Art and Things

Chris Killen is a 28 year-old writer. His first novel - The Bird Room - was published this month. We’ve read it - it’s very funny, very clever and also a little bit sad. We first met Chris at a festival in Holland where we spoke with him about leftfield Canadian Post-Rock. He was in London this week so we arranged to meet him for lunch in our local.

Art and Things: What inspires you to write and what do you like to write about?

Chris Killen: I seem to focus on socially-awkward people in my writing. In The Bird Room, all the characters are flawed, and at least two of them are almost completely unable to deal with ‘daily life’ head on — one (Will, the narrator) just panics, and the other lives inside her own head, making things up.

My next novel is about two only children who also cope with not being able to relate directly to people in different ways.

Oh, wow, ‘what inspires me’? I don’t know. I have ideas all the time. They just kind of pop up when I’m walking around, or answering emails, or in the shower. So just ‘being alive, walking around and things’ inspires me, I guess.

How did you get started with The Bird Room?

I enrolled on a Creative Writing MA at the University of Manchester. I’d already made some attempts at a novel but never finished anything. My plan was to sign myself up for something so I had to see it through and finish it. Otherwise I’d be a ‘failure’ — not just in my own head anymore, but also to my fellow students and the tutors and everyone. It worked, I guess. And by carrying on with something longer, I found that it was even more engaging and interesting than just the initial short ‘burst’ of pleasure in writing a short story or whatever.

I’d had some ideas for the novel before I started on the MA — a few different ‘plot strands’, things that I was interested in and wanted to explore — awkwardness, paranoia, irrationality, jealousy, etc. — and it was a good opportunity to try and ‘weave’ them all together into one thing, instead of maybe just doing a bunch of seperate shorter stories.

Did you study writing at University before Post-Grad level?

Yes. As well as the MA, I did one undergraduate module in creative writing at Nottingham Trent University, too. At that point, I think I was just writing Bukowski rip-offs, though.

How do you think writing courses develop writers? Are they the best way to find your style?

I’m not sure about the ‘finding your style’ part, but for me at least it was a really good experience to be around other writers and to talk about it and things. Because you’re all there to try and work hard and really focus on it, you will maybe push yourselves harder and improve through that. I think my writing improved by the end of the year, mostly due to the general ‘environment’ created — and the luxury of focussing on writing as the main thing in my life for a full year, of course.

But to actually ‘find your style’ the only advice I’d give would be to just write a lot.

Did you study literary theory while at Uni? Do you find that dissecting and theorising literature jars with the creative process of writing?

I did an English Literature degree, so yeah, there was some studying of theory. I was only ever a mediocre English student. I think it was good to look at it, to sort of ingest it, and then to forget about it. I didn’t really think about theoretical things when I was writing The Bird Room. I think the best kind of stuff comes up subconsciously, at least for me. I mean there were certain issues I wanted to address, and certain ’symbols’ I knew I was going to use, but I didn’t want it to be very heavy-handed or anything. It’s nice and surprising when you just write something and then see different levels or ’symbols’ or whatever in it afterwards.

When did you know for certain that you were going to be a novelist?

Well, I never ‘knew’ it was going to actually happen, that I would ever be published. It was very exciting and surprising and unexpected when I was offered the deal. It’s still strange to think that it’s actually happening. For a long time it felt like a massive practical joke; that someone was suddenly going to jump out of somewhere and go ‘HA HA’ and force me go back to work. But I guess I started taking writing seriously and really focusing on if from around 18 onwards.

Have you figured out a way to stay disciplined and steadily productive? Or do you feel that fluctuations in focus and inspiration just something that you just have to work through as a writer? (Do you watch TV for three days and then write solidly for one?)

Oh, yes, there are a lot of fluctuations. I’m still trying to work out a regular routine. Just writing, if i feel uninspired, doesn’t really work for me — I like to write and feel really excited about it, and sort of tell myself jokes, line-by-line, as I’m writing. I think that’s maybe one of the strengths of The Bird Room — that it has a sort of manic energy to it. I think I can tell if i read something that’s just been ‘forced out’, you know; ‘going through the motions’. At least I can spot it in my own writing, anyway. So my current trick is to try and stay excited and motivated, somehow. Ha. So yes, it fluctuates.

What do you think set you on the path to being a novelist?

Just reading things that really excited me and made me think. I liked the feeling that reading could (occasionally) create — the feeling I get from reading something like Richard Brautigan, or J.D. Salinger, or Knut Hamsun, or Richard Yates … I guess reading things like that always made me feel inspired and energetic and like I wanted to write too.

Do you have anything to say to young, aspiring novelists?

I think that while it is still a good idea to go through the ‘traditional routes’ — sending your ms out to agents, publishers, signing up for an MA, etc. — there are lots of alternatives, too. It feels like a really exciting time for new writing, not so much on the 3-for-2 tables in Waterstone’s, but on the internet — on blogs and websites — and in small press journals and anthologies. There are lots of ways to get your stuff out and read, for free, while waiting for those agents and publishers and competition judges and Granta editors to get back to you.

Who is your favourite upcoming writer that we might not have heard of?

I really like Tao Lin, an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and blogger. His blog is called ‘Reader of Depressing Books’ and it links to a lot of his writing online. He seems to being doing something very new and fun to read and original.

What are your immediate plans for the future?

The main thing right now is to try and beat the fluctuations and finish a readable draft of my next novel.

There’s also a lot of hectic (but fun) publicity stuff going on for the release of The Bird Room. And I start as Writing Fellow at the University of Manchester on Feb 2nd. Heady days. I’m sort of waiting for someone to come along and ‘pull the rug out’ from under me at any moment.

Interview: PB

Chris’ debut novel The Bird Room is out on Canongate now. We also recommend his infamous blog, Day of Moustaches.