interview with Tom Kane

My guest today is Tom Kane. Tom is Scottish and owns a small business setting up real-world video conferences with schools. He describes himself as somebody who used to write and is trying to get back to it.


JANE: What sort of things do you write?

TOM: I try to write stories about the real-world that capture how magical it all seems to me.


JANE: What made you start writing?

TOM: I used to make up stories for my brother and sister and I. I've also done a lot of lying in my time, particularly when I was a youngster, and it's very strange how sometimes a lie always seems to come face to face with the truth and something new is revealed.


JANE: What does writing mean to you?

TOM: Storytelling. And for me there are two parts to that... the narrator, and the listener. For as long as the story holds the two together, they are in a different space from just the world around us. From that space you can look back at this space, reflect, and imagine.


JANE: What situations/environments inspire you?

TOM: The ordinary as extraordinary. Always has.


JANE: What has been your highest moment writing-wise?

TOM: My highest moment, I guess the knowledge that I have it in me to tell a right-good story. I've had some success in the past with short-story publications, story broadcasts and poetry publications.


JANE: What has been your lowest moment writing-wise?

TOM: I wrote quite a bit 20 years ago, and then got caught up in work. I've recently tried to go back to writing, and I realised that I lost a lot. It's been very hard to look at some of my recent attempts at writing. The worst thing about that was that my ambition to tell a big story has grown.


JANE: What has been the most encouraging comment someone has made about your writing?

TOM: I think it was in school. An excellent English teacher took me aside and asked me to explain why the story I'd written had taken a particularly unexpected turn.


JANE: As a poet once said: the worst thing is to be admired through being misunderstood. What has been the least encouraging comment?

TOM: I had a couple of stories broadcast on Radio 4. I'd always seen them as part of a trilogy. They dealt with alcoholism and family life. The stories were well received and each repeated, but they didn't tell the complete truth. They told the beginning and the end of a situation. I wrote a story about the middle, a very difficult place, violence at home; but the story was as beautiful as the other two. The producer thought it a bit dark for radio... that had a big effect on me. I thought at the time I'd need to work outside mainstream media for my own goals.


JANE: Do you have a routine where your writing is concerned?

TOM: No. I'm very undisciplined. But I keep at it.


JANE: What are the pitfalls of writing?

TOM: I don't think there are any. Writing for me is a way of getting at the truth. Even my own psychological truth.


JANE: What are the good things about writing?

TOM: The creation of a compelling world and a compelling narrative. The journey.


JANE: What advice would you give someone wanting to become a writer?

TOM: Do whatever you can to write.


JANE: Which published/unpublished writers have inspired you most and why?

TOM: John Steinbeck – just about everything about him. The man, his work and his life. Anton Chekhov, particularly his awesome short stories. Both these were doctors and both had a particular issue with their society. But they paid quite a price. One to alcoholism, the other to an early death. There are other writers, for example Irvine Welsh for Trainspotting, but those are my two.


JANE: Re the saying, ‘people ask for criticism but they only want praise’, is this true for you?

TOM: I don't ask for criticism. I usually just ask for help when I think something needs to be improved. At that point, anything can be said back to me.


JANE: What are the drawbacks of asking someone to read your work?

TOM: None, I think. Unless you've wasted their time by not making the work your best effort to that point.


JANE: With the ever-advancing internet access, how do you see the publishing business developing in the future?

TOM: I don't know. I think there will always be books. If not, it will be because of respect for trees. Imagine how much paper is pulped every year...


JANE: How did/do you teach yourself to write?

TOM: By verbally telling stories, and then shaping that into acceptable vocabulary.


JANE: What aspect of the craft do you think is most difficult to learn?

TOM: Orchestration of themes.


JANE: What changes in how you write have you been aware of over the years?

TOM: I've become more ambