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Interview with Caitlin Prozonic
February 9, 2015
Caitlin Prozonic is a writer. Her story Sushi and Turtle Brownies was published in the May/June 2014 issue of the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable. For more information about Caitlin, visit her website at CaitlinProzonic.com.
Tibbetts: How long have you been writing?
Prozonic: For as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I loved to use a software program called Storybook Weaver to create little picture books. The stories I wrote were terrible, but the program gave me the inspiration to play around with characters, settings, and layouts. It was the first time I really had the opportunity to mess around with writing.
When I was in late elementary school and throughout high school, I waited impatiently on snowy mornings for school to be cancelled, my eyes glued to the TV. Once the fateful news had been received, I would grow excited, my hands itching. I would slip back into my bedroom and gather a pencil and a notebook. My heart racing, I would write poems and continue stories I had started on previous snow days. I wrote furiously, scratching away at notebooks that still live in a box with me here in MA, stories waiting to be continued and revised, to be looked at again with older eyes and a wiser heart.
In undergraduate college, I finally had the opportunity to take creative writing classes, and my heart and mind opened in a way I had never experienced. Not only did I have the chance to write on a regular basis, but I was growing as a writer, receiving critiques from other learning writers and professionals. Graduate school was an even greater experience, when I took classes for an MFA in Writing for Children. I worked with amazing published writers, such as Jeannine Atkins, met amazing peers that I still work and communicate with, and I found the greatest and most encouraging community. There is nothing more inspirational than being surrounded by encouraging minds, spirits, and hearts. Writing is an art and a business, and finding the "write" people is important. I would not trade my experiences for anything, and I hope to have more amazing writing experiences as I mature as a writer.
Tibbetts: What inspires you to take on a new project? How would you characterize the relationship between your work and its audience?
Prozonic: My inspiration for writing varies. Sometimes, I will have a dream that sticks with me and feels like it needs to be expounded. Other times, an idea is based on an experience I had or a strange idea that just pops itself on me at some random place and time. Or maybe it's a historical event that pulls at me. I have a fascination with the Holocaust, and a few years ago I wrote a short story about a teenaged girl that is taken to a concentration camp and how she survives through the power of storytelling. The Holocaust is a terrible piece of world history, but I think that studying it and its survivors helps us to understand humanity and what it means to fight and be a fighter. I hope to one day extend this story into a full-length young adult novel, but I will not do that until I feel I can do history, the story, and my protagonist justice.
My philosophy for any piece of writing that I create is that I hope one day it will mean something to someone. If I make a positive difference in someone's life due to my writing or a story/character that I have created, then I will know that I did something right as a writer and a human being. I want to make a positive difference through my writing, and I only hope that one day I can do that.
Tibbetts: What are you currently working on?
Prozonic: Currently, I am in the revision process of a middle grade novel that I have written entitled Flying Sparks. It is about a boy whose best friend is a superhero. The boys work together as a dynamic duo, one with superpowers and one with quick-thinking and planning skills, but they run into trouble when they realize that a super villain is in town and is threatening to take over the world. The boys need to stop him before it's too late. It is a story about what it means to be "super," the power of family, and father-son relationships.
It is taking a long time to edit Flying Sparks as I keep having newer and better ideas to implement, but I hope that these edits will only serve to improve my story and my skills as a writer in general. Plus, who doesn't love a good superhero story? And they are especially fun to write.
Tibbetts: What are some of the things you've learned from your experiences with this medium?
Prozonic: Always try. It never hurts to give a medium, an idea, or a writing style an honest effort. It may not come out the way you want, but at least you gave it a shot. Right now, I'm writing a picture book called Tigers in Tutus. I've never written a picture book before, and the medium is certainly not my forte, but I'm having a blast writing it. I love to write humorous stories with silly characters, but it is not what I am known for. I usually write darker stories, but sometimes I love to let my silly go and put all those ridiculous ideas on the page. I wrote a fairy tale two years ago in my Writing I class in graduate school that was reminiscent of The Stinky Cheese Man, Jon Scieszka's classic, and it was one of my favorite pieces to write that semester. It probably was not the best thing I ever wrote, but it was too fun not to write.
I have also learned that your community is your best asset. Not only can the people in it help you to advance in your career both in position and in skill, but they are the people that will be your best support when the writing gets tough. Writer's block is inevitable, and it is great to have people to talk to. Sometimes talking out the issues can strike inspiration. And sometimes "the community" does not even include writers. I have had conversations with non-writers who have led me to great ideas and sparked me to write. For instance, my mother is excellent at coming up with story titles. I think she has suggested titles that I have used for at least half of my stories. All of the people I know are invaluable to me as a writer and as a person.
Writing is something that is integral to me as a person. I am always writing, even if I am not physically putting words to a page. I am always thinking about the world around me and imagining different scenarios. I have learned to be an observer and to think more critically about the world around me as I have grown as a writer. I like to think that writing has made me a better, more thoughtful person. And so I hope I never stop writing, never stop thinking, never stop learning, and never stop growing.
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