On Writing Endings First and more — Author Interview with Saturn Browne

Saturn Browne (she/they) is a writer from Connecticut. The inaugural Connecticut youth poet laureate, her work has been recognized by Hollins University, Smith College, Connecticut River Review, and more. Mercuri has attended the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop, the Ellipsis Summer Writing Workshop, and the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship. Her debut chapbook, BLOODPATHS, was published in April with Kith Books. Outside of writing, she has been an intern for the Gilder Lehrman Institute, a teacher, and antique store staff member. She loves A24 films, flowers, and the history of mountains. Find her work at saturnbrowne.carrd.co

Emily Pedroza: Thanks so much for meeting with me today! I've been really raving about your writing and so having you here is super cool.

Saturn Browne: I'm really excited to talk more with you!

EP: What originally drew you to writing?

SB: I started writing in middle school. I learned English when I was nine. But even before that, I've always been a huge reader. So in middle school, I would write a lot of stories, but nothing really too serious. And then in high school—I came to high school to do historical writing— I began doing a lot of research. I also wrote horoscopes for the school newspaper, but I actually got into creative writing just because I met another writer Dana online and she kind of encouraged me to do writing.

I ended up being able to go to the Kenyon Writer’s Workshop while not knowing how to write super technically still, but it ended up being one of the most enlightening experiences for me, so that was like, a really good experience, nd then I just went from there and I learned how to submit to journals and how to write properly. 

EP: I was really interested about the historian perspective that you had going into creative writing. 

SB: For me, I think writing isn't just my words. I think it's also the voices of other people. I acknowledge that my writing has a lot of influence from the writers I read. I think that's definitely a very historic perspective. In a lot of the pieces that I write, I've also done research beforehand for contexts and I kind of like know what specifically I want to write before I even like write the piece, which I found really helpful. 

EP: Yeah, that's so cool. And so I was also curious about your multilingual perspective and if you think writing in your mother tongue is different from English.

SB: I really like foreign languages. Writing always seems so much like speaking and reading Chinese. I still read Chinese right now. And I think that definitely, like, pours a lot into what I want my future work to be. I think that also like helped me to see the beauty of language. Some of the Chinese works I really admire will say a lot in just a few words, that's kind of something that I want to get to as well when writing.I also study Latin at school, l and I think it's definitely also like helped a lot with how I interpret how I approach poetry. I read a lot of Catullus, Metamorphoseses, Iliad, and The Aeneid. So I think the idea of storytelling and myths within writing also like influences my own work. And then lastly, I tried to learn Russian last summer. And through that I got to meet some really cool Russian writers.

EP: What does your writing process look like right now?

SB: For me, I always write the endings first, I don't know if it’s like a normal thing. But I write endings lines first, and then I write the first line and then I go in and fill in what's in the middle. 

A lot of times, I kind of have a certain idea of what I want to do. So for example, I had a tomato poem that came out today, and that was I kind of knew that I wanted to do something about tomatoes. And so I kind of went with it. I have a basis of where I want to be. I have an ending line. I have a starting line and I kind of just go in there and fill out what's in between.

EP: Do you think that your writing process has changed from the past and if so how?

SB: I think my writing process has definitely changed. I used to rely a lot on reading other people's stories before I write my own - I think you kind of want to imitate people who you consider really good. Since then, I've gotten more confident in how I write. And that's kind of helped me a lot. It's just like a more individualized process to me. I've been writing at a slower pace and let myself write when I want to.

EP: I was curious as to where your sources of inspiration come from and what is your process of finding them?

SB: A lot of my writing is about nature. I don't know if you noticed, but I have a whole book about rivers. I go to a boarding school and it's really nice because we're also pretty close to nature like my school specifically as at the mouth of two rivers. And even when I grew up I had a lot of nature in my life growing up in rural China, so nature has been something that I’ve been familar with. I try my best to incorporate these factors into my work. 

EP: How was your experience like writing your debut chapbook?

SB: I actually pulled the whole thing together in three weeks, which was kind of amazing. I did it originally for a school project. That's why I tried to step out of my comfort zone. I made the whole cover and layout and decided on the fonts, and I think it was a good process for me just for like learning how to pull pieces together and learning how to write for a collection — I definitely think it was also helpful that I had a support system with my writing peers, but also has a support system with my teachers who were able to guide me through the whole process.

EP: How was the publishing process for you?

SB: I submitted to Kith and a few other presses, but Kith ended up being the first person to respond and was really nice with the way that they handled my writing and my work. So it ended up fitting me and my vision really well. I actually got the acceptance four days after I submitted it, so that was a really nice surprise and it was just something that I felt really happy about that I could get it over with.

EP: And then, so how do you think like, your writing process is different when it comes to writing poems that, like are planned for a collection versus those that you think should be published individually?

SB: I think when I think of the idea of a collection, I think of whether or not I want a specific visual idea to be represented or an abstract concept. So two examples that I really like to bring up are Richard Siken’s two books. So there's war of foxes, which I think represents like the idea of art and like how art and life and wildlife is portrayed. Compare that to crush which is objectively more about. love and loss and grief and longing. I think both of those types would work. For me, I kind of focus more on the War of the Foxess aspect where I focus more on the imagery, and then expand it out from there into the different feelings I had around those images. But I think there's a lot of approaches to work like this. I also discovered that when you're writing a collection, you will end up with pieces that might not work as strong on their own, but will really complement another poem. So for example, I had poems that I wrote individually that wouldn't have thematically made sense by themselves if I published it in a journal. But because of the way that I placed them in my collection, they end up working out really nicely and I think that that was a good process for me; to learn how to differentiate an individual piece versus a piece better fit for a collection. I also think when you read through your collection again and again, you're going to pick up a lot of the small things. So you're going to know what fits and what doesn't. 

EP: I'm jumping all over the place now, but earlier, you mentioned how you always start with the ending and I was wondering what components are. What draws you to a specific ending? 

SB: I think a good ending is impactful. I think a good ending leaves the reader wanting to know more, or wanting to read more, but also is something that is really startling. Yeah, I mean some of the best pieces I’ve read have been the ones with endings and flow. That's also what I look for when I'm editing a piece for a journal. I look to see if the ending is good because sometimes, I’d be reading an amazing piece with a subpar ending, like a sour aftertaste, and that’s something I’ve strived to avoid since I began writing. And I think the idea of impact also comes through a lot in my writing where I'm focusing on what I want to leave the reader with. To clarify. I think the middle is so important. I just think a lot of the impact comes from the ending. So, therefore, that's something that I personally focus on.

EP: What advice would you give to beginning writers?

SB: Oh, I would say just write and be genuine. And make friends! So many of my closest friends I’ve met through writing, and I wouldn’t give them up for the world.