When I did not understand the process of writing – or what a muse was, I remember thinking if I ever met one of my favourite authors, I would ask them where they got their ideas from. What inspired them and how the hell they wrote and created this tapestry only by using words and putting one word in front of the next.
I had thought then that ideas was this secret place, maybe a facility that only authors had access to and if I could find a key, I too could create a beautiful world filled with my words.
Once I understood where ideas came from and that surprisingly enough, I had quite a number of them, I couldn’t fathom what I would ask an author. Would I ask about their writing process? Or maybe I would ask about when or why they started to write – do they remember the first piece they wrote? But nothing I could come up with felt adequate. I was being given an opportunity to ask a question to my favourite author and all questions I thought of were mundane. I couldn’t waste my question on trivialities.
So, I gave up the idea of asking questions. I thought I would listen instead: to their stories, to how a character or plot troubled them, or how their own trauma informed their creative choices. Maybe they would show their vulnerabilities and make it okay for me to be brave and vulnerable too while I wrote.
There are few authors whose more than one book I have read. Chiefly among them would be Robin Hobb, Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. But if I had to choose a favourite, I would choose Robin Hobb because she’s the one who kick started my writing journey. A day with her would probably look like this:
She has a farm and is “intensely introverted” so once I arrive, we may take an hour to just become comfortable with one another. We will spend this hour taking a stroll around the farm.
Once I am over the awe of being in her company, I would spend at least fifteen minutes oversharing and telling her why I love her so much. If she doesn’t call security, she’ll be laughing at me indulgently, probably happy to meet a fan.
We will then sit on a bench and I will ask her how or where the story of Fitz and Fool began for her. Did she always know how Fitz’s story would end? Or was that an iterative process? I will think about recording her answers for posterity but in the end, I will choose to be present for this conversation in its entirety so I will just listen.
As we wait for lunch, I will ask her why she thought killing Fitz in every book was a good idea and how does one kill one character over and over and over and yet make it heartbreaking for the reader every time?
While we eat lunch, maybe she’ll tell me about living on a farm, the cats, dogs and grandchildren that she has. I will maybe ask her if any of that informs her writing choices.
My next question (which I think would be a question I would like to ask any author) will be: how or where does a story start for you. Is it an image, a sentence like a log-line, a character or a plot or maybe its just a vague idea which then needs to be distilled? How does this distillation process happen? When do you decide: okay I can begin writing.
We will go to her writing desk next and I would ask her to sign the only physical copy of her book that I have since the rest are all on Kindle.
And my last question, before I depart will be: will we get a story of Bee and Per. I should probably ask for a picture but I would be too shy and it would feel not enough after the day I had spent with her so maybe not?
After I return, I would need a day or maybe a week to recover from meeting her, and then I would dissolve into a pool of “oh my god I just spent a day with Robin Hobb” while my sister sat next to me, patting my head saying, sarcastically, “there, there.”
tales of Suchita 
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