Would you please tell us a little about your writing process?
I’ve often heard it said that when writing you should get everything down on the page first and worry about rewriting later, but I actually love to edit as I go, moving words around, striking things out, reordering. I usually work in a notebook which limits the fiddling around I do, but I often get a mess of cross-outs and extra phrases in the margins with arrows pointing where they belong. I like feeling the cadence of the story which builds the momentum into what comes next. For me it works!
How do you believe a writer improves? Practice? Mentors? Reading everything? Attending festivals?
It’s cliche, but the way to improve as a writer is to write. I’m normally a very classroom-oriented learner and have sought out lectures and online masterclasses, to varying degrees of helpfulness. But the times where I really feel like I’ve improved on a craft level is after an obsessive couple weeks/months of writing. I think writing across mediums is really helpful too – short stories, novels, poems, plays. Writing across genres too. That way your brain is making new connections, and often the things you try are cross-applicable. Of course, reading a lot is always a cornerstone of improving your writing.
Do you enjoy writing?
Yes. Not only do I love the feeling of being in the flow while writing, but after extended periods of not writing I start to get antsy and am a lot more prone to feeling lonely. In other words, writing makes me feel connected to the world even hours or days after I put the pen down.
What is the best piece of advice you have received?
A high school teacher of mine was once asked why he didn’t offer creative writing assignments and he said it was because all writing was creative. In the immediate term this revelation helped me write better essays because I would allow myself to get funky (like putting in asides!). But in the long term it helped me break down the barrier between different types of writing and stories. Dramas can be funny. Speculative fic can and should feel personal.
Which books is it most important for an aspiring writer to read?
I don’t think there are particular books aspiring writers need to read, but I do strongly believe writers should be reading across genres. I think it’s really important to get a wide understanding of the ways in which people tell stories. I consider fantasy my home, but I read almost as many memoirs or science books or bildungsromans. If you’re looking for a book recommendation that I felt helped level up my writing, I’ll go with The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan.
If you were to begin writing today for the first time, would you do anything differently? Which would be your first steps?
I started writing down stories when I was very young and I wouldn’t change my approach at all. I wrote often and I wrote what I would want to read. If I could change anything maybe I’d nudge myself to try fanfiction more. It’s a great way to examine how other writers made characters function by taking them into your own hands. 99% of what I’ve written will never be published, so it doesn’t matter if it has restricted IP in it.
What have been your most meaningful or profound experiences as a writer?
I wrote a short film, Becca Comes to Visit, that screened at several festivals in LA and NYC. During the production my sister (who was working on the film with me) reminded me of a fight that the two of us had years ago that paralleled the script. Because the dynamic between the fictional siblings was so different I hadn’t connected the dots, but it was an amazing moment of reflecting on how my life influences my work. Writing really is a sort of therapy, where your messy emotions and jumbled memories magically fall together and form into something clear and insightful.
Quinn Theobald is a writer and software developer who writes short stories about emotional discoveries spurred by the fantastic. Their self-published coming-of-age novella The Hotel Montclair is available on Amazon and a production of their screenplay Becca Comes to Visit screened at Lady Filmmakers and Soho International Film Festival. In between pursuing writing and performative art, they find time to dance West Coast Swing and run DnD games.