Visiting with Tanita Davis
by Claire Guyton, Art + Life Editor
What’s your best “This is how I got the idea for that story” anecdote?
My best “This is how I got the idea” anecdote is kind of a cop-out, to some ways of thinking. I had a dream that was the basis of the plot for my last work-in-progress, Happy Families. A dream. I know. It’s a ridiculous writer cliché, but there you have it. What’s more normal, however, is that the fourth (and final, for the moment) draft resembles the dream in no way, shape, or form. Dreams are a great place to start a story, but they rarely give you much to go on once your waking mind gets through with the contradictions and conflicts your sleeping psyche thinks make a perfectly reasonable tale!
Tell us about your usual writing process.
My usual writing process is to sit down at my desk, whenever I arrive—usually first thing in the morning, but sometimes after throwing in a load or two of laundry—and read what I have from the previous day’s work. There’s always a bit of tweaking to be done, as I consider what I said vs. what I meant to say, and then I’m able to move forward into that day’s chapters.
I tend to revise and then write pretty much constantly. The changes are usually small but significant pivots that help me to change the direction of the entire plot. The further I go along through a storyline, the more details make themselves clear to me, and though it annoys people trying to read manuscripts in progress, it’s the best method for me. Sometimes you’ve got to work backwards to go forward!
If you had painted your novel Mare’s War, what colors would you have used?
If I’d painted Mare’s War, I would have used a lot of sandy khaki in the background, with bright splashes of magenta. While these colors may not exactly match, they coordinate, and both colors ably represent the Mare of the past and of the present.
In this painting, I would have needed to use a lot of textured gray around the edges—to represent the newspapers, newsreels and photographs of the era. People had color film, but I believe it was shockingly expensive, and mainly used by professionals. A gray of a darker shade would represent prejudice and ignorance.
To represent Mare’s granddaughters, I’d use a hot pink for Tali—a lot like her grandmother, she is—a vein of silver for Octavia, who has undiscovered depths.
If you were to write a book on the craft of writing, what title would you use?
If I were to write a book on the craft of fiction, I’d want to use a snappy title like, The BIC Diaries: Drunk on Writing. This title steals shamelessly from both Jane Yolen and Ray Bradbury:
“BIC. Butt in chair. That’s how you become a professional writer. It doesn’t have to do with inspiration; and it doesn’t have to do with agitation, it only has to do with perspiration.”
—Jane Yolen
“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
—Ray Bradbury
However, if I were to use a title that reflected my actual experiences, I would have to think along the lines of taking Dory’s advice: Just Keep Swimming, since in my experience, the “just keep swimming” refrain of the slightly mentally befuddled fish from “Finding Nemo” is pretty much the same as saying “BIC.” Just do what you’ve got to do, no matter how ugly the plot, or how rough the prose. Just keep swimming.
This is the cover I’d use for a book on the craft of fiction.
*Contact Claire with any questions or suggestions for Hunger Mountain’s Art + Life section at hungermtnal@gmail.com.
