Sometimes I feel like I'm writing in a foreign language, or that the words at my disposal weren’t created to do what I'm trying to do. Everything feels like a compromise and I'm continually struggling to write even a few hundred words.
I feel like I'm not living up to my own expectations of what I should be capable of accomplishing when I write. I'm relatively smart; I've done whatever research required to write the article, but everything I write sounds trite or superficial, most definitely not what I want it to sound like.
I guess what I'm talking about is 'voice', the way a particular writer's work sounds like when it's read off the page or silently in one's head. Some days no matter how hard I try I just can’t recreate how I think I should sound on paper. I read back what I've written and it sounds all right in most of the important ways, but it doesn't sound like I wrote it.
The hardest thing for me to do on a continuous basis is to bridge the gap between conversation and writing. How can I make it sound like I'm talking to the person who is reading my articles and not "telling" them something? If it doesn't sound like I wrote it to my ear, how believable is it going to sound to the person reading it?
Maybe that's demanding too much of myself, but that's what I strive for whenever I sit down to write something – fiction or non-fiction, it makes no difference. I want the person reading to feel like they are involved in the article as much as I was in writing it.
That's still my biggest struggle everyday when it comes to the creative side of writing.
Q&A: The Fun Stuff
What book/CD/DVD do you have more than one copy of, in case something happens to the original one?
None at all, but if I could I'd probably back up every book I owned and store them somewhere else. I once lost my whole library of books and records when a roof caved in – including some rare first editions that I had cherished of e.e. cummings poetry. Very depressing.
If you had to pick one sense to do without, which of your five senses would it be?
Smell. I hate perfumes, which people seem to bathe in; the smell of dryer sheets, and all those other things people use to cover up the fact they don't wash.
What do you wish they'd do a series about on TV?
Something to do with most people's reality, going to work, and trying to survive without it being a soap opera or without any shtick.
Article comments
1 - Connie Phillips
Congratulations Richard! Thank you for sharing with us via the interview. Nice write-up as usual, Lisa.
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
Uh oh. Back to back Canucks. We really need to plan this better.
3 - SonnyD
Yea, Richard! Great write-up, great interview.
4 - Vikk Simmons
Congratulations. I really enjoyed reading about you, your writing, and your process Keep up the good work.
5 - Richard Marcus
Holleee
do I really sound like that pompus beady canuck...
Thank you very much Lisa and all you other editor types for the honour. Considering all the folk who write on this site and have quite amazing things to say all the time it's enough to make a fella's head swell.
That is until his next article is put on hold for being sensless gibberish. Oh well that gives me about a day or two to revel in this.
Thank you once again,
cheers
Richard Marcus
6 - Donnie Marler
Richard,
Congratulations! Well deserved!
7 - Pico
You write good stuff. Keep 'um coming, Richard.
-P
8 - Kathy Jones
The interview was wonderful reading and the collection of articles is inspiring. I especially appreciated your comment, Richard, that what you found most difficult is this:"getting the words on the page to be as exciting as they sound in my head." Really resonated with my experience, and your persistence has paid off, as evidenced in the quality of your work. Congrats!
9 - Al Barger
Why, some of my best friends are Canadians...
Look, all decent patriotic Americans naturally hate beady-eyed Canucks with their heads so full of lies. Brother Marcus, however, does not indulge in the head full of lies part. He will tend to make somewhat different value judgments than me in some political areas (ie he tends to be more "liberal"), but he's highly respectful of facts and strives to seek truth rather than simply win arguments.
So then, as Canadians go, Richard Marcus ain't half bad. He's one of the good ones.
10 - STM
"Look, all decent patriotic Americans naturally hate beady-eyed Canucks."
Never got over having your blurters kicked from here to kingdom and back in the War of 1812, eh?
Time to bloody well forget that, Al, old boy, and move on.
11 - Al Barger
STM, keep monkeying with US Americans, and we'll execute Terence and Philip again.
Canadians are already skating on thin ice as it is. If you read the fine print, the Patriot Act actually outlaws Canada. That whole country is just one Celine Dion album away from being the new Iraq.
12 - STM
Mate, I have often heard Canada described as "America's hat".
However, I have a copy of Mercator's correctional map of the world, which since north and south are nothing more than human inventions and no-one really knows what is top and what is bottom, has Australia and New Zealand at the top of the world.
The US of course is then below the equator, with Canada below that. Using this map, it is no longer America's hat, but America's undies.
I'm sure they prefer being the hat.
13 - Elvira Black
Lisa and Richard:
What an incredible piece. Lisa, you somehow encompassed the essence of Richard in your brief intro, including the formidable depth and scope of his work. And Richard, I felt like you were inside my head (or vice versa) as I was reading the interview--and if I read you right, that's one of the essential elements of what every writer strives for. You've got it in spades. Congrats!
14 - Duck
How nice of Canada to allow Indigenous peoples use of their own land. How of them.
Seems racist to me when oil companies can go on Indigenous (Crown? Who wers the crown?) Land. Receive hugh tax breaks and I am sure lax environmental controls. Why can these companies sell or do whatever they want?
15 - STM
Ah, it's good to see that land owned by the Government in Canada is still called Crown Land (just like in Australia).
Much of it wasn't used by indenigenous people in the sense that we understand land ownership anyway. Therein lies the problem. A conundrum now being left to others to sort out, just like in the US, with varying degrees of success. Although mostly not.
16 - crushkill
I really like how he loves talking about himself!
17 - DukeDeMondo
Richard, congratulations Good Sir, and that interview was glorious also. It does the site no end of good to have folks like yourself on here. And what a lovely man, also.
18 - alessandro nicolo
Yeah, like the Inuit were going to extract the oil with their kakivak's. No offense. Congrats, Mr. Marcus. Montreal Canadiens - good man.