*
1. What made you decide to be involved in the Willow Pattern project?
I was asked to be involved and thought it sounded like fun. I didn't think anyone would judge my writing based on something written over 12 hrs so the stakes were low and the fun factor was high.
2. Did you have any prior relationship with any of the other authors? Was this an additional factor to doing to the project?
I knew Chris Currie and Steven Amsterdam and Nick Earls pretty well and I really wanted to spend time with Steven who I rarely see so yes, that was a factor for sure.
3. Do you find working towards a deadline stifled your creativity or enhanced it?
I always give myself strict deadlines so it was similar to my normal work practice only super-charged.
4. Why was the symbol ‘Willow Patterns’ chosen as the link within the book – what is the significance there?
Willow pattern came out of our first half hour of chat on the day of writing. We wanted to find a linking thing to link all the stories and someone came up with the idea of a vase and someone else said willow pattern had a history etc so we googled it and liked it.
5. Did you have any ideas/plans on what to do coming into the project? Were there meetings beforehand?
We knew it was going to be set in the library, and the Brisbane flood was mentioned as a linking thing. I knew I was going to write in the genre of pornography as that is where I write fastest so sex in the library was all I had in my head to start with.
6. Did you have a breaking point at all during the project – if so – at what point roughly during the 24 hours was this? What did you do to combat this?
No breaking point. It was all fun. I was a little tired the next day at work though...
7. Could you run through the initial hours of the project for us – did you have a meeting before writing or did you all just start?
We started with a meeting and chatted for half an hour about what order things would be put in and what bits would link the stories then we raced off into it. Anita Heiss came to visit at some point and so I ducked off to the cafe for half an hour to have a beer with her but apart from that it was heads down the whole time.
8. How did you all communicate with each other during the project and ensure synergy with each entry?
There was a whiteboard for notes and so people put notes up there. I think there were some jokes - I think I wrote some jokes up on the board but I can't remember what now. I was in a really playful mood but people were too busy to play with me which was a shame.
9. Were there any memorable moments from the project you would like to share?
I remember coming back in the morning to visit the edit team and finding out that my pornographic scene had caused them all a terrible headache. The real life girl who did a walk on in my scene did not want to be associated with pornography.
10. What was the inspiration behind your particular chapter ‘Exquisite Corpse’?
The whole game was like the surrealist game exquisite corpse and so that influenced my idea of using a dead person in my sex scene. It was all pretty crazy fun.
11. Nick Earls used some metafiction in his story in which nine writers are working in the library and one of the women vexes the others having reached the goal for amount of words first. From what you remember of the day and Nick's story was this an accurate portrayal? And if so, why Franz Kafka?
I haven't read the final book. I don't think anyone has read the final book. I think it is probably unreadable. It is a first furious draft. They are always pretty awful.
12. Would you ever do something like this again?
I love games like this. I would certainly do it again.
No comments:
Post a Comment