Interview with Heather Shaw
Heather Shaw spent her childhood on the south side of Indianapolis, taking dance lessons, entering 4-H fairs and performing in high school plays. After she received her B.A. in English from Franklin College of Indiana in 1996 she promptly flew out to Berkeley, CA where she failed to fit into a commune and got her first office job. She met Tim Pratt at a Strange Horizons brunch in 2001, and married him in October of this year. She has performed poetry on the Lollapalooza poetry stage, back when they had such a thing, but these days concentrates on fiction. Her stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Polyphony 3 & 5, Fortean Bureau and other nice places. She is currently working on revising her first novel. She lives in Oakland with Tim and two cats.
Simon Owens: I’ve noticed that you’re not a very prolific writer. Do you tend to revise and spend a lot more time on your fiction than the average writer? Has this ever frustrated you?
Heather Shaw: You’re right, I’m not. I’m not sure how much revising an “average writer” does, but I do recognize that I don’t churn out the volume of stories that other writers, such as Jay Lake (or, yes, Tim Pratt) do. And, living with Tim, I can tell you that yes, generally speaking my stories go through more revisions than his do. This probably has to do, at least partially, with the fact that Tim has written hundreds more stories than I have, and can simply write a cleaner first draft. But then again, I’m just not the type to write that many in the first place.
First I’ll get an idea, an image, a line, a character in my head. It’ll bounce around in there for awhile, having imaginary conversations, trying different plot lines, singing in different voices. After a bit, I’ll try to jot it down in idea form — a raw skeleton of a story idea so I don’t forget about it. Then I forget about it for awhile.
If it’s any good at all, it’ll nag me. I’ll come looking for it, dig up the scrawled line or two where I tried to convey the essence of the thing. At this point, I try to write it. Sometimes this is awful, embarrassing writing that will never see the light of day. If so, I set it aside and just spend some time — days, weeks, months — thinking about the idea and where it went wrong, what could make it better. Occasionally it’s a fairly clean draft. After this cleanish draft, I sit on it awhile longer, try to forget about it for at least a month so I can come back to it and revise it later with fresh eyes.
At this point, how soon I deem it “finished” depends on if I have a deadline and how anxious I am to get it out in the world.
Yes, it frustrates the hell out of me sometimes. But I’m also willing to let things “simmer” rather than produce stuff I’m not happy with. I try to pretend I’m happy this way — that I’m an artist, and this is the way I roll — but sure, I’d love to whip out a brilliant story every other week or so. Wouldn’t we all?
SO: How has being in a relationship with a very talented writer like Tim Pratt affected your writing? Do you two provide a lot of feedback on each other’s fiction?
HS: I write more because of Tim. Or I should say I try to write more, as my ideas and process allow. But, since he’s always there, working on stuff, talking about writing with me, bouncing ideas off of me, it’s pretty safe to say it helps to bring writing to the forefront of my mind.
It also pushes me to work harder on stories, to make each one better. We write different kinds of stories, so that helps, but there is always that feeling that I want to be recognized for my own work, not because I’m married to Tim Pratt. I’m very proud of him, and all that he’s accomplished, but I do want to carve out my own niche in fiction.
We often tell each other our story ideas. Occasionally we’ll take walks and work out a plotline, or a character, or a theme, during the course of the stroll. At the idea stage, I think we provide a lot of really useful feedback for one another, helping shape the story into something potentially really good.
However, once a story is drafted, our role is one of cheerleader, not critic. Writers are insecure creatures, and once we’ve written something, we try to support one another, convince the other that whatever has been written has merit. Harsh, realistic critiques don’t go over well in our home.
We can, however, provide realistic crits in a writing group. Something about having other people around makes it too embarrassing to just cheer the story without further comment, and we can take constructive criticism from one another better in that venue.
SO: Do you feel that editing Flytrap has been a rewarding experience? Have you and Tim ever expressed any regrets over editing the magazine?
HS: It has been a *very* rewarding experience. I’m very proud of our little zine with teeth, and I enjoy working on it. We’ve had the honor to publish some awesome stuff, and I love the look and feel of it in my hands. It’s a different kind of pride than success in my own fiction or even Tim’s; there’s a great joy in printing a fabulously tricksy story you found in the slush by an author you’ve never heard of, or a gem from a dear writer friend.
I’m sure I’ve expressed regret when I’m wading through the slush. I’m a slow slush reader, while Tim is a speedy one, and I have great guilt over this. Tim and I take turns with the zine: I’ll edit fiction and he’ll edit poetry for one issue, then we’ll swap for the next one. So, when it’s my turn, people who are used to Tim’s response times will occasionally worry when it takes too long, and I hate that I cause them to worry. I tend to linger over stories I like, and inevitably we have more than I can take, and those last few stories take me a long time to decide over.
But, ultimately, it’s a great project, and I’m very proud to be a part of it.
SO: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?
HS: Nick Mamatas
You can find Heather’s blog over here
