April Darcy just wrapped up teaching The Writers Circle’s novel-writing boot camp–a six-week intensive workshop focused on writing as much as you can as fast as you can. It’s fair to say she knows a thing or two about pushing her limits on the page. As we approach a new year–with new resolutions to write–April shares what motivates her to write, how travel has inspired her storytelling, and why teaching has opened her mind in unexpected ways.
When did you first know you were a writer?
Oh, I was late to the self-awareness game. I was a huge reader as a kid, and always writing – in journals, letters to friends, a ton of poetry and song writing. But I didn’t write with serious intent until I turned 30 and took a few classes on a lark. And somehow never stopped again
What part of writing is the most fun for you (or the most challenging)?
I love writing with a strong sense of place, a story that simply couldn’t happen anywhere other than where it does happen. I am inspired by traveling and by the world at large, so in the fiction that I write and read, I love to experience a new atmosphere and learn about landscapes and cultures not my own.
Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you?
When I was young I assumed that I couldn’t be a writer because I didn’t have any ideas. I really thought that people woke up one day with full blown novels in their minds and just sat down to transcribe them. One of the most freeing things I’ve learned is that, for many writers, you simply sit down and get to work, and only then do you surprise yourself into having an idea. That’s certainly how it works for me!
Are you a plotter or a panster? (Meaning, Do you plan your story out in advance, or do you write by the seat of your pants?)
Well, in my first drafts I am 100 percent making it up as I go. But once I bump into a few ideas and get my arms around them, I go back in and methodically re-orient the work around that idea to bulk it up. So maybe a little bit of both?
Tell us about your writing process.
I write in the early mornings before my family wakes up and starts their day. Without fail on the same spot on the same green couch with a cup of coffee on the windowsill, and these days, a dog named Daisy sprawled on my legs. I could not possibly write with music playing; zero chance. Not even classical. And while I tend to write on a laptop the most, I do start the mornings handwriting in a notebook, and switch to digital when my hand gets tired.
How do you get unstuck or motivate yourself to write?
The only way to get unstuck is to get over yourself and get something, anything done. It’s the same with running or with any kind of exercise – the longer you go without doing it, the harder it is to begin again. I remind myself that I am only ever 30 minutes away from being someone that wrote today or ran today – it’s much easier to just get the work done, than to sit around and stress about not doing it.
What’s the best piece of writing advice you ever got?
A beloved teacher from my MFA program, Joan Wickersham, told me once that any writer who claims to know what they are doing when they’re drafting their work is either lying to you or lying to themselves. It was the most comforting thing she could have said, and greatly permission-giving to a person who always feels at sea in the work.
What have you learned from teaching writing?
I started teaching writing during the pandemic, when I was on a furlough from my day job in the travel industry. I was so frightened before that first Zoom class – what did I know about writing, anyway? But not until I began to teach did I understand how much I really had learned over the prior decade of community classes and graduate school and early mornings at the laptop, and that I did have something to offer. And yet all the same there is always more to learn, and who better to open your mind to new styles, voices, and life experiences than your students? They profoundly inspire me.
What are you working on now?
I just finished up a short story so now I’m back to work on a novel that’s been plaguing me for ages now. Ever closer, though!
April Darcy‘s latest fiction can be found in Water~Stone Review and in Shenandoah, where she received the Shenandoah River Fiction Prize. Her nonfiction can be found in Cutleaf and in North American Review, where she was a finalist for the Torch Nonfiction Prize. She has received fellowships from Writing by Writers, the Napa Valley Writers Conference, and BookEnds at Southampton Arts of Stony Brook University. She is the recipient of a 2020 Elizabeth George Foundation grant, and a 2022 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, both in support of a novel in progress.
