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who are you?
Allison Blaney. No one calls me that. I usually go by Alli. Allison is my working name, my adult name (though I feel permanently 17 years old most of the time) what do you do? I write. why do you do it? Because it feels right. Because it's frustrating and fun and feels good. It sounds selfish, but I feel like there are times--rare--when I am really GOOD at it. I've never really excelled at anything, but when someone laughs at a joke I wrote in a piece, or comments that they love or remember something I wrote, I think,"Wow, I did that!" how do you do it? I'm always, always journalling. It's something I learned to do when I went to the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. Write down every touchstone you think of: parts of speech you hear around you in the world, random ideas that strike you, dreams, etc. Write down anything that is interesting or compelling, makes you laugh or cry. I have notebooks stashed everywhere: in my car, in my purse, on my bedside table. Sometimes one sentence becomes a story concept or a poem. Sometimes it evolves into something completely different, or adds to an existing story. Sometimes it's nothing. But when I feel stumped about what to write about I just flip through one of my notebooks. After journalling, I free write on the computer. I have a lot of memory keys and versions saved--and hard copies. Always date everything, and do your rewrites in new documents. You may want to go back to a previous version if a rewrite isn't working. ALWAYS SAVE THINGS IN MULTIPLE PLACES. Computers are evil sometimes. who do you do it for? Hmm, after completing my MFA I can say that I mostly do it for myself. Don't get me wrong, it feels great when I get feedback--even angry feedback as it means it struck someone--but writing and taste is so subjective. If you start writing something to please a group, a professor, a workshop, your parents, etc., there is a good chance it will suck. Write for you, take all advice with a grain of salt, trust your instincts. I guess there is a part of me that secretly hopes I am leaving a legacy of some sort. Even if my kids and grandkids scan my work and feel like they know me better or respect me for something. what do you love about what you do? I love how it feels. I love struggling through a writing session but looking back on the paragraph I wrote and smiling. I love how proud I feel when I look at something i've done. I love the sense of purpose it gives me and the way I feel like it free's up space in my brain. what do you love? Coffee, good food, films, music, infomercials, the smell of books, horses, travel, cats, the beach, snow, trees, fashion, firemen, friends, alliteration (haha), life, etc etc etc what do you hate? People who are close minded or pretentious. Traffic. what do you need? Money and a bigger workspace...or a workspace that isn't the library/dining room table. Oh, and a magic bullet. I'm sure I need that. what do you want? To be able to write for a living (very rare). To be happy. To have perfect grammar (mine tends to fail me at times). what inspires you? Conversations I hear, people I meet, and music. Memories from my childhood. who inspires you? My family and friends. Complete strangers. Music, books, and poetry. what keeps you motivated? My parents fretting over my choice of career and my desire to prove myself to some degree. Also, my peers motivate me. When I see their success I feel happy for them an then think--I can do that! Oddly, I find my stories motivate me/ Even when they aren't going the way I want and i'm stuck I still want to figure it out. Lately, the few people who've seen pages of my novel are motivating me because they want to know how it ends. how did you get started? I was in french emersion until I was in grade four and hence my english and reading skills were a bit behind the pack. I got put in a special class and we focused on reading and writing and I started to find it really fun. I spent my summers on a sailboat in Georgian Bay and all we had to do was swim, do crafts, and read. I read a lot and got lost in my imagination. My dad told a lot of stories too, which probably has something to do with it. Then I took creative writing in high school and felt like I might actually have some potential. what's the biggest sacrifice you've made? In the past i've sacrificed personal relationships to submerge myself in work. I'm getting better at balancing it as I get older, but it's still a bit of a struggle. I sometimes take the unconditional love I get for granted and put all my energy into my work--but then I look back in retrospect and feel very guilty for that neglect. Also, I think I sacrificed the conventional route when I decided to do an MFA in Creative Writing in New York City. I was accepted to do an MA at Concordia, and certainly could have gone on to do a PHD and taught. However, I took a risk and chose to do the audaciously expensive MFA that has a very small chance of leading to a PHD (only two writing programs offer a PHD in the US). I sacrificed my future financial security by taking on student loans, and personal loans--but it was totally worth it and I would do it again in a second. what's a fun fact about you? I try to learn something new every year. Learning keeps us young and keeps life interesting. I have a motorcycle license and scuba licence. My next goal is to learn to fly a plane. is there any underlying concepts to your work? If you can call "human relationships" an underlying concept. People have told me I have a lot of work that revolves around "coming home/ leaving home" in some form. Otherwise, I'm most often defined by my use of dialogue. what's some fo the best advice you've gotten? I've had the privilege of having so many amazing teachers and professors in my academic career that thinking up one piece of advice is very challenging. One of my instructors at UNB, Linda McNutt, told me to stop calling myself an "aspiring writer". She said, "If you write, you are writer." Another one i've found useful is something New School instructor/writer Helen Schulman told me is to "keep the channel open". When you are writing, try not to criticize yourself. Get it all out before you start re-writing (meaning a paragraph/ a few pages/ or the whole piece). If you start to criticize yourself before you get everything out, calling it stupid etc, then you risk giving yourself a serious creative roadblock. The first draft is the time when you get every stupid idea out. Then, when you feel you've been sufficiently drained, go back and rewrite. Also, I saw Tim O'Brien (writer of "The Things They Carried") read last year in New York and he said he writes to "reach into the human heart". Whenever i'm writing something now I aim to do that. what are some mistakes you've made? Ah geeze, too many to note. But then again, every mistake is a lesson. I would say not taking full advantage of the instructors/writing time I had during my MFA. what realizations have you made? I may not be able to support myself by writing, but that doesn't mean I still cannot write. I think it took Wally Lamb ten years to write "The Hour I First Believed" because apparently he was only able to write about an hour a day. Still, he got it done--and that's a fabulous book. I just have to make sure I make myself write, even for half an hour to an hour a day. It's hard sometimes, but I have to do it. who do you admire? Margaret Atwood. I saw her once around the corner from CBC and followed her a block before I creeped myself out. I've read everything she's ever written and i'm always gobsmacked. I also admire good teachers. I've had amazing ones from the high school level right through to my masters. I knew a lot of people in university who wanted to become teachers as a "back up". Something about that felt wrong to me. I don't think it's easy to be a good teacher unless you love what you are doing. I have a lot of respect for teachers. The good ones. the meaning of life is? To learn all you can. To live well. To love. |
