In honor of Small Press Month, Thea Press interviewed Rebecca Freeman. Rebecca is the author of Alt-Ctrl.
What inspired you to start writing? I've always loved listening to and telling stories... when I was five or six, I used to sit at the front of our tiny rural schoolbus and tell stories of my own making to our lovely bus driver. When I could finally read books myself it was such a gift! Now I didn't have to wait for anyone else to do it--I was an autonomous reader, and it was life-changing! So learning to read was another catalyst to making up my own stories. And I was always jotting down new ideas, writing about new characters. Creative writing was my favourite subject at school, from primary school through to graduation. And a new story idea is still exciting for me.
What does your writing process look like? Due to time constraints nowadays, I often spend quite a while with the story in my head before I start writing it. I might jot down some lines or thoughts when I first get the idea, but otherwise, it percolates for some weeks or months. I used to just start writing and hope the story went somewhere, but when I hit middle age, I felt as though life suddenly became finite, and so now I plot out my stories in some detail, as it gives me more direction and I waste less time simply writing something that I might have to delete later. (Of course, there is still a good chance that there will be discarded words, scenes and chapters even with a good plan, but it's hopefully less likely). I write the plot by hand but type my drafts (again, to save time) and then when I'm stuck on the screen, I'll print out chapters or a full draft and make notes and edits by hand. I am not a fast writer! Even short stories will take me months--I may get a first draft done in a matter of hours or days but then I need a long time to tinker and think about it.
Of your various writings, what is one of your favorites? Why? Gosh, that's hard to answer. I think maybe the title poem, 'The Pretend Parent' from my poetry chapbook? Because it seemed to resonate strongly with a heap of people and it says so much about how much I struggled with the concept of 'parent' and what it's supposed to mean.
Sometimes it's not so much a whole story or piece of writing, but a line that stays with me, one of those lines where it feels as though it just dropped into your head and you're surprised you managed to think of it at all. When I'm describing natural environments I feel like I need to do my best to do them justice, and sometimes I think I pull that off quite well.
What are your thoughts on the use of AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) during the creative process? It's a very tricky area. On the one hand, we already use other intelligences to help us with our work--anyone who's had a beta reader or editor is getting help to make their writing better, and as an editor, I very much believe in this process! It's about getting a new perspective to understand how your story will appear to another reader, rather than just how it sounds in the head of the one who created it.
But all that feedback comes with an enormous cultural context, and that matters. I feel as though using AI to write or edit your work means it's being analysed or created in a vacuum, which means that it lacks depth, connection and meaning. Plus part of the writing process is truly having to push through those moments where you're just not feeling it, and then coming out the other side, having persisted, with new work to show for it. Writing is a practice and like any artform, a craft. If you let something else do all the hard work for you, you just won't get better.
Tell us about one or more of your favorite writers and how they've impacted you. So many writers have influenced me, from Enid Blyton (casual racism and classist assumptions aside) to Anne Spencer Parry to Antoine de Saint Exupery to Haruki Murakami. What I take from all their work is the possibility of beauty in simplicity and magic, magic, magic.
What has writing taught you about the world and yourself? I think it's taught me that stories are how human beings communicate, and as I've got older, it's the way I make sense of the world. There is such power in storytelling--and we have to be aware of that. It can be used for good and evil, so it's important to think critically about who's telling us what, and why.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers? Anyone can write--most people can jot down the beginning of a good story. But to be good at it, you have to keep going. Give it the space and time it needs. Accept it as part of you. Be proud of it. And don't feel as though being published is the only measure of success... it's as important (if not more so!) to work at it, strive for improvement, challenge yourself to do better, as it is to see your name in print.
Rebecca works full-time as an editor. She lives in a household consisting of her partner, four children, and the many animals who offer them companionship and eggs. In her spare time, she's been working on a creative PhD, which is in its final stages (or perhaps its death throes, she says). And when not writing and editing, she likes to cook, garden, hike, and read; she also enjoys chatting with her children about politics, the environment, religion, and their favorite fruits.
