How do you find time to write your own creations
(poetry, prose)?
For me it's not really about "finding" time
to write. The craft of writing is so woven into the fabric of my life that it's
just something that happens every day. I've been lucky enough to be able to
merge my personal and professional interests. I'm always working on several
projects at once, also my own poetry is constantly bubbling up. So I usually
wake up quite early and devote the first few hours of the day to writing,
before anything else. If it's translations that day I'll do one poem. If it's
my own poetry I'll maybe write two pages in my notebook -- or have been doing
that lately as I'm working on a single long poem. Or if it's a script I'll work
through one scene, or maybe more depending on what kind of detail work I'm
doing. But I certainly believe that it's necessary to create the space for the
work to take place. Like David Byrne said, if you're not at the bus stop you
can't catch the bus. You've got to stay sharp, stay limber and stay open to the
language, and to the life.
Do you have a notebook or do you write your poems on a
laptop?
I don’t like writing on laptops. I carry a notebook
around, then I re-write on a typewriter, then finally on computer. Delaying the
computer keeps you closer to the language and establishes a physical
relationship between you and each letter or piece of punctuation.
What do you do when you have ‘writer’s block’?
Writer’s block just means you don’t feel like writing.
I don’t believe there’s a boundary between myself and a blank sheet of paper –
you just write.
The full interview with Stephan Delbos can be found in
MP#10.
