Carolyn Porter
Carolyn Porter is a graphic designer, type designer, and author of 'Marcel’s Letters: A Font and the Search for One Man’s Fate’ (Skyhorse, 2017). Carolyn lives in White Bear Lake, Minnesota with her husband and a gigantic black lab.
Twitter: @porterfolio
Instagram: @portermn
Are there particular films that have influenced your writing?
Not so much one or two particular films as film’s ability to magically transport the viewer to a different world. Sometimes as I write I envision a scene on a big screen and think about what might be happening in the background, what people are wearing, how a character reacts to a situation. This makes sense to me; an author’s role is similar to a director, right?
Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?
When I’m writing something happy, I listen to happy music—tango, for example. When I’m writing something sad, I want to listen to the saddest music ever written. As I wrote Marcel’s Letters I listened to Icelandic artist Ólafur Arnalds’ ethereal piano music on repeat.
The soundtrack he wrote to the movie Another Happy Day was my go-to sad music. Don’t let the name fool you, the songs “Alice Enters,” “The Wait” and “Poland” can bring me to tears. “Poland” is particularly mournful. I saw Arnalds in concert a few years back and if I remember correctly, “Poland” was written while Arnalds was on a grueling tour across Europe. After a particularly long ride on the tour bus that brought Arnalds to—where else?—Poland, he had a hangover and was in want of a hamburger. Every bit of longing one might feel for a person you can feel in Arnalds’ desire for a hamburger. (If you’re curious you can listen here: youtube.com/watch?v=L4bOsSB1Uz4)
What’s the oddest thing a reader has ever asked you?
Someone asked how I chose the pen name “Carolyn Porter.” I was a bit dumbfounded—that’s my name!
What’s the difference (at least for you!) between being a writer and an author? How do you shift gears between the two?
For me, being a writer is the solitary act of BICHOK: butt in chair, hands on keyboard. It’s the deep, quiet thinking. The researching. The rewriting. It’s moving things around until every paragraph is in the right place. This role best reflects the natural, introverted side of me.
Being an author is taking on a public persona. It’s the person readers interact with at library readings, at book signings, or when visiting with book clubs. It’s the person on stage wearing nice clothes and lipstick. It’s still me, but I approach this less-comfortable, more-public role as more of a temporary performance. It can be exhilarating—and exhausting.
I can shift gears and take on either role, but it’s impossible do both at once. And after intense public events I know I need time to recharge.
What do you worry about?
Criticism. I heard a sports quote that is applicable to writing: Criticism is the price you pay for getting off the sidelines and taking your place on the field. Receiving constructive criticism from someone you trust is one thing, but as an author you are making your work public for everyone to criticize. And they will. Sometimes that criticism is caustic, unfair, or outright off base. Criticism is nothing but a cruel sport for some.
It helps to have a strategy in place to deal with criticism. Personally, I don’t read reviews; they suck up too much emotional energy. I would rather spend that energy in a more constructive way.
Fear of criticism holds people back from putting their work out in the world. But criticism comes with the territory. I try to encourage writers to stand tall and take their place on the field.
