Reading time: About 3 minutes
Kate Vrancken as the wonderful advice that if you’re not in the mood to write, writing will change your mood. Read this interview to learn more…
Kaat Vrancken is a Belgian writer of children’s books and nonfiction in Dutch. She taught creative writing for 15 years, and now she organizes and supervises several reading groups. And she writes.
I was excited to talk to Kaat about how she approaches writing:
Q. Roughly how much time do you spend writing every day?
I don’t write every day. But I make mind maps every day, do research or think about a project. If I’m in the middle of the writing process, I write 30 to 60 minutes a day.
Q. What’s a simple activity or habit that makes you a better writer?
Mind mapping and working for short periods of 30 to 60 minutes. Also, I think it’s smart to do any writing task in the morning.
Q. What interferes with your writing?
Life itself. Also, administration and answering e-mails.
Q. How do you persuade yourself to sit down to write on days when you really, really DON’T feel like doing it?
I plan the task for a maximum of 30 minutes and I do it first time in the morning.
Q. Is there a particular motto or saying that you’ve found helpful for writing?
If you’re not in the mood to write, writing will change your mood. 🙂
Q. Which stage of the writing process do you enjoy the most: researching, writing or editing/rewriting and why?
I love the editing process because everything is already written down. No stress of creating a new chapter.
Q. What’s the best book you’ve read (either fiction or non) in the last five years?
For English fiction: North Woods by Daniel Mason, Random House, 2022. For Dutch fiction: Het lied van de ooievaar en dromedaris by Anjet Daanje, Uitgeverij Passage, 2022.
For non-fiction: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders, Random House, 2021.
Q. What book are you reading right now?
For English fiction: Small things like these by Claire Keegan, Faber & Faber, 2021. For English Nonfiction: A Memoir of My Former Self. A Life in Writing by Hilary Mantel, Tertius Enterprises, 2023.
Q. What do you think is the biggest misperception that new writers have about the act of writing?
That the work is done after the first draft. A lot of my students were convinced that the first draft was the best result they could achieve. When I told them that their work just had started, they were very, very surprised and disappointed.
To learn more about Kaat Vrancken and her work, visit her on her website, here.
