"The Tiny One"

February 23, 2000

Writer Eliza Minot speaks with us today about her first novel, "The Tiny One." This book has just been released to great critical acclaim. Eliza was recently featured in Victoria Magazine and an excerpt from her book is available at Victoria Online's Book and Arts Roundtable.

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HomeArts: Good afternoon, and thanks for joining our one-hour chat with writer Eliza Minot, whose first novel, "The Tiny One," has just been released to great critical acclaim. Eliza was recently featured in Victoria Magazine and an excerpt from her book is available at Victoria Online's Book and Arts Roundtable. Welcome Eliza!

Eliza Minot: Thank you! (smiling) A pleasure to be here.

Rayanne: Did you KNOW you would be a success as a writer, or were you just willing to beat the odds?

Eliza Minot: Rayanne - I had no idea and I still don't know quite if I'm a success as a writer. But I was just willing to try to get it out there. I had had nice encouragement, though - in college I had won a few awards, which was a nice "heads up", but whether I really believed them, I'm not sure.

Bookworm: Is there an author you aspire to write like?

Eliza Minot: Bookworm - No. But I like the name bookworm. (smiling) There are authors just kind of bits and pieces that I'll read that really touch me and I'll think, "How did they do that?" and so that feeling that they evoke I guess I try to kind of replicate.

CrankyMommy: I know that you have family that writes too, did this help to inspire you to become a writer? What else inspired you?

Eliza Minot: CrankyMommy - I think the fact that my sister - and I have a brother as well who is a writer - did help in that it seemed like a feasible thing to do. Even though it seemed feasible, the fact that my sister was a published writer did not make it seem easy. I knew that she was very talented, and in a way, lucky. What inspires me? That is hard to answer. Everything about day-to-day life, in a way. Whether I'm actively writing or not, my mind just kind of tends to incorporate the world in that way. So I don't know that it's so much inspiration as compulsion, sort of.

MagicStardancer: Do you write down ideas on napkins, stray scraps of paper, etc., as they come to you?

Eliza Minot: MagicStardancer - I have been known to do that, but I can say I haven't in a long time. When I'm more sort of immersed, like when I was writing "Tiny One" there were times when I would think of things and sort of jot them somewhere. It's a good thing to do. You know how you always say to yourself, "Oh, I won't forget that!" like when you remember a dream in the morning but sure enough, you totally forget.

Jillybean: Do you believe that you have to write fiction daily to keep in touch with your plot?

Eliza Minot: Jillybean - I do and I don't. I think you get a lot done when you write daily, and I try to write daily, but if you're involved in something and you have to go back to work like I did when I was writing this book, you can still get work done even when you're "not writing" kind of. But I think that writing every day is a much more efficient - and faster - way to do it, even if it's just writing for half an hour.

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