10 Questions for Marie Goyette
- By Franchesca Viaud
Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first piece I remember writing was a short story I wrote for school when I was about seven or eight. It was about a little girl (definitely me) who went on tropical vacation with her family (definitely my family) and, while on a boat ride, fell into the ocean and was rescued by a friendly dolphin (probably Flipper). The reason I remember writing this story was because my dad, also a lover of words and to whom I’d given the handwritten assignment to read, typed it up, inserted some ocean-themed clipart, and printed it on heavy, cream-colored paper. I remember his pride in my work, and then, seeing the care and time he invested to allow me to share my words with others, pride in my own work began to develop. It’s definitely a core memory.
What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
Definitely Julie Orringer’s story collection How to Breathe Underwater (though, after she murders her readers with her gut-wrenching opening story, “Pilgrims,” I don’t know how anyone can be expected to ever function again). JO’s stories were the first I’d read that explored the significant inner lives of children and adolescents and showed me the beauty and depth such stories can contain. For similar reasons, I’m a big fan of the stories of Susan Perabo, Danielle Lazarin, Dan Chaon, Kimberly King Parsons. Julie Buntin’s gorgeous novel Marlena has helped me better understand and shape my own coming-of- age novel in-progress.
What other professions have you worked in?
It’s always been words. Right out of college, I worked at a nonprofit organization, serving as an editor and writer in various capacities. While I received my MFA, I taught English comp and creative writing. When my TA-ship ended, I worked in reserves at the public library. After that, I served as an instructional editor for online courses at the University of Missouri. Then, after becoming a mom, I stuck to freelance editing and writing. Now that my kids are older and in school, I’m focusing on my creative writing and was recently named co–fiction editor of Literary Mama.
What inspired you to write this piece?
I began writing this piece on July 25, 2023, as part of a challenge to myself I’d made the month prior to write one story a month for a year. I spent most of July procrastinating, tinkering with June’s story. When I finally sat down to write this piece, I had a notion of an event to write towards, the idea of a relationship, and a setting. There’s something about adolescent poolside stories that intrigues me—the heat, the concession-stand sugar and grease wiped onto thighs, the exhibition of bodies in which one pretends not to feel shame. (On a related note, I strongly recommend Girls in Peril by Karen Lee Boren for the perfect first-person plural summertime coming-of-age story.) My desire to read and write these stories, to explore the lives and vulnerabilities of some of these kids, is always heightened in the warmest months. I also knew I wanted to explore an intimate, confusing relationship between two female friends. As I wrote the first draft over the next three or four days, the story evolved without a lot of conscious thought.
Is there a city or place, real or imagined, that influences your writing?
My small hometown in Missouri. Even though I live in Minnesota now and have a family of my own, my childhood home is the “home” in which I find myself in my dreams, and it’s where I often imagine my characters finding their way. My elementary school best friend’s kitchen is where I see many of my characters eating dinner with their families. I have to think it’s because this is where I experienced childhood and adolescence, including so many exciting and horrifying firsts, it’s where my mind goes when I create my adolescent characters (which are the majority of my characters). It’s where my own adolescent foolhardiness and longing live.
Is there any specific music that aids you through the writing or editing process?
Good female piano rock can get me in the right headspace, particularly Regina Spektor and Tori Amos. Original cast recordings of Broadway shows work well, too. I can’t listen while I’m writing or editing, though. I’m too inclined to sing along. But they help me get started.
Do you have any rituals or traditions that you do in order to write?
Yes, and it’s a really helpful, and probably obvious, one that I wish I’d discovered decades ago. It was only about a year ago that I started doing it. Whenever I decide to begin a piece, I take out my notebook and just write down everything I’m thinking about the piece: ideas about the plot, characters, setting, any particular scenes or relationships I want to explore. Character names. Bits of dialogue. Anything and everything I’m thinking related to the story, I just dump it all onto the paper. And that usually gets me to a good starting place, and serves as a good reference as I write. When I inevitably get stuck, I go back to it and write about what’s not working and how I might fix it. That, and keeping peanut M&Ms on hand for the rougher writing days (in my house we call them “magic writing beans”).
If you could work in another art form what would it be?
Photography. And I’ve tinkered with it some. My husband is a photographer. I love composing a picture that appears purposely framed and lit, and highlights the element that your naked eye is drawn to. Mastering the technicalities of a real camera has always been my downfall. No matter how many times my husband reminds me, I can’t quite grasp the significance of aperture on photo composition, let alone what f-stop means. So, for now, I scroll through Instagram filters and hope for the best.
What are you working on currently?
After two rounds of querying agents, I’m revising my first novel (again). I have to agree with the feedback I received from agents that said the novel is too difficult to categorize. It straddles the blurred line between YA and adult literary fiction in a way that is too difficult to reconcile. So I’m reframing it to place it more firmly in the adult literary category, which is where it belongs. It’s about all the things I love to read, write, and ponder: adolescent female friendships, sibling dynamics, mental health, family secrets. And, of course, summer heat and swimming pools.
What are you reading right now?
I’m reading The Polite Act of Drowning by Charleen Hurtubise, a Dublin-based author whose work I was thrilled to discover in a small bookshop in Athlone, Ireland, this summer. The novel is a summertime coming-of-age story (no surprise there). I’m also reading The Adults by Alison Espach, another coming-of-age novel—gorgeous, sad, often hilarious. Nonfiction-wise, I’ve been enjoying Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes by Anne Elizabeth Moore, and The Conscious Style Guide: A Flexible Approach to Language the Includes, Respects, and Empowers by Karen Yin.
