#377 Inside the Emotion of Fiction THE SHAPE OF WHAT REMAINS by Lisa C. Taylor, published on February 18, 2025, by Liminal Press, an imprint of Between the Lines Publishing in Minnesota
Click to purchase THE SHAPE OF WHAT REMAINS from Between the Lines
What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of fiction?
I began writing my novel, The Shape of What Remains in 2014. At the time, I was also a professor teaching creative writing and I also wrote and published poetry and short stories (short story collections published in 2015, 2018 and poetry collection published in 2022). This novel was born from a short story in my first collection, Growing a New Tail, published by Arlen House and distributed by Syracuse University Press in 2015. The story was called “Monuments” and I always knew it was a much longer story. I finished the novel in May of 2023 and began querying agents and publishers.
Click on the link to purchase GROWING A NEW TAIL from Amazon
Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail.
I write primarily from my home office. It is a dedicated space filled with lots of papers related to what I’m working on which includes work for the writer’s conference I co-direct and work for our local creative district. I’m active in a lot of outside literary events. I have a bear claw given to me by a co-worker in my previous career in counseling. He gave it to me for fierceness in my writing and I lost it on my cross-country move. I wrote a nonfiction piece called “Bear Claw” that appeared in an online journal and I sent it via email to this former co-worker. He sent me another bear claw!
That may be the weirdest story about my home office.
Click the below link to read “Bear Claw” by Lisa C. Taylor
The sailboat abstract was done by my father, a visual artist. He died in 2005.
What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day?
I write either at home or sometimes in a local coffeeshop. I need absolute quiet when I write unless I’m in a public place. That noise does not impact me. I always write on a laptop unless I’m on a hike or in a remote place. In those situations, I carry a small notebook (BELOW RIGHT.) I am a morning writer. I’m not much good in the evening. I wake up around 5 am every day.
BELOW LEFT: Lisa’s favorite coffee shop is located on 191 West Railroad Avenue in Mancos, Colorado. “It is connected to the Mesa Verde Motel and the coffeeshop becomes the M Bar later in the day (though you can still get coffee, chai, macha, etc. I often write there. They have a beautiful enclosed porch with a woodstove.”).
Please include just one excerpt and include page numbers as reference. This one excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer.
“My father said he’s learned to live in moments; a bowl of chocolate ice cream, the sunset. Paul took him to the beach last week, against the advice of his doctor though hospice was all for it. Screw that doc, he told me over Zoom. They got a portable wheelchair and wheeled him to the edge of the parking lot, then Paul and Jaxon lifted him onto a blanket. Damn cold, Terri, but not the kind of cold you have. My Paula brought so many blankets; they could have buried me in them. Paul brought me a Naughty Hildegarde, got to love a beer with naughty in its name. I had a few sips and they finished it off. That big boy of a sun looked like it would plop right into the water and I thought, that’s a reason to be here, isn’t it? You remember that, Terri. Don’t piss off time.
Click on the lick to purchase SHAPE OF WHAT REMAINS from Amazon
Were there any deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt.
There were some minor word changes. I do not mark up drafts. I edit totally on a computer. I save versions but even this becomes cumbersome so sometimes I overlay. Once I worked with my publisher’s editor, I just sent her the excerpts she wanted rewritten. I also had beta readers who made suggestions that were helpful to me in the final version. I think having early readers that are not writers is useful. They had different areas of expertise and that made my manuscript better. I also ran excerpts by my two writing groups (both online). One of my writing groups has been meeting for over twenty years and they know my writing and push me.
BELOW: Lisa, standing third from the left, at a writer’s retreat with her writer’s group at Enders Island.
Why is this excerpt so emotional for you as a writer to write? And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific excerpt?
To me, this is a culmination of what she’s learned. Life is fragile, finite, and messy. Although this is quite late in the novel, to me, it exemplifies how she’s changed. There are things we can control and things we cannot control. The way her father learns to live in moments is much like a toddler except to him, each day is precious because he knows he doesn’t much time left. In a sense, she is learning from a dying man and learning from a child as she begins to live again in a world where people you love may die, sometimes way too early and unexpectedly.
