A read in which Annemarie Cancienne uses her ‘screwball writing voice’ to relate to our delusional expectations.
Could you tell us about your short story in one sentence, for the readers who haven’t read it (yet!)?
Nothing Compared to You is about a woman (Audrey) picking through the past and present to figure out why her best friend from childhood (Rose) has friendship-broken-up with her.
Have you always been interested in (comic) writing, or did you fall into it unexpectedly? Have you ever kept a teenage diary?
During my teen years, I was obsessed with old Hollywood movies. I loved the fast-talking, devastatingly clever women of screwball comedies. I imagined my prom, the crowning glory of the American high school experience, would be like a scene from black and white cinema: me, gorgeous in my bias cut silk dress, standing by the punchbowl and trading witty barbs with my dapper love interest. And while my prom was about as far from that dream as you could get (my dress was cheap polyester, I feigned narcolepsy so my date wouldn't kiss me, there was no punch), I realised I didn't need set pieces to channel the spirit of Myrna Loy or Katherine Hepburn. I could write the ideas instead. That comic, screwball writing voice of mine has been there ever since.
We'd all love to hear about where you get ideas for your wondrous wit? Do you have any tips you could impart to aspiring witty writers?
I had found out about the CWIP competition late in the day and had a minor panic in the shower trying to create something to submit on time. 'Write what you know', I thought as I lathered, echoing wisdom as ancient as 'to thine own self be true' and 'never eat yellow snow!
'But I don't have time for lots of research!' I cried back while rinsing. In my mind, 'know' meant
'things you have witnessed, done yourself, or can learn about in a book. It must have been an extra-long hair wash day because I was still in the shower when I realised that 'what you know' could also include emotional truths. And one of the most profound emotional truths I knew was the heartbreak of a close friendship ending. The story cascaded into place after that, with the comedy details - the hamster with a heart attack; the holiday caravan overlooking a nuclear power plant - getting filled in from things my writer's brain had stored over the years. I now approach all my writing from this perspective; by asking myself 'what do you know (emotionally) to be true? Once l've put my finger on that, the details can follow.
Speaking of which, where does your writing magic happen?
I mostly write from the armchair in my loft bedroom. On the plus side, the big windows enable plenty of gaze-thoughtfully-into-the-distance writerly moments. On the minus, it gets incredibly hot in the summer. It's real mind over matter stuff, trying to finesse sentences why rivulets of sweat charge down your back.
Helen says “Great tip about not eating yellow snow – wise as well as witty .……”
Annemarie's short story "Nothing Compared to You" appears in The Book of Witty Women available to purchase now.
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