Q&A part 4: challenges and triumphs

Question: What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your writing career?

P. J. Moroney: Most of it’s a challenge. No one does it to get rich, though that’d be nice. You do it for love. You do it because you must. You do it because that’s who you are. It’s all a challenge, but most things worthwhile are.

But, yeah, that’s not the answer you want. Well, consider this. I’ve been writing since I was about 17. I figured it was something I wanted to do seriously from about my early twenties. I’ve been writing in all the years since and dreaming about it. I have a bagful of old notebooks with scratchings from when I was just a kid. There’s a hard drive full of stories and fragments and so on. All of that, and I’ve only just now finally got something published. You could say just persisting all that time is a challenge. I deserve a medal, and most writers do.

I guess the biggest challenge is mental. To keep going takes a fair bit of stubborn belief. You have to believe that you have something worth saying and something that people might want to hear or read. I don’t know what kept me going. Some of my early writing was awful, and if I knew it then I might not have gone on. Good thing I didn’t. But that’s the thing you have to deal with: doubt and discouragement.

I always felt the need to express myself by writing. It was like I had so much going on that I had to get it out somehow, and writing seemed natural to me. It was a way of interpreting and understanding things. What are stories but parables? Over time, you get better at it. You see and think with more clarity, and the words come more precisely. I always read a lot and loved it – loved the language as much as anything. I had things I needed to say, but I wanted to say them stylishly, too. So, you keep at it.

I’m half amazed that I published anything. It didn’t look good a while back, but I always said I would do it. Now it’s done. So, yeah, the biggest challenge is believing in yourself and staying the course.

Question: You have done it, and congratulations – but now you have, you must plan to publish more now.

P. J. Moroney: You betcha.

Question: Are stories only really parables?

P. J. Moroney: Maybe they’re a bit more than that, but not a lot in my book. Depends on the sort of writer you are, I guess. You hope your writing is entertaining and enjoyable to read, but you’re saying something, aren’t you, or showing it? And instead of saying it straight out, you couch it in the form of a story that people can sympathise with and understand without having to process it too much. It’s the old adage, show, not tell.

But that’s not true of every writer. It is for me.

Question: Can you share a particularly rewarding moment in your writing journey?

P. J. Moroney: My first interview? Maybe I do have something worth hearing.

But really, it’s probably being published, though it fades fast. It’s definitely a milestone and very satisfying, but once it’s done, it’s done. You’ve worked on it so hard for so long that it’s great when it pays off – that’s the point, isn’t it? – but then it’s finished and in the past, and you’re onto the next one. I find I live very much in the moment when I’m writing.

But I reckon I’ll be pretty pleased when they make a movie out of my book.

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