Writer’s Block: Heather Ramsay

All Lit Up: Why do you write?

Heather Ramsay: I ask myself this, especially when the anxiety is building and I’ve decided I’m completely useless and can’t even write a unique sentence let alone a full-fledged story. I’m an imposter like the rest. And then I share the thing and find out that people love what I’ve written or they relate to it in some important way. That the journal wants to publish the poem I’ve sent out for the tenth time. And I’m hooked again.

What if I didn’t write? I wonder if I’d get more exercise? If I’d climb more mountains or do those weekly cold plunges? But I feel compelled. When I get into the zone, the energy flows through me, and so I sit in my room near a forest and write. That’s the way that it is.

All Lit Up: What was your most rewarding moment as a writer?

Heather Ramsay: I think the most rewarding time (so far) has been when I’ve written for my community. As a small town newspaper reporter in Smithers and then Haida Gwaii, I felt as if I had a role to play. I went to all the meetings, met the local newsmakers and then pulled the details out of the events and shaped facts into a narrative that would inform and entertain. As I mentioned above, the feedback was a reward in itself. One of my first newspaper stories, written during a year I lived in Whitehorse, actually generated a letter to the editor. I wrote about a clowning workshop that had been held in town and someone had been shocked by the antics I described. I reddened when the editor pointed the letter out, afraid I’d screwed up, but he was impressed! You inspired someone to put their own thoughts into words.

All Lit Up: What inspired the idea for A Room in the Forest?

Heather Ramsay: My husband worked in forestry before he retired. He also loves reading and at some point he wondered aloud why there were no novels written about foresters. I sort of rolled my eyes, and probably added something like “borrring.” Then we were chatting one night with a young woman colleague and she talked about her experiences in a logging camp and out in the bush. All of a sudden, the idea of Lily took hold. But what was the story? That took a lot longer to figure out. The mysterious man was so many people before he became Walker and if Lily was going to be the main character, she needed an arc. In some ways, she is me. An oblivious Albertan, unable to conceive of the size of the west coast trees. A young woman who never thought about whose land she was on. I’m not sure I wrote the book my husband was intending. But this is what came out.

All Lit Up: What do you hope readers take away from your book?

Heather Ramsay: I hope readers want to throw everything into the back of a car they bought for $300 at a police auction and drive off into the sunset. I hope that they learn to sit in the moss in a forest and let the tea-coloured river slide past. I am still the young woman who first encountered the poem, The Invitation, by someone named Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

I want that breathlessness for them, but I also want them to learn about Haida Gwaii too. There is a deep history to that place (to all places) and my book barely scratches the surface. Maybe that is what I want the most. For people to experience and learn about themselves and the places they live. Don’t be afraid to dive in.

All Lit Up: How do you approach developing your characters or world building?

Heather Ramsay: I picture my characters in a place and imagine how they respond to the nature or environment around them. Setting is essential to building character traits. How comfortable are they? What does it smell like? What do they see? These questions help bring characters alive in my mind and hopefully on the page.

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Heather Ramsay is seriously concerned about the state of the world and tries to remain calm in the Fraser Valley. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and has worked as a journalist and communications professional. She has published two books with the Haida Gwaii Museum: Gina ‘Waadluxan Tluu: The Everything Canoe and GyaaGang.ngaay: The Monumental Poles of Skidegate. Her creative writing has appeared in The Malahat Review, Room, The Antigonish Review, Numero Cinq, Maisonneuve, Canada’s History Magazine and more and her journalism has appeared in The Tyee, Canadian Geographic, Northword Magazine, The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail and more.