Fiona Vigo Marshall
ORP: Who do you consider to be your creative ancestors and contemporaries for your art and/or writing? How does your creative work converse with theirs?
Fiona Vigo Marshall: There are so many good writers out there! Why not let them do it, while I get on with the gardening or put my feet up with a coffee? Unfortunately I realised this when it was too late to change. Many others have made this journey. I feel I’m a just another fleeting pilgrim in a long line of much grander voyagers, going right back to Beowulf and taking in echoes of a very wide range of writers from Samuel Pepys and Jane Austen, to D.H. Lawrence and Dylan Thomas. I also think of all the people whose work disappeared or never saw the light of day.
ORP: Do you know more than one language? How does this influence your art and/or writing?
FVM: My first language was Catalan (my mother was from a small town near Barcelona) and although I have forgotten most of it now, I occasionally feel that my sentence structure or vocabulary choice is still influenced by this. I sometimes have to feel for the English word sequence carefully. I’m fairly fluent in French and have everyday Spanish. It all gives a good perspective on language rhythms and different ways of putting things.
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?
FVM: I always double-check titles and first lines to make sure that they have not been written before, and that I really am creating them, not remembering them. My only creative habit is writing on a daily basis, starting early and aiming for three hours.
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?
FVM: Go for it. Put your all in. One of my editors, a snappy, super-energetic Chicago girl on a daily newspaper in Mexico City, once returned a feature to me for another draft with the words, ‘What did it feel like to BE there, what did it REALLY FEEL LIKE to BE there?’ To another writer, I’d say this doesn’t mean a wild scramble at the keyboard – go for it in a steady, disciplined way. Do your 500 words a day.
