Writer Of The Week: Katherine Abbott

Our Writer Of The Week is debut author Katherine Abbott. Katherine’s short story, “Escape To The Country”, appears in Special 277, on sale this week.

The storytelling flowed naturally in “Escape To The Country”. Was it an easy story to write?

“Escape To The Country” was born out of conversations with family members about generations of time spent in Lincolnshire as children. It did flow, that’s true, a bit like a picture gradually unfolding before the eye. Interestingly, though, I think what readers might perceive as natural movement is actually more like a subtle negotiation between my initial vision and the story’s own emerging truth, which isn’t always as easy as it first seems.

The characters and landscape possess a certain stubborn reality, insisting on their own pathways rather than conforming entirely to my plan. Writing requires this surrender – allowing the picture to reveal itself in fragments that must be arranged and rearranged until they achieve their own inevitable logic.

Is writing a hobby for you, or do you see it as something more?

It’s a way of life for me. I have always kept diaries and notebooks, and I am currently doing a PhD in creative writing. Rather than fitting neatly into a definition, it feels more like a way of being present in the world, a heightened attention to the textures of everyday life. Even when I’m not physically writing, I’m inevitably collecting moments, phrases, images that might later find their place in my stories. The writing process feels very natural and organic to me. I just love to do it and I’ve never tired of it.

Your first “Friend” acceptance. How does it feel to have a story published in the magazine?

It’s always a great feeling to think that someone might enjoy the stories you write. It has to be an essential part of the writing’s essence. A story not read would be like a piece of music never heard, essentially lacking something, as though it’s not made its full journey. That said, publication creates a curious transition – what existed in private suddenly acquires a public life, entering the imaginations of strangers in ways I cannot witness or control.

There’s both joy and vulnerability in it. The characters who lived so intensely in my mind now belong partly to others. This completion of the circle that begins in solitude feels both daunting and necessary.

Are there any books, fiction or non-fiction, which have made a significant impact on you?

Yes, I love Margaret Atwood, Annie Dillard, Donna Tartt and the Brontës, amongst many others. I’m drawn to character-driven fiction, which illuminates human nature, becoming both a friend and a lightbulb. I love a writer’s attention to the extraordinary within ordinary life – the conversations, silences and subtle shifts of perception that reveal who we are. I look for writing that changes me a little, that makes visible what might otherwise pass unnoticed. The books that remain with me are those that create a space where recognition and revelation coexist.

Notebook and pencil or laptop? Kitchen table or study? Blank wall or inspiring view?

Annie Dillard recommended a wall, if I remember correctly. I don’t mind – there are advantages to both. I work primarily on a laptop now, though ideas often arrive and then I’m scratching about for a piece of paper, an envelope back or the voice recorder in my phone. Although I still write things by hand, most of my writing is done directly to the computer these days. I can type faster than I can write and find writing by hand slows down my thoughts.

I don’t find I’m easily distracted when writing and can write in most places, although I prefer solitude. There’s something about the physical space of writing that matters less than the mental space it creates – a temporary suspension of ordinary time where different rules apply, where attention can turn fully toward the world of the story.

What’s your one top tip for aspiring writers?

Trust the significance of what actually interests you, rather than what you think should interest you. Be honest in your observation and expression – pay attention to the world around you in all its strangeness and contradiction. Write to find out what happens, to get yourself on the edge of your seat. If you’re not engaged, your reader won’t be either.

The subjects that won’t leave and you find yourself thinking about while washing dishes or walking the dog – those are the ones that contain your truth as a writer. Notice the gaps between what people say and what they mean, between how things appear and how they feel. Let the story speak through you, so to speak.

Thanks, Katherine!

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