [why that realization still comes as a surprise I don\u2019t know!]. But actually once it\u2019s underway, I really like the re-drafting phase. It can be hugely absorbing and satisfying trying different approaches to make the poem come good. I\u2019m accentuating the positive here \u2013 there are plenty of moments when writing makes me feel like a six year old who\u2019s scribbled out the picture she\u2019s been working on all day because it doesn\u2019t look right.<\/span>

7. Are there any stimuli that will usually trigger you into writing?<\/span>

I find I need less stimuli not more. I need to be on my own and very still so I can start to listen. I don\u2019t do formal meditation but it\u2019s that shift into a more settled, observant state which seems to be a precursor to writing something.<\/span>

8. Do you work in silence or have background noise? If you do have sounds, what are you listening to now?<\/span>

Silence, definitely. Any noise is a real distraction. Hence the bus ear plugs. I love ear plugs, they should come free with your Poetry Society membership.<\/span>

9. What are you working on now?<\/span>

I\u2019ve just completed quite an extensive redraft of my third collection so I\u2019m actually lying fallow at the moment. That took a big creative push and though I\u2019ve got a couple of ideas knocking around, my creative energies need time to recharge. <\/p>\n

*Esther Morgan<\/span>'s third collection Grace<\/a>, published by Bloodaxe, is due out in October 2011. She is an editor and historic recordings manager for The Poetry Archive. She currently lives in rural Norfolk where she's waiting for another new arrival – her first baby due in June.
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Nine QuestionsIn this series Ink Sweat & Tears talks to practicing writers about their process and craft.1. Where do you write? (do you have an office, room, bus or train journey that you find yourself and your writing? etc)I do have an office but oddly I hardly ever write creatively there \u2013 it\u2019s where the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23858,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions\/23858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}