PEELING BACK THE LAYERS

SARA WOLTZ
Q: When did you begin writing? How have you seen yourself evolve since then as a creative?
A: I've been writing stories for as long as I can remember! I have half-filled journals dating back to kindergarten. I don't think I started taking it seriously until middle school, which is when I realized that short stories were an option rather than a full length novel. It's been interesting to revisit my old work, even from just last year, and see how much my prose has improved.

Q: What’s your drafting process like? How do you find longevity in your craft?
A: My drafting process ranges drastically based on the type of project I'm working on! My short stories tend to be written chronologically in one to two sittings, while the novel I am working on had a much more in-depth plotting and planning process with most of it being written out of order. I try to write everyday whether it be flash fiction or just adding on to a previous project.

Q: What are your biggest challenges in your writing process?
A: Not expecting a perfect first draft, and not trying to revise as I go.

Q: Describe your writing process.
A: I normally will find an idea or character that fascinates me, and then work through what I find interesting about it until I find a scene that I want to write. The details shape as I write, so the further that I go the closer I feel to the world and characters I've made.

Q: Where did you find the inspiration for your accepted piece? If you had multiple accepted, you can answer for all, or pick your favorite!
A: “Sweet Girl” was inspired off a few different things; sexual violence is a recurring theme in most of my work because the nuances of victimhood fascinates me. Kate Elizabeth Russell’s “My Dark Vanessa” has been looping in my brain since I read it my freshman year, and I had been doing a lot of thinking about power dynamics in collegiate settings rather than high school. “an easy guide to making friends” is a memoir piece, a memory from my sophomore year that I often go back to out of sheer embarrassment.  

Q: As a writer, what would you consider is your “comfort zone?” When do you find yourself breaking out of that?
A: I stick to very similar themes (family dynamics, friendship dynamics, sexual violence and power structures) in the majority of my work! You can see a lot of crossover even when looking at my short stories from years ago. Recently I've been trying to work with ideas that fascinate me, even when they're slightly harder to write about.

Q: Do you have any advice for new writers?
A: Try not to censor yourself as you write! It's not going to turn out perfect the first time and that's okay. If you want to improve your prose, try emulating writers that you admire!

CHARLOTTE ISENBERG
Q: When did you begin writing? How have you seen yourself evolve since then as a creative?
A: I began writing around third grade when I came up with my first poem. I read it in the talent portion of my first and only beauty pageant that year. My poem was called books, and it was about how much I like books. I like to think my form has evolved since then, but hopefully my content is still just as honest.

Q: What’s your drafting process like? How do you find longevity in your craft?
A: I don't really have a drafting process, and maybe that's something I should change.

Q: What are your biggest challenges in your writing process?
A: It's totally dependent on having a strong thought or feeling. I can't write on a deadline: that's why creative writing will never be my job. It just doesn't come out as well for me.

Q: Describe your writing process.
A: The moment I feel something very strongly or come up with an interesting idea, I sit down and write it immediately. I don't really look at it afterwards. Catamount was written that way, in the span of about five hours, between midnight and five in the morning on the fourth floor of Belk Library. I revise my poems some. To me, those are more like equations. They can always fit together more neatly. Stories, I think, are something more ancestral and relieving.

Q: Where did you find the inspiration for your accepted piece? If you had multiple accepted, you can answer for all, or pick your favorite!
A: All of my writing is more or less based on real things that have happened to me. I've found that imagining difficult experiences as fantastical, while weaving in folklore from Tsalagi and Appalachian culture, helps me make sense of the world for myself and, hopefully, others. I think of this as part of a long storytelling tradition that I continue from my ancestors.

Q: As a writer, what would you consider is your “comfort zone?” When do you find yourself breaking out of that?
A: In Stand-Up, I break from my usual genre to take on a sort of insincere tone as a commentary on the topic of trying to be funny about something that is really very hurtful. This was hard for me because I am ordinarily extremely sincere in my writing and not at all in my stage performance, so to try and work between those two things was strange. I still don't like writing in an insincere manner, but I'm always working to try new things.

Q: Do you have any advice for new writers?
A: Don't think too much about making your work palatable for an imaginary reader. Don't water yourself down. Be as honest as you can manage, and the people who matter will connect with the parts of yourself you offer to the world.

Q: Where else can The Peel's readers find your work?
A: My Instagram is @blueridgejewess, and I sometimes post on Substack, against my better judgement, to She Can't Say That.