“I write because it helps me find my meaning in the world.” —Charlotte Gullick
Charlotte Gullick is a novelist, essayist, editor, educator. Her degrees include a MFA in Creative Nonfiction from American Indian Arts and a MA in English/Creative Writing from the University of California, Davis. Charlotte’s first novel, By Way of Water, was published by Blue Hen Books/Penguin Putnam, and her nonfiction has appeared in The Rumpus, Brevity, The Best of Brevity, Pembroke, Dogwood, Barnstorm Journal, Pithead Chapel, and the LA Review. Her other awards include a Christopher Isherwood Fellowship for Fiction, a Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship for Poetry, a MacDowell Colony Residency, a Ragdale Residency, the Evergreen State College 2012 Teacher Excellence Award as well as the Gold Star for Teaching and Mentorship from American Short Fiction (2020).
On Wednesday, November 6th, Charlotte is teaching a class for the WLT called “Theme as Guide: Following the Heart of Your Novel.” In this class, writers will have the opportunity to clarify and develop core elements of their book, so that they can proceed with joy, focus, and efficiency.
Here’s what Charlotte had to share with us:
Scribe: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you write? How did you come to writing?
Charlotte Gullick: I write because it helps me find my meaning in the world. I started writing because when I first went to college, I was so out of my element (I’m from a town of two hundred people), so I started returning to the stories I grew up with. I continue to write because I love how playing with words, images, and plot help me encounter the world on deeper levels.
Scribe: In your own work, how do you approach overcoming the challenges that come with writing, be it writer’s block or craft or business-related challenges?
CG: These days, there are three things I do to help stick with any element of the writing life:
1) Be grateful for the ways writing has enhanced my life, how it has created a path for meeting new people or insights.
2) Read other writers. I go back to the original reason I got started: I love stories and how they can pull me into other worlds and other perspectives.
3) Remember that “writing” is an umbrella term; there are so many tasks associated with writing and the writing life, and I can choose one of those tasks, depending on my mood or energy level, and it all counts as “writing.”
Scribe: Has there been a moment of epiphany in terms of your work, when you thought, “This is it! Now I know what I’m doing!” How long did that feeling last?
CG: That feeling has come every now and then, and it was the best 7 seconds of my life! It’s rare for me to have that kind of certainty; most of the time, it feels like I’m moving in a direction of maybe knowing, of maybe finding the right phrase or image – and I’ve learned to trust that movement. Lately, what I love is working on a piece intensely, then taking strategic time away, knowing it is not finished, and trusting that the end or the image will come to me if I give it the time. And it always does.
Scribe: What piece of advice do you find yourself giving to writers again and again?
CG: That there are three personas when we write: the child, the architect, and the judge. The child will take risks, color outside the lines, say the thing that an adult would not. The architect looks at structure and order, and the judge critically evaluates everything. It’s important to know which persona you need when; if all three are present, we can become paralyzed.
Scribe: What is one thing that people will take away from this class?
CG: Participants will take away a deeper understanding of how theme can help you stay both focused and motivated. It can be the touchstone of your writing practice.
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Thanks, Charlotte!
Click here to learn more about Charlotte’s upcoming class.
