Irish born writer Thomas McCarthy has had work published in Europe and America. His work spans short story collections and several novels. Currently Mr. McCarthy lives and writes from England. We recently chatted via email about his writing process, past books and his upcoming novel. Below is our conversation.
MA- To start off, I have to ask the questions I ask in all of my interviews, starting with: What made you want to write?
TM- From an early age, I was a voracious reader. I was usually top of my class in English and history, good at essays. When I was about 17-years-old, I became interested in the theatre and a member of an amateur drama group. I soon realized I wasn’t an actor but found I wanted to write plays. So for the first few years I attempted to write a play. They were all dreadful.
MA- When you decided to start writing, did it come naturally to you or did you have to study the craft before you produced anything of quality?
TM- It came naturally in that I have always had facility to write, however the craft came later, after many years of work. In the early 1990s, I co-founded and co-edited a literary magazine Passport. Selecting and editing stories for the seven issues of the magazine we produced, taught me a lot about writing, the need to be a good editor and critic of your own work
MA- How many things did you write before you published your first work?
TM- A lot of plays, one of which had one performance. I then stopped writing for a number of years because I had nothing to write. When I began again I had some stories published very quickly, something like six in the first couple of years, so it was an early success.
MA- What is your writing process like from start to finish?
TM- I begin with a note, an idea, often vague. The idea for A Fine Country came to me early one morning, about 6 a.m. as we waited for a ferry on a small Greek island. It was very still, quiet and then there was a slap of the sea against the dock of the fish house. I turned at the slight noise and I wondered what it was like to live somewhere like a small island as a fugitive.
Once I have the idea and I am pretty sure it is the basis for a story or a novel, I write a draft in longhand, fountain pen on squared paper.
MA- Are you a writer that plots and plans out their stories or do you let the kernel of an idea grow on its own?
TM- I wish I could plan and then write but I can’t. I have to let the plot develop in the writing. Over the drafts that follow, that may change. What I always do need before I can make a start is the names of the characters.
MA- How often do you write?
TM- I write every day when I am working on a story or novel. But I usually write something most days unless I am away.
MA- From first draft to final draft, how many drafts do you do on average and what percentage of the story do you think you change during the course?
TM- That is hard to say. Usually there are at least three, handwritten, then typed, printed and retyped. Thereafter I will alter and edit, add, delete, until I am satisfied (which I never am) that I can do no more. I agree with WH Auden who wrote that a poem is never finished merely abandoned.
MA- You were born, raised, educated and currently live in Europe, though a lot of your work is published in America. Do you feel you have a better audience for your work in America?
TM- My first stories were published in the UK, Ireland, and France. There were many more small magazines and anthologies, newspapers published short fiction, and so on. That is no longer the case here. The small magazines have closed. Newspapers do not publish stories. The anthologies of short stories seem to prefer well-known writers. Now the opportunities I find are in America.
MA- Along the same lines, do you feel America has more publishing opportunities?
TM- Yes, many more than in Europe. This to some extent is due to a single language and a huge readership. By comparison, in the UK and Ireland, there is a much smaller audience.
MA- Do you feel there is a solid difference between American and European writers, or do you think we are all the same at the core?
TM- I don’t think so. Most writers I know, and I have friends in a number of European countries, Australia and the US, have the same aspirations. They are driven by the need to tell a story and by a love of language.
Make sure you read the completion of this article here: Thomas McCarthy Interview Part Two
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