Nance Van Winckel
What digital devices do you have access to for writing?
Yeah, I work on 3 different computers. This big iMac here that I use and then I have a laptop Mac, and then I also have an iPad.
All answers to this questionWhat role does correspondence play in your revision practice?
Well, my husband reads everything and he's a really, really tough critic-really, really tough. It's very good, but… he's a smart reader and he also kind of know what I'm capable of, and if I don't measure up, he'll tell me. I [also] have a couple of fiction writer friends that I have shared work with.
All answers to this questionHow long have you been writing professionally?
I had been a pre-med major all through college but when I got to graduate school I was totally happy doing my writing thing and I never looked back. So I started my so-called practice there where I worked every day on my writing. That was 1975.
All answers to this questionWhat digital devices do you have access to for writing?
Yeah, I work on 3 different computers. This big iMac here that I use and then I have a laptop Mac, and then I also have an iPad.
All answers to this questionWhat physical tools do you use for composition?
I work in longhand, on yellow legal tablets, or just whatever. I have different notebooks that I have. That's what all these notebooks are here; these are my various writing projects in process. They each get their own little notebook.
All answers to this questionWhat genres do you work in?
Poetry, primarily, but also I write short stories.
All answers to this questionHow do you name your files?
My folder is called "Poems." ... Each poem is its own file until I really start to make the book as a book. ... I do use Dropbox but… Not really so much for backup, but to send things to people. I do have a back-up drive.
All answers to this questionHow did the advent of personal computing and the internet influence your writing practices?
I think it's mostly been gradual. I've grown more comfortable doing some revision work on the computer and especially with the fiction, and maybe because fiction still feels like a newer form to me. One shift that has felt a little bit more dramatic with composing is that I have found myself, when I'm working on short stories, actually doing some new composing work right here while I'm sitting.
All answers to this questionHow do you 'feel' about your digital files? Do they feel dear to you?
No, the notebook is dear-er
All answers to this questionWhat role, if any, do other people play in your writing?
Well, like I was telling you with that first book of poems, I've kept all the letters that he wrote to me about revision. I don't know, they just… They're very dear to me that somebody took that kind of time with me. And then I have a good friend who's a poet. I think I mentioned her to you...Jennifer Boyden. And she really loves the physical letters, and I've kept all her letters that she's written me over the years. And it just always seems like just the idea that somebody is writing this JUST to me, you know, this three page letter with her thoughts and ruminations about things and they're just so beautifully written; that she would take the time to do that, you know, it seems like a treasure thing.
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