Ask the Writer with Pamela Smith Hill

Pamela Smith Hill is the award-winning author of Ghost Horses, The Last Grail Keeper, and Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life. She lives in Portland, Oregon, although she grew up in the Missouri Ozarks 'on a steady diet of Bible stories and old TV westerns.' Last Fall, I was fortunate enough to have her come and speak with my class of creative writing students at the university.

If you're interested in Pamela's writing, you can find out about her latest projects, workshops, and more at http://www.pamelasmithhill.com/.

Q: Who is your favorite author and why?

A: I don't have a favorite author, but there are several that I reread periodically:  Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Barbara Pym, Charles Dickens, Laura Ingalls Wilder, T.H. White, and E.B. White. I find inspiration, artistry, and the pure joy of reading in their books.

Q: You mentioned you started your career in newspaper journalism. What do you see as the future of print news? How is the newspaper industry connected (if at all) to reading, fiction, and entertainment? 

A: Unfortunately, traditional newspaper journalism seems to be a dying profession.  Younger readers prefer to get their news online-- it's faster, more timely, and delivers fast-breaking stories better than television.  I'm not sure, however, that online news is as reliable or thorough.  And will it support the dying art of investigative reporting?  Ultimately, I worry that the American public will be satisfied with superficial reporting, that major stories will go under- or unreported, something we've already seen during the last eight years.   
 
As a writer, my background in print journalism strengthened my career as a writer of fiction and biography.  The skills and techniques I used to research newspaper assignments and conduct interviews prepared me for the exhaustive research needed for historical fiction and biography.  I also believe that interviewing strengthened my ability, years later, to write good dialogue.  So for me personally, my training as a newspaper staff writer related directly to my later career as a novelist and biographer.
 
 
Q: John Gardner once wrote that the question he was most asked was, "Do you write with a pen, a pencil... or what?" He said he thought this question delved into the mystical aspect of writing, and questions, at its deepest level, whether there is in fact any hope for the young writer. So I have to ask, do you write with a pen, a pencil... or what? Is there any hope, and, if there is, what is your best advice to students and aspiring authors?

A: I write in Word Perfect (I despise Microsoft Word) at my computer.  Other than to jot down notes to myself or random insights about a work-in-progress, I rarely write with a pen or pencil, perhaps because of my reporting background, where I wrote all my stories on an IBM Selectric typewriter.  Reporters didn't have time to write their stories in longhand.  That said, I always carry a pen and/or pencil and paper with me; I keep yet another set of writing supplies by my bed.  You never know when you'll need them.
 
And I think that, in itself, is hopeful.  Be prepared for the unexpected because the best ideas usually arrive unannounced.
 
My advice to student writers is to continue to write, to perfect your craft, and to read as if your life depended on it.  Because as a writer, it does.

Q: You recently published a biography titled Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life. What drew you to the author of the Little House on the Prairie books? Is there a specific reason you chose to tell Wilder's story? 

A: I was commissioned to write the Wilder biography.  Frankly, if I hadn't been asked, I probably wouldn't have had the courage to take on a subject like Wilder.  What could I possibly say that hadn't been said before?  But once I began to research Wilder's writing life, I discovered that I had plenty to say.
 
Wilder's career as a professional writer and then later as a successful novelist was far more complicated and extensive than most of her readers recognize.  She struggled to find her voice, her subject, her genre, and even her publisher.  This intrigued me-- along with the sheer beauty and simplicity of her prose.  Furthermore, the tension between the facts of her life and the fiction of her "Little House" books reveals Wilder to be a far more interesting and masterful novelist than the literary legend she's become.

Q: If you could tell an aspiring writer one thing, one piece of advice, what would it be and why? 

A: Have faith in your own work and your belief in yourself as a writer.  As novelist Eloise Jarvis McGraw once said, "Nobody but you really cares whether you write or not.  Never mind that, keep at it."