Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview.
Today’s guest for the WHAT is Kathryn Crawley, author of Walking on Fire, the story of a young woman who moves to Thessaloniki, Greece for work in 1974, just after the fall of a dictatorship, and how her experiences with love and politics challenge everything she thought she knew about the world.
Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?
In 1974 I was dropped into a boiling cauldron of anti-Americanism in Greece following the collapse of the Greek dictatorship. I had been hired as a speech pathologist in a center for Greek cerebral palsied children. At the end of two years, I’d become fluent in the Greek language, been schooled in international politics, and had fallen in love with the country and with a charismatic Greek communist student. After my return to the US, stories of those days rumbled within, waiting to emerge. Zillions of words from writing classes and writing groups kept the memories alive and details fresh. A planned memoir metamorphosed into fiction, as I found my writing flowed more freely using the third person than first person form. Each day my writing became a quest into the deeper significance of those pivotal two years of my life in Greece. For me, fiction provided a pathway to a deeper truth and understanding. My novel, a coming-of-age, loss-of-innocence love story, Walking on Fire, came to life.
Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?
I used my own experiences as a starting point and then fictionalized them. There were actual events where I was met face to face by anti-American sentiment and feared for my safety, but I wanted to create suspense and adventure for my protagonist to further develop her character and for a more exciting read. Undercurrents of 1970’s feminism affected her evolution and self-actualization, as did my own inner Nancy Drew. A key turn of plot development came with the scene of a religious fire walking ceremony I’d witnessed. My protagonist is unexpectedly abandoned by her lover in this surreal setting, and the remainder of the story ran away from there to events I couldn’t have imagined at the outset.
Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?
More often than not. Freewriting has long been my passport from the subconscious to words on paper. That journey inward is one of my favorite aspects of writing, and unexpected ideas from that place can solve plot problems. How will my protagonist create her own agency in this particular predicament? What inner needs compel her to act against her own self-interest? How will she maintain her hard-earned sense of independence in the face of the magnetic force of her lover? Inner alleyways lead to new destinations.
Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?
I have more story ideas than, unfortunately, I will ever have time to use. My mother saved all the letters I’d ever written, from Girl Scout camp through college to my years in Greece. Thirteen notebooks and two carefully annotated photograph albums chronicling my father’s years in World War Two are stacked in my dining room. My great-grandfather was rumored to be the gunman of a vigilante group in the wilds of Texas outlaw days. Shelves are filled with notebooks of stories from on-demand prompts of my weekly writing group. I am blessed with material; I hope to be blessed with enough time to venture into more of these stories.
How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?
By starting. I gather information, photographs, and sensory items (music, fragrances, objects), and see where I land. The story has a chance to move forward during freewriting, followed by more careful attention to what’s on the page. After several days I look to see if the story has come to life. If not, I put it away for another day, take a short break, then move on to something else, usually changing genres, from non-fiction to fiction, poetry, or a perhaps a personal essay.
I have 6 cats and a Dalmatian (seriously, check my Instagram feed) and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting?
Sadie the Wheaten Terrier has been a constant companion during my morning writing sessions, as she stretches out on the window seat beside my desk. Because she IS a terrier, Sadie carries the responsibility of guarding the street outside our window. Ryan the Mailman, Jordy the King Charles Spaniel, and a host of disrespecting squirrels are prime targets. Once spotted, they must be scolded. As she insists on access to the yard to fence-guard, I return to my keyboard, accompanied by the music of her tenacity. Not a distraction but rather an element of the rhythm of my writing practice.
Kathryn Crawley was born of pioneer stock and raised in the small West Texas cotton town of Lamesa. She received undergraduate and graduate degrees in speech pathology from Baylor University. Unforeseen events and an adventurous spirit led her to Wyoming, Colorado, and to Greece, where she worked with Greek cerebral palsied children. She later established roots in Boston where she continued her career as a speech pathologist. Today, she enjoys life with her partner Tom, daughter Emilia, and two dogs. Walking on Fire is her debut novel.