) Are you a Pantser or Plotter?
Pantser or Plotter, you ask? Well, I think I know what a plotter is. But what on earth is a Pantser?
Google told me. A Pantser is a writer who flies by the seat of her pants, like a bush pilot. A Plotter, on the other hand, devises a careful plan and follows it, the way an architect or engineer would.
I guess that as a writer - and probably in most other ways - I am both.
I start with a concept, an idea or a character. Prairie Grass had its inception in a story my Dad told of an incident from his early childhood. It happened in Saskatchewan homesteading days, while he and his parents and baby sister still lived in a sod house. He was only 3 years old - so young that he probably had no clear recollection but remembered it instead as a bit of family folklore. That 1915 settler vignette took root in my mind. I wondered why it was important to him, a farmer who would freely discuss The Land but avoided talking about himself.
Of course, that little story was only one of the questions that tickled my curiosity bone. Living all my life in the prairies had made me keenly aware of the many mysteries that clouded our past. When I dug into the pre-settlement history of Saskatchewan, I was troubled by the cursory treatment given monumental personalities and events outside the mainstream political scene. It became clear that our official history was written to suit the colonial narrative. It also became clear that everything that had happened here connected to the land. Prairie Grass began to take shape.
Time for the Plotter to step in!
An historic novel that spans a few centuries takes a lot of planning, I discovered. Timelines plotting characters’ life stories were just the beginning. Next came timelines of historical events spanning two centuries and thousands of miles. My “plotter” side worked overtime, locating events and characters in the prairie landscape. The basic plot was re-written multiple times, but the original fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants images remained key.
2)Which comes first? Character or plot?
For my novel Prairie Grass, the characters came first. I was fascinated by the 19th century Cree Chief Maskepetoon, the Peacemaker, and by bits and pieces I’d come across or heard in conversation about a Metis family in the area of Saskatchewan where I grew up. I thought about how the qualities of their personalities matched the strictures of the land. The prairie climate - physical, social and political - shaped them, just as it shaped my father and others like him. I began with the notion of these characters having this common bond, the land that was their home. The plot grew out of the history of that land.
3)What are you working on now? Current series or something totally new?
My current project is brand new – the story of a pioneer immigrant woman. Rikka is loosely based on a real person, my husband’s grandmother, who immigrated to Canada from Norway with her husband and small children in 1903. Her story is replete with tragedies as they struggled to adjust to conditions in a new country. So, in a way, Rikka is a continuation of the same theme, our connection to the land and how it moulds us.
4) Do you have some kind of object or place that figures in most of your books?
Because the prairie is innate to my life, it naturally plays a big part in everything I write. This was not intentional. It just grew out of my own experience. In every season I walk the prairie, listen to the birds, notice coyote and deer tracks in the snow. I love learning about the plants and animals, the history and folklore. What I once took for granted becomes unique and precious as I learn more about it.
Native prairie is one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Understanding how we humans can relate to it is key to its survival.
5) Do you writ every day or just when the spirit hits you?
Every day is my ideal. Sporadic writing is my reality.
6) Where can we find you?
https://books2read.com/Prairie-Grass
https://bookswelove.net/historical-literary-fiction-authors/soggie-joan/
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50375672
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