“There may be some argument that CanCon helps young bands get started, but if anything, I think it breeds mediocrity.”Īdams had a point, says Brian Fauteux, a U of A professor of popular music and media studies. “Music is international - it belongs to everybody,” he said. “The Canadian government should just take a step out of the music business entirely,” Adams told the CBC at a press conference in 1992. It had been recorded in Britain and co-written by non-Canadian Mutt Lange. His international hit song, “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You,” didn’t adequately meet the definition of a Canadian song, at least according to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). I wanted to see if I could capture a similar unlikely bond in a contemporary setting.In the early 1990s, rock musician Bryan Adams became a lightning rod for what many people said was wrong with Canadian content rules. There’s a special intimacy between those two characters that transcends their class differences. Black’s young second wife, I reread several scenes between Desdemona and Emilia, Desdemona’s maid in Shakespeare’s Othello. When I was writing scenes between Molly, the protagonist of The Maid, and Giselle, Mr. There are times, too, when I’ll read specific scenes or moments from a particular work because I want to remind myself of a certain quality or tone. For instance, before writing The Maid, I reread Agatha Christie, and I searched out stories that focus on a character’s journey of growth. NP: What I read before I actually start writing depends on what I need for that new endeavor. This is my way of gauging if what the reader receives is what I meant to deliver.ĮC: Do you read certain books for inspiration prior to writing? If so, what are they? Do they change from manuscript to manuscript? Ergo, stop at the end of Chapter 7, and I’ll ask you three questions. I definitely use beta readers and I ask them aggravating questions, making them start and stop on my command. The glow of the screen the only light, the clicking keys the only sound. NP: Shift 1: Early morning, liminal time before night gives way to day. Why is this chapter falling flat? Is the main event at this moment the right choice? How can I raise the stakes for my characters in this crucial moment? Are the right characters in this scene? And finally, if I threw out this chapter or moment, what would I lose and what would I put in its place? And when I encounter what seems like an insurmountable story problem, I go back to pen and paper, and I fill my page with questions that I challenge myself to answer. In the very early stage of creation, I create notes long-form-bubble charts, free associations, lists of books of inspiration. ![]() NP: I write on a computer when I’m drafting chapters. I’m learning to trust that progress looks like different things at different times, and a big, fat word count is not necessarily proof of progress.ĮC: What are the tools of your trade? Like, do you write using a laptop, a pen, a typewriter? Sometimes progress is unlocking a flaw in the story arc, or realizing there has to be a tonal shift in a character … and there’s nothing on the page to prove the Eureka moment. Some days are all about thinking, and there’s nothing to enumerate the progress of sitting quietly for several hours in front of a notepad and writing nothing down. Use it or lose it.ĮC: When you are working, do you aim for a daily word count? They’ve invited me into their creative problem-solving, and that has been the best crash course in narrative craft that anyone could ask for. NP: I’ve learned everything I know about the craft of writers from the authors I’ve edited over two decades of working in the publishing industry. I love that no matter how successful one is (or isn’t), there’s always the next blank page.ĮC: How has your “day job” of an editor shaped your writing process? That endeavor alone requires so much attention that it blocks out a lot of thinking about any fanfare or lack thereof. NP: I try to stay focused on the story I’m trying to tell, on a fidelity to the page, the characters and world that I’m building. ![]() I didn’t really “decide” to make the switch to writing a novel the idea, which hit me like a lightning bolt, just felt too good to ignore.ĮC: Has the mega success of The Maid impacted your writing? If so, how have you combatted this? NP: Yes, The Maid was my first completed fiction manuscript.
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