“I'm not sure running the press has changed how I write (though perhaps it has in ways I can't see), but it has certainly changed my relationship to how books get made.” WayWritingMadeI CanBookRunningChangedPressesNot Sure Author:Danielle Dutton
“So it was this multi-perspective, multi-character book, and it went through all of these different manifestations. I'm not sure there was a single moment where I thought to myself, Oh, I need to write about Margaret Cavendish. She just kept taking over the book I thought I was writing.” NeedsWritingBookDifferentMomentsCharacterPerspectiveManifestationNot SureSingle Mom Author:Danielle Dutton
“I would be researching seventeenth-century garden design or I would be doing something with Pepys, but I just kept using all of it to write about Margaret Cavendish. It took me a long time to realize that I just wanted to write a book about her. Years.” WritingYearsLongBookWould BeWantedRealizingCenturyDesignLong TimeGardenGarden Design Author:Danielle Dutton
“Finding the form was really a very dynamic process. I went through a lot of shifting, trying to get it right. Because the writing took place over such a long time, it's hard for me to pinpoint when specific things happened, but basically the final version only materialized in the last two or so years. It was there, but it took me a while to see it and then to refine it after I'd seen it.” WritingTryingYearsLongTwoHardLastsFormProcessHappenedFindingsLong TimeFinalsThings HappenVersionsShifting Author:Danielle Dutton
“Back then, when I had that original idea to write about the seventeenth century, the whole thing was set in 1666. I was thinking of Margaret near the end of her life, and that was the voice I heard for her.” ThinkingWritingIdeasEndsWholeVoiceHeardCenturyOriginalsOriginal Ideas Author:Danielle Dutton
“But when I realized it was actually going to be this portrait of the artist, birth to death, I had to then discover who Margaret as a young woman would be. I had to find the different voices for her throughout her life. I had a lot of fun discovering that. I had a lot of fun writing the childhood sections. By imagining her childhood, I was able to come up with this voice that matures as she gets older.” WritingDifferentWould BeAbleYoungArtistFunVoiceChildhoodBirthCome UpI RealizedDiscoveringYoung WomenPortraitsSectionsDifferent Voices Author:Danielle Dutton
“I had all these sparkles I'd collected and wanted to work in, but when I originally started writing it and it was originally this novel about all these people set in 1666, what I was so interested in was the New Science.” PeopleWritingWantedNovelSparkle Author:Danielle Dutton
“It's all just so fraught when you're writing and then going through the editorial process. It feels like this shape-shifting thing. When it's done, and you can't change a single word, it's a totally different thing. I was surprised by what that thing was.” FeelsWritingDifferentDoneProcessShapesDifferent ThingsShiftingCan't ChangeEditorialsSingle Word Author:Danielle Dutton
