What’s your creative process like? What works best for you?
Inspiration often strikes late at night when the rest of the world has gone quiet. Fortunately, I’m a lifelong night owl and can usually set my working hours. I often start with a kernel of an idea, such as a title, an opening line, or a snippet of dialogue, that won’t let go. For fiction, essays, and poetry, I prefer to create my first drafts with pen and paper. I let the words come out any way they can in the moment, and I keep writing until I feel I’ve reached the end. Then, I set my journal aside and get on with the rest of my day (or night). I try not to think about what I’ve just written for at least 24 hours. The most extensive revisions occur when I’m transcribing a piece into the computer, with more minor changes as I refine the piece, which can take a few hours to a few months.
Who are you hoping to reach with your work? Do you have a target
audience? Who would you like to inspire?
My target audience has evolved over the years. The older I get, the more I see the need for stories that speak to older women. These days, most of my favorite writers and fictional characters are women. We have much to say to each other.
Give us some background on “Fifteen Minutes.”
I wrote “Fifteen Minutes” more than twenty years ago during an eight-week resident fellowship with the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico. The story was my attempt to mix my experiences supporting abused women with the ever-shifting weather in Taos. This was one of my earliest experiments with form: a dialogue-free story that takes place over 15 minutes but takes far less time to read.
Anything else?
More than anything else, I am a storyteller, whether I’m writing about interesting people and places or creating fiction from the deepest recesses of my imagination. Everyone has at least one story to tell, but not everyone has the confidence to be their own storyteller. I enjoy helping bring those stories to light. Sometimes I’m the writer, and sometimes I’m the editor, but I am always trying to deliver a strong message with a unique voice.
Betty Dobson is a prize-winning author of numerous short stories, personal essays, poems, articles, and one novella. She believes that there are no absolute black-and-white situations in this world. She’s always on the lookout for various shades of gray—and any other colors of the rainbow lingering around the horizon. Life has its quirks; whenever she can explore them, question them, and write about them, she will. Give her a mystery, and she’s like a pit bull in her search for resolution. Detours are to be explored; getting there (and writing about it) is half the fun.