Getting 2 Know Susan Calder

 

BCB: What do you think readers would be most surprised to learn about you? 

Susan Calder: I’ve hitchhiked to all ten Canadian provinces. My girlfriend, Debbie, and I took up hitchhiking when we were nineteen. We were living in Montreal and began with trips to Quebec City, Ottawa and Stratford, Ontario, staying in youth hostels. In the 1970s these were converted jails, campgrounds and old homes with mattresses on the floor.

A year or two later, Debbie and I decided to hitch to Vancouver, or as far west as we could get. We neglected to look at a map of Canada and were amazed by the size of northern Ontario. It felt like endless lake and trees, but we still made it to Vancouver in record time. It was easy for two girls to get rides. The following summer we went to the four Atlantic Provinces, with a side trip to the island French colony of St. Pierre, which I’d barely know existed if I hadn’t been there.

The most memorable parts of these trans-Canada trips were the people who gave us rides. Confined in cars with strangers for long distances, our conversations turned interesting. The wife of a university professor told me all about her affairs with her husband’s students because she was bursting to confide and knew she’d never see me again. A couple of people invited us to spend the night at the homes of the relatives they were on their way to visit Did the relatives want us there? At that age, we assumed they did. We corresponded with two of our drivers after the trip – and discovered the relationships that had felt so close at the time didn’t work outside of the hitchhiking context.

I only recall one instance of feeling frightened while in a car, by a man in the prairies who talked excessively about the guns in his trunk. Debbie and I made an excuse to get out at the next town. No doubt there was more we should have feared. I look back on hitch-hiking as a foolish and fascinating activity that we were lucky to survive.

BCB: What is your creative process?

Susan Calder: I usually begin by deciding on a few basic details about my main character, such as gender, age, name, occupation and relationship status, the setting and the story problem. Until I sit down to write, I mull these elements over. If the story is to be a novel, I find myself composing the first chapter in my head and, sometimes, bits of the next couple of chapters. For a short story, I tend to think the story through to the end. When I start writing, much of what I had thought out changes. I try to keep myself open to the changes in the first draft – and later ones, too. I love the surprises and feel if I’m surprised by my story, readers will also be surprised.

The characters and plot develop in the writing. I write the story to the end without revising along the way, unless I realize a scene has made a wrong turn or what I’ve written can’t take me to the next scene. Then I re-write and keep going. In each chapter, I make sure to throw in questions and problems that I’ll have to deal with in the next chapter or later ones to prompt forward motion. I like to finish each writing session at a chapter or scene end. This gives me a sense of completion and helps me build the scene momentum. After the scene is done, my mind starts playing the next one. It churns over night and I wake up with the next scene rolling, although it’s often a struggle to start writing it.

Somehow, this all evolves into a real story, but one that requires considerable revision. In later drafts for Deadly Fall, I deleted a lot of material, added two full chapters and learned a lot about novel structure. For my current novel-in-progress, in addition to the basics, I began with a structure outline. That is, I divided the prospective novel into quarters, with each quarter ending on a turning point. I didn’t know in advance what would happen at these turning points, but I knew they would be significant moments and I needed X amount of material, not much more or less, to get to them. This helps with pacing. During the editing of Deadly Fall, we cut one major character. This led me to ruminate on all my story characters before starting my current book. I disposed of two people – much easier to do before they’ve woven themselves into the story.

Read an INTERVIEW with Susan Calder.

Read more about Susan Calder’s Novel Deadly Fall

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