Contact: https://rebeccafreeman.com.au/ or instagram.com/words_by_rebecca
What inspired you to start writing? I've always loved listening to and telling stories... when I was five or six, I used to sit at the front of our tiny rural schoolbus and tell stories of my own making to our lovely bus driver. When I could finally read books myself it was such a gift! Now I didn't have to wait for anyone else to do it--I was an autonomous reader, and it was life-changing! So learning to read was another catalyst to making up my own stories. And I was always jotting down new ideas, writing about new characters. Creative writing was my favourite subject at school, from primary school through to graduation. And a new story idea is still exciting for me.
What does your writing process look like? Due to time constraints nowadays, I often spend quite a while with the story in my head before I start writing it. I might jot down some lines or thoughts when I first get the idea, but otherwise, it percolates for some weeks or months. I used to just start writing and hope the story went somewhere, but when I hit middle age, I felt as though life suddenly became finite, and so now I plot out my stories in some detail, as it gives me more direction and I waste less time simply writing something that I might have to delete later. (Of course, there is still a good chance that there will be discarded words, scenes and chapters even with a good plan, but it's hopefully less likely). I write the plot by hand but type my drafts (again, to save time) and then when I'm stuck on the screen, I'll print out chapters or a full draft and make notes and edits by hand. I am not a fast writer! Even short stories will take me months--I may get a first draft done in a matter of hours or days but then I need a long time to tinker and think about it.
Of your various writings, what is one of your favorites? Why? Gosh, that's hard to answer. I think maybe the title poem, 'The Pretend Parent' from my poetry chapbook? Because it seemed to resonate strongly with a heap of people and it says so much about how much I struggled with the concept of 'parent' and what it's supposed to mean.
Sometimes it's not so much a whole story or piece of writing, but a line that stays with me, one of those lines where it feels as though it just dropped into your head and you're surprised you managed to think of it at all. When I'm describing natural environments I feel like I need to do my best to do them justice, and sometimes I think I pull that off quite well.
What are your thoughts on the use of AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) during the creative process? It's a very tricky area. On the one hand, we already use other intelligences to help us with our work--anyone who's had a beta reader or editor is getting help to make their writing better, and as an editor, I very much believe in this process! It's about getting a new perspective to understand how your story will appear to another reader, rather than just how it sounds in the head of the one who created it.
But all that feedback comes with an enormous cultural context, and that matters. I feel as though using AI to write or edit your work means it's being analysed or created in a vacuum, which means that it lacks depth, connection and meaning. Plus part of the writing process is truly having to push through those moments where you're just not feeling it, and then coming out the other side, having persisted, with new work to show for it. Writing is a practice and like any artform, a craft. If you let something else do all the hard work for you, you just won't get better.
Tell us about one or more of your favorite writers and how they've impacted you. So many writers have influenced me, from Enid Blyton (casual racism and classist assumptions aside) to Anne Spencer Parry to Antoine de Saint Exupery to Haruki Murakami. What I take from all their work is the possibility of beauty in simplicity and magic, magic, magic.
What has writing taught you about the world and yourself? I think it's taught me that stories are how human beings communicate, and as I've got older, it's the way I make sense of the world. There is such power in storytelling--and we have to be aware of that. It can be used for good and evil, so it's important to think critically about who's telling us what, and why.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers? Anyone can write--most people can jot down the beginning of a good story. But to be good at it, you have to keep going. Give it the space and time it needs. Accept it as part of you. Be proud of it. And don't feel as though being published is the only measure of success... it's as important (if not more so!) to work at it, strive for improvement, challenge yourself to do better, as it is to see your name in print.
Rebecca works full-time as an editor. She lives in a household consisting of her partner, four children, and the many animals who offer them companionship and eggs. In her spare time, she's been working on a creative PhD, which is in its final stages (or perhaps its death throes, she says). And when not writing and editing, she likes to cook, garden, hike, and read; she also enjoys chatting with her children about politics, the environment, religion, and their favorite fruits.
Contact: https://rebeccafreeman.com.au/ or instagram.com/words_by_rebecca
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