FOCUS ON - June 2013
Stefano Scalich
A Q&A with editor Stefano Scalich, one of the contributors to What Matters Now? (What Can't You Hear?).
Daniela Cascella:
Tell me of those scans from your notebooks. Sometimes in the past you sent me the scans and not a word document.
Stefano Scalich:
It's just the way I work.
I storified the whole behind-the-scenes process.
You can walk through all the story drafts, step-by-step... and what do you get? Facts: nonfiction.
Or you can do the opposite: walk backwards... and guess what? Fabrication: fiction.
You pick the side you like: A, B... same record.
Back to the scans. They're there for a reason.
I read tons of authors' interviews and when it comes to the craft of writing I am amazed at how many still say they write everything longhand, pencil and paper, period.
'That's it,' I said to myself, 'that's the way it oughta be.'
It's a vinyl slash analog approach.
Pencil and paper then becomes scans and paper.
Scans and paper provide a monster buffer for afterthoughts.
Scans and paper can help you figure out instant layouts.
Scans and paper force you to be consistent at early stages.
DC:
Tell me of fieldwork as method.
SS:
I need to start with the real thing.
Post-production is just that: post.
I _must_ go out there and stretch out my little antennas provided (yes, this is vital) I know what I'm looking for.
Without that, I go round and round and waste aeons of time.
A lesson learned: my first field trips were fairly aimless.
Then, slowly but surely I started 'seeing things'.
Familiar faces, leitmotifs, and all that streetwise lingo.
An Easter egg: fieldwork unearthed a lot of tastes I didn't know I had.
I am my own specimen: no doubt about it.
DC:
Tell me of hereabouts: a place? A fiction? A book?
SS:
It's simply 45°29'55"N 9°13'48"E on Google, more or less.
No, it isn't hands-down special: just for me.
Yes, the Muse willing, it might be a book.
It takes a lot of work, though. Lots of behind-the-scenes.
DC:
Tell me of memories and Milan. Will you?
SS:
Yes and no.
There's a tune that goes 'You can't put your arms around a memory'.
Same here.
I mean, I could send you it looks like this, or this, or this... so what?
Spoils the fascination.
