“EPIPHANIES ARE THE RESULT OF PROCESS”: INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR DOUGLAS COWIE// PROCESS, POV & PLOTTING

Welcome to the artist’s toolkit. Today I’m chatting with author Douglas Cowie!

Douglas Cowie was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, USA, and since 1999 has lived either in England or in Germany. He currently lives in London. He the author of two novels, Owen Noone and the Marauder, and Noon in Paris, Eight In Chicago, and two linked novellas, Sing for Life: Tin Pan Alley and Sing for Life: Away, You Rolling River. He is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. He hosts a monthly podcast about contemporary American fiction called NovelRomAntics.

**This interview took place 19th April 2021** 
 

LINKS TO DOUGLAS’ BOOKS 

Noon in Paris, Eight in Chicago: Noon in Paris, Eight in Chicago | Myriad (myriadeditions.com) 

Owen Noone and the Marauder: Owen Noone and the Marauder: Amazon.co.uk: Cowie, Douglas: 9781841956930: Books

Sing for Life: Tin Pan Alley: Sing for Life: Tin Pan Alley (Contemporary American Novellas): Cowie, Douglas: 9780615884189: Amazon.com: Books 

Sing for Life: Away You Rolling River: Sing for Life: Away, You Rolling River (Contemporary American Novellas): Amazon.co.uk: Cowie, Douglas: 9780615931999: Books 

DOUG’S PODCAST ON CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN FICTION 

Novel RomAntics podcast: The Trans-Atlanticist - Podcast (podigee.io)

MY FAVOURITE QUOTES IN THIS EPISODE

“Epiphanies are just the result of process.” 

You’re reading it (the book) for x, y, z but w is coming along for the ride” 

“If the process itself isn’t the most important thing, then why bother?”

“The process is everything”

“There’s a notion worth fighting against I think, of if you don’t do these things you’re not a writer, or if you do do these things you are a writer.”  

(on plotting) “Everything else is so frightening that not knowing what I want to achieve from a basic plot point of view would be a mess for me.”

“The world isn’t holding its breath waiting for your novel. And that’s kind of depressing but at the same time it frees you up to do what you want.” 

“POV is the most important decision a fiction writer ever makes about their work of fiction”

“You can always say it a different way” 

“To me that’s what matters so much about literary language is that it does things, and a literary writer writes something that no one else could do…” 

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