Christopher Lee Chilton
ORP: What inspired you to begin writing or creating? Has that source of inspiration changed throughout your life?
Christopher Lee Chilton: The first stories I ever fell for were the ones in the big stacks of pulp science fiction magazines my dad kept from the 1960s and 70s. Like the covers of the magazines, the stories were lurid, brightly-colored, and full of strange creatures. Nearly anything could happen in those stories. I don't read science fiction so much these days, but when I'm writing, that's what I'm hoping for: a story where it feels like anything could happen.
ORP: Do you write or create with an audience in mind? If so, how do you consider the relationship between that audience and your work throughout your creative process?
CLC: It's hard enough, I think, to invent the people inside the story. I try not to spend time inventing the people who are going to read it, too. And the truth is that real readers always have more interesting and unpredictable reactions than the ones in your head.
ORP: What would you say is your most interesting writing and/or artistic quirk? Do you have any habits that you believe help or hinder your creativity?
CLC: Before having kids, my daily writing time seemed limitless. I could sit down and work on a story for hours before my job, hours after returning home, hours in the evening. This was great except with all that time I fell prey to overthinking my stories. When I became a father, the huge blurry potential of my free time snapped into focus. I now have about seventy-five minutes a day to practice my craft (4:45 to 6:00 AM). Paradoxically, this restriction has come with two benefits. 1). Because it’s so short and rigid, I rearrange things in my life so I’m always there. I never miss the writing window. 2). Once I’m done writing at around 6:00 AM, I basically ‘clock out.’ I make lunch for daycare, get ready for work, and prepare myself to field a hundred questions from my toddler (“Are we on that road or this road? Why a motorcycle?”). There’s no time to dwell on plot issues or self-doubt! To be fair, I would write more if I could, but I think my creative practice has benefitted from childrearing. (It’s also an ancient and miraculous undertaking, but we were just talking practically here.)
ORP: What books have you read many times?
CLC: Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower. Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding. Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier. N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn. The Kristin Lavrandsdatter books by Sigrid Undset.
ORP: What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing or creating? What advice would you give to another writer or artist?
CLC: I always loved Anne Lamott's advice in Bird by Bird--which I think she borrowed from someone else--that writing is like driving with your headlights at night. You can only see a few feet in front of you, but you can get all the way home like that.
