Featured Writer: Aga Maksimowska
On creating space to write and writing advice.
Welcome to Women Writing! It’s my great pleasure to feature Aga Maksimowska in today’s issue of Women Writing.
About the author…
Aga Maksimowska is the author of Giant, the 2013 Toronto Book Award finalist coming-of-age novel about premature sexual development and the fall of Communism in Poland. Her stories and essays have been published in Brick, The New Quarterly, The Humber Literary Review, White Wall Review, The Lincoln Review, Room, The Globe and Mail, and elsewhere. Her second book, Becalming, will be out in April. She lives in Toronto.
On a writing routine …
When I have a project going, I definitely have a writing routine. It usually involves waking up at 4:30 or 5:00 AM, which is a lot easier now that I am of a certain age and that’s when my body wakes me up anyway. During school holidays, I will work at the Toronto Reference Library because at home the refrigerator and the television are my enemies. When I don’t have a project going, I keep notes on what I’m reading and thinking, cooking up the next thing. The most challenging thing is juggling a project, reading, and generating new ideas, which unfortunately happens often because apparently we all have adult ADHD.
On writing spaces …
I need silence to write, so the best place I’ve found is the library. The fifth floor of the Toronto Reference Library or one of the quiet rooms at Robarts at UofT is ideal. At home, I work at the dining room table or on the couch, with the laptop on my lap, but only very early in the morning or late at night when everyone is asleep. I read once that Emma Donoghue writes at a pool gallery while her children take swimming lessons; she brings her laptop everywhere. I admire that commitment to her craft so much. I haven’t quite developed that level of creative efficiency yet, but I’m getting there. I started working on an essay the other day while my family played a board game. We were all seated around the dining room table and I was able to lock in on my task.
On writing communities …
I do not belong to a writing group or an organization. I am very lucky to have a writing community that stems from an MFA cohort and journal publications, which is very supportive. There is always someone I can call when I need writing advice or a beta reader.
“I don’t really because I kind of hate advice, unless people want advice, and then I typically ask what advice they would give to themselves.”
On challenges …
Joyce Carol Oates observed that “the only thing that’s bad for writing is being interrupted.” I love my children very much. They teach me a lot. But they also interrupt me a lot. They are eleven and fourteen, and there is a fourteen-year gap between my two published novels (GIANT, 2012, and BECALMING, 2026). I do not wish to publish my third novel in 2040, so I have to learn to work through interruptions and to prioritize my writing.
On the best advice …
I don’t think it was writing advice, but I interpret all advice as writing advice. I work as a guidance counsellor in my day job, so I often come across quippy lines that are meant to motivate students, free them from their phone addiction and get them to study and thrive. One was “Follow your plan, not your mood,” which I have to say was bang on and couldn’t have come at a better time. And the other was, “Action before motivation.” They both have a bit of a ‘tough love’ vibe, but I guess that works for me. The two quotations remind me that if I wait for inspiration, I will write very little. If I dedicate myself to my plan (whatever outline I’ve made for myself, or notes I’ve sketched out), then I will generate material. And ultimately, that’s all it’s about: putting something down, having the courage to write badly, as Faulkner said, writing that first shitty draft, as Hemingway said.
On the worst advice …
The worst piece of advice was write every day. That advice strangled me when I was a new and then not-so-new mom with two kids and a full-time job. It adds so much needless pressure. Pressure and guilt and self-loathing. A whole yucky lasagne. No one needs that kinds of advice. Instead, I drew up a plan to maximize that pockets of time I did have. I relied on my notebooks and my organizational powers. Jamaica Kincaid, one of my favourite writers of all time (I taught A Small Place as an outrageously excellent piece of creative nonfiction for years) said, “I’m always writing--even when I’m thinking or talking, I’m writing,” and I was like, yeah! I do that! Thinking and planning and reading and jotting things down counts as your daily writing, if you’re married to that advice. And if you’re not, you still get to be a writer if you don’t put pen to paper every day.
On advice from personal experiences …
I don’t really because I kind of hate advice, unless people want advice, and then I typically ask what advice they would give to themselves. I have some terribly impractical advice, like do a social media cleanse. (I was off from 2020 to 2024 and that’s when I wrote my book. Coincidence? Maybe.) Make a plan. Know the ending of your book before you start writing it. Write it in your mind first. Don’t show it to anyone else unless you’re proud of it and really love it.
On rekindling creativity …
Nature sparks my imagination. I don’t know any writers who don’t love walking, running, or hiking. When we’re on the move, we get activated. The phone jumps out of our pocket and we jot down notes in our Notes app or record voice memos. Travelling and people watching, going to weird museums, reading articles and stories about bizarre things, and asking older people in the family about people and events from the past rekindles my creativity. Experiencing life is so essential to writing, that’s why I don’t know how I would do without a day job, as much as I often dream about being a full-time writer.
On a recent publication …
Becalming will be out on April 14 with Rare Machines.
Aga’s online spaces …
Instagram
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Happy writing!
