Jan Stinchcomb is the author of The Kelping (Unnerving), The Blood Trail (Red Bird Chapbooks) and Find the Girl (Main Street Rag). Her stories have recently appeared in Cape Cod Poetry Review, Wigleaf and Hobart. A Pushcart nominee, she is featured in Best Microfiction 2020 and The Best Small Fictions 2018. She lives in Southern California with her family.
Twitter @janstinchcomb
janstinchcomb.com
To get the ball rolling, tell me a little bit about how you started as a writer.
In middle school I started telling stories at slumber parties and writing stories for classes. I really do believe that’s where it begins for all of us, with the simple pleasure of sharing a story with a hungry audience. I’ve studied literature and languages all my life, and of course I’ve never stopped reading.
Do you have any writing routines, rituals, or must-haves that you can share with us?
I love to write in the early morning when everyone else is asleep. Coffee is great, of course, but I’ve learned not to be too precious about process. If I waited for the rest of the world to be quiet or slow down, I’d never get anything done.
You often incorporate fantasy into your work, which makes it very discernible and unique. How would you evaluate your own writing? Do you have any experiences that shaped your writing style?
I write speculative fiction, dark fairy tales, literary horror. I studied comparative literature, focusing on the nineteenth century. In Russian literature I found authors like Gogol and a rich folk and fairy-tale tradition. Movies were always important to me as well, and I began to understand narrative as a progression of scenes. Horror as a genre is crucial because it is multi-faceted and has a long history. Drawing from fairy tales and horror, we can create something new from ancient ideas and fears. People love returning to the stories they already know.
I am captivated by every one of your published pieces, personal favorites being “Good Fox” (Longleaf Review) and “Let’s Never Leave” (Hobart)! I’d like to hear which published piece of yours is the one you’re most proud of, and what motivated you to write that piece.
It’s impossible for me to choose a favorite piece. I have a fondness for all my animal characters and all my doomed couples.
You have also published several novellas and chapbooks, The Kelping (Unnerving), The Blood Trail (Red Bird Chapbooks) and Find the Girl (Main Street Rag). In what ways has your approach in writing these books/chapbooks been similar or different?
Certain ideas can’t be accommodated by short fiction. Sometimes a character has too much to say. Sometimes there are too many characters, each of them with a score to settle. I always knew The Kelping and Find the Girl would be novella length at least (and FTG is pretty long, right around 50K).
At some point you will begin to see your stories (or a particular group of them) forming a collection. What gets included and why? Do the stories form an arc? Most editors expect cohesion, and I personally like collections of linked stories. Recurring characters are great.
And you’ve taught at various colleges and universities? What was it like working with students, and what advice do you have for young and emerging writers?
I taught in graduate school and for a short while afterward, mostly foreign languages and a few literature classes. I never taught creative writing and I only ever had one creative writing class as an undergrad, so I’ve been on a slightly different path all along. I don’t have an MFA.
I’m not sure I would ever want to teach fiction. For me writing is a largely instinctual practice and I wouldn’t know how to teach that. This makes me different from many other writers out there. I like to be in class but I don’t feel the need to lead a class. Also, I hope teachers realize how powerful they are. A single comment from a teacher can change a young person’s life, for better or for worse. The best advice I can give to young writers and students is this: you’re in it for the long haul. It will take you years and years to establish yourself and you’ll never be finished. This is good news. It means that a single bad day (or week, or year) is not enough to destroy you even if you lose heart in the moment.
Last but not least, what are you working on at the moment?
Like everyone, I’m working on a novel and occasionally coming up for air to write more short stories.
Interviewed by Jessica Kim, edited by Lou Willmott.