Writing process and creative path: An interview with author Melanie Schnell

Melanie Schnell is an award-winning author and Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Regina. She has written for television, and has published poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. The Chorus Beneath Our Feet is her second novel. In this interview Melanie discusses her writing process, her editing, and how she balances plotting and pantsing.

How reading and teaching shape a writer's craft

OCW: Has your writing evolved over the years? If so, how? Through writing experience? Reading a lot? Writing courses or communities? A combination, or something else?

MS: I like to think my writing has become more thoughtful and more specific in regards to meaning and image at the level of the line. This has come from close reading, which includes lots of re-reading and slow reading, as well as more writing, (writing practice) but especially, I think, teaching writing. I think you become more aware of your own words on the page when you invest in and engage with others’ writing consistently.

OCW: Can you trace any common themes across your writing?

MS: It seems that my characters are often physically walking, and searching, for something seemingly impossible and elusive. Their journeys are always off the beaten path, so to speak, and exist on the dangerous peripheries. They tend to engage in these long, burdensome, physical journeys towards a goal that will in the end bring them a form of safety and connection and healing.

The Chorus Beneath Our Feet by Melanie Schnell

OCW: Which authors and/or types of books do you like to read?

Social media for authors: Navigating Instagram and online presence

MS: Do you use social media to engage readers, writers, or publishers and, if so, which platforms?

OCW: I am only on Instagram. I’m not good at social media. I don’t know how to market, I don’t know how it works, and I scroll too much. I’ve been known to take years-long breaks from it, which has been both freeing and lonely—since everyone else is on it! But it is my intention to get better at this social media thing with my second novel. 😊

Finding your writing process: Plotting vs. pantsing strategies

OCW: Are you a plotter or a pantser? (For writers or short stories and novels).

MS: I straddle both. I will “pants” a bunch of scenes or a character sketch and then I’ll edit and fiddle with it. Then I’ll draft a rough map, which will inevitably change about a hundred times. I do need the rough map as soon as possible, but I also think the flexible outline acts as an illusion of grounding within the terrifying chaos of the world of the novel I’ve just jumped into.

I actually try to pants as much as possible for as long as I can, so I don’t lose the magic and flow and intuition of the story. I learned this, actually, after writing this second novel.

The first novel was more pantsing and the second one was more plotting. I think a better balance between the two is what’s needed for this third novel, (which I’ve begun) so I can get as close as possible to the centre of what it wants to be.

OCW: Do you edit as you write, or write and edit later?

MS: Referring back to number six, I edit as I write. I can’t help it. Editing helps me dig deeper into the scene. I don’t see it as something that impedes the story or holds it back in my case. But it’s all a fine balance, and I’m still learning what works best for my process.