Chelsea Cain
Chelsea Cain
Chelsea Snow Cainis an American novelist and columnist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth5 February 1972
CountryUnited States of America
change fact fill narrative relationship struck travel
I used to write travel essays, and I was struck by how the fact of writing about a place would change my relationship with it. I would make completely different choices, do things I wouldn't have normally, because I had to fill this narrative shape.
people
People read stuff over your shoulder when you're in public, and when you write the kind of stuff I do, and people read it over your shoulder, it makes you a little self-conscious.
climbing life love mountain people physical space
People come to Portland, many of them for the quality of life. They love the physical space here. And yet every year, people climbing the mountain get killed by avalanches.
bad becoming fallout fine following happened interested less people
I've always been more interested in what happens after the bad thing has happened - the fallout of the bad thing, when people are already damaged. I'm less interested in seeing people when they're fine and following their journey to becoming damaged.
adding layer objects
I think of it as the lasagna approach to writing because I'm always adding layers. I'll sometimes do it layer by layer, with dialogue, attribution, action, objects in the scene, setting... It can be sometimes that delineated.
north people portland town washed
I'd lived in Portland on and off for a decade before I'd even heard of Vanport. It was this town of 20,000 people that washed away from north Portland.
assume grad iowa people program school workshop
When I say that I went to grad school in Iowa City, people often assume that I went to the famed writers' workshop MFA program at the University of Iowa. I didn't. I got a master's in journalism.
characters sort writers
Don't let your characters tell you what to do. They can be pushy. Some writers say that they create characters and then just sort of follow them around through the narrative. I think that these writers are out of their minds.
You won't make a living writing until you learn to write when you don't want to.
There's not a lot of arc in an actual psychopath.
people
Often we don't even know what we think ourselves about people in our lives.
violent
Of the paperbacks that you see at the airport, I am the most violent woman writer.
covered unless
No matter what fabulous place I visit, I don't feel like I'm on vacation unless I'm dehydrated and covered with sunscreen.
piece truth
Memory is a fiction we tell ourselves: just a piece of the truth.