We caught up with James Rance ahead of the publication of his first poetry pamphlet, Bagworm.
What are you reading right now?
I'm currently reading Autumn by Ali Smith! It's absolutely amazing. I'm still not very far into it, but the voices and the way Smith plays with words are really doing things to my heart right now.
I'm trying to read at least one book a month this year. That isn't very ambitious, I know, but it'll motivate me to keep seeking out new, exciting stuff. Next month I'll be delving into S. by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst, so if I vanish without a trace for most of February it's because I'm battling with that insane-looking thing. It's going to take over my life, I can just feel it!
You write a lot about nature and our relationships with nature in Bagworm, what inspired you to go down this route?
There are a lot of reasons why I focus on nature so much in my writing. I'm not sure how much I'd like to be lumped in with the nature poet category, but the natural world is very obviously one of my biggest focal points in poetry.
The simplest answer is that I think nature is beautiful and if I can capture even a tiny bit of that beauty in my work I will be very happy indeed. I'm not the first writer to be captivated by images of wide, cold seas or a looming forest or a sunlit meadow of flowers, and I certainly won't be the last.
Much of my time growing up was spent in the garden, in fields or the woods a few minutes' walk from where I lived, so it's easy to see why these images have left such strong impressions in my imagination.
But still there is more to be said!
Most people who know me know that I'm a practising Pagan. This means, to me at least, that a connection with nature is a connection to the divine, the spiritual. Spending time in nature is to me what spending time in a house of worship might be for people of other faiths. Considering nature in my writing is a way of understanding it, of deepening the connection. I think in a world like ours, a relationship with nature is essential. We cannot forget that we are just as much a part of it as the trees, the animals, the unending flow of the river. If we become too separated from it, nature will have its way of taking us back.
What were your highs and lows putting Bagworm together?
I think one of the biggest highs was involved in creating 'Hillazon'. There's a reason why it's so convoluted and trippy. The images had to be just right, and it took a lot of work to convey the dream-state I envisioned for the poem. There was so much struggling involved to get the wording perfect. Seeing it come together and turn into one of my favourite things I've ever written was definitely one of the highlights of putting the collection together.
On the other side of the same coin is the process of writing 'Bagworm', the poem itself. That one just came to me out of nowhere and seemed to sort of splatter itself down onto the page of its own will. There really was this huge feeling of satisfaction and amazement when I finished it, like I couldn't believe I'd made something that I was so happy with.
I really can't say there were many lows with putting it together. I think the hardest parts were actually choosing the right poems to go in. I had to have some kind of coherent feeling to them, something that would bring them all together. It was a struggle deciding which I'd put in, but I'm beyond in love with how it worked out!
Another thing that I struggled with was coming up with titles for some of the poems. For me, titles are generally the last thing to come. I'm not a huge fan of naming things at the best of times, but 'Hillazon' really just didn't want a title for so long. Unfortunately, though, coming up with titles for things is an unavoidable part of being a writer, so I'll just have to deal with the indecisiveness for now.
What's the best writing advice you have ever received?
Controversial, maybe, but most of the best writing advice I've had hasn't come from studying at University. It's come from friends and family. Here are a few that have really stuck with me:
First of all, you have to push yourself a little. Sometimes, the times when you don't feel like creating anything are going to be the times when your best work comes sliding out of your fingers and onto the page. Or the screen, or the stone tablet or whatever you feel like writing on, really. Push yourself to make time for writing. Push yourself beyond what you might think your limits are. This is definitely a piece of advice I'm still working on living by - procrastination is the thief of time and all that "Live, Laugh, Love" sign wisdom.
Second, no matter what else you have going on in your life, don't give up on writing. You may have to take jobs you hate or struggle for a while to make a living, but if writing is what you're passionate about and what you really, really want to do, you can't let yourself be discouraged or let it slip by the wayside.
Finally, write what you love. Write beautiful things that make you feel amazing, even if nobody else enjoys them or even sees them. Write weird, weird things. Experiment. Experiment with any aspect of writing and see what happens, no matter what anybody has to say about it. Write things just because you think they're fun to write or because they make you happy, why not? Writing isn't only about fun, of course, but there's no reason that shouldn't be a part of it.
Don't let anybody take the passion out of writing. If you aren't writing what you love, it'll just turn into a chore. Pursue what interests you relentlessly and it will be so much easier to make room for writing in your life.
Okay, deep one coming up: Why do you write?
This really is a deep one, wow.
I think it varies a lot, actually. I write prose and poetry for completely different reasons, and I'm aiming to get completely different results from both of them.
The main thing that connects the two is a feeling of catharsis. For me, there are certain things that can only be said through writing, certain feelings that can only be removed from the body and understood by writing them out. That's another thing, too: writing things out can be the best way to properly examine them, to take a step back from your thoughts and feelings and really get to grips with why you feel that way. And if it's a negative feeling or a harmful thought-pattern, maybe putting it into your writing might help you realise what you have to do to grow from it.
I tend to spend a lot of time (ie, 80-90% of it) daydreaming and losing myself in really intricate storylines with about 48 different characters and far too many little plot scenarios to keep track of, so writing, especially prose, is the best way to get these stories out. My work-in-progress novel is drawn mostly from daydreams. I'm a very obsessive person once an idea grabs me properly, so I can't sit still until I've written down as much as I physically can.
My poetry, on the other hand, often takes inspiration from regular ol' night dreams. I use poetry as a way to examine my feelings, my mindset, to analyse those dreams or to delve into spirituality, to express the parts of myself I can't show in conversation or through other means. With poetry, I want the reader to really feel something, to be sad or afraid or angry or unnerved, to feel as though they have been taken to another place or placed into another mind if only for a second. With the exception of collage poetry, I don't generally write political poems or poems with deep moral messages, and I'm certainly not interested in writing epic poems that tell vast, dramatic stories. I want to show the reader a brief image, to really put them there, to make them experience strange sensation and vivid emotion. To me, that is what poetry is all about.
Finally, and arguably most importantly, I write because I enjoy it. I love my characters and settings with every little fibre of my being, and nothing makes me happier than to tell their stories, even if the process of sitting down and working on long prose can be a struggle sometimes. I put every part of my soul into my poetry, and I think any poet will understand the raw passion involved in the process. I really do think that any piece of writing must be driven by your wild excitement about, and love for, the work you're doing. Whatever you write should fill your heart with light and wonder. If you don't love what you're writing, what's the point in writing it?
Bagworm can be pre-ordered here: www.greenteethpress.com/shop/bagworm
