Author Q&A: Susan Wiggs

Can you tell us how your writing career began? Did you always want to be a writer? 
As a child, I was always obsessed with writing. Even before I was old enough to know what a dream was, I was writing on the collection envelopes at church. For first 10 years after college I was actually a teacher, but I was always consistent about writing. I let go of what normal people do every night, like watching TV and having a social life, and I wrote every single night, from about 8 or 9 till midnight. Like any other passion, even if don’t think you have the time, you just make the time.

 So when did your writing start to take off? 
It overlapped with my teaching. The first books don’t necessarily buy the dog food and pay the rent, and I really wanted a steady predictable income. So when I started publishing I went from full time to half time at my job, and after a I had a contract with a publisher, and felt more sure about my career as a writer, that’s when I finally let go of my other job.

 How do you conceive of a book’s premise, normally? Does it usually start with a setting, a character, a plot line? 
Great question. A character’s personal journey defines the plot for me – where is she now and where do I want her to end up, and what that arc of growth looks like. She usually starts in a bad place. Clare’s in a lonely place and someone’s after her. I knew I wanted her to get her life back. To get from point A to point B is the journey. That defines the plot – I have to dramatize the experiences to push her along. Plotting is so hard, but they’re just the events you think up that happen to the character that push her into the places she needs to go.

 Tell me about how The Summer Hideaway came to be. 
Two years ago I read a story in the New York Times magazine where a reporter was invited into the secret life of people in the witness protection program. “Wow, what would that really be like,” I wondered, and then I was off and running.

With that idea I started to build the story of a women in witness protection on the state level, which is not good. She doesn’t get a lot of support, so she’s had to do a lot of thinking for herself. She can’t get close to anybody and I wanted to tell that story of how she gets out of this sad place. But I didn’t want to make it easy– it had to sustain the conflict for the whole novel.

 How do you come up with the rest of the story fit into this one story arc? 
Since I’m continuing the series of The Lakeshore Chronicles, I already know so much about the setting. If readers of the series are very alert, there’s a conversation at the beginning of the first book with the grandmother of the clan, Jane. One of the characters asks about her long perfect marriage, and Jane says, “You know what, not so much. I’ve had my trying times.” So with this book I thought, "How can you be married fifty years without stuff happening?" Yes, Jane must have a past that I can explore here. Then these different stories have to weave together―it’s like being a juggler, trying to get them going. But by the time you have 3 or 4 balls in the air, everything’s on autopilot―that is, if your deadline is staring you in the face.

 How much time do you devote to writing every day? 
I write anywhere from 4 to 12 hours a day, but usually closer to four, because once you have a career going, you have to participate in the business of publishing as well; things like readings and consultations. I like it though; it gives me a sense of balance. I can’t last on a steady diet of 12-hour writing days.

 Is the experience of writing joyful for you, or grueling? 
I love my job but it’s not like the sun is out 24/7 for a writer. There are some days when getting the words to come is like passing a kidney stone! On the other hand, when something turns out right you want to do pirouettes. There’s a lot of craft that goes into it, and many revisions. It’s more joyful when I feel strongly about the story and I know where it’s going. The Summer Hideaway was hard to work on initially, because of working out the two story lines, braiding together the past and the present.

 Do you put yourself into your characters, or base them on people you know? 
You can’t help but bring elements of yourself into all of your characters, but each one is unique, and I try to get inside of his or her skin. It’s more that I borrow little details from the people around me. Oh, my mom would say something like that… My mind is a lint trap for details. I archive expressions and moments, and they often show up in my stories.

 Do you have any rituals you follow to keep your writing flow? 
I like being very habitual. I write all my first drafts in long hand with a certain kind of pen and paper, and every morning I center myself just looking out and staring. I live on Bainbridge Island off of Seattle, and my view is incredible. When I’m on the beach in front of my house I’m looking at an island and Mt. Rainier. But even when I first started writing, I did the same thing, and I lived in a crackerjack box in Houston without much to look at. I don’t do any elaborate rituals―that’s risky, because what if something goes wrong? That’s also why I don’t like writing on the computer early on. I could lose it. The computer doesn’t get turned on until it’s time to edit.

 What’s so moving about George is that, although he’s so likeable, you slowly reveal that he wasn’t always this wise person. And yet he’s a great teacher to everyone around him. 
Of all of the characters, I worked the hardest on George’s. I love people from the “greatest generation,” the World War II years. And although he’s dying, he couldn’t be depressing. I tried to make him really human so people could relate to him and forgive him for the ways in which he screwed up in his past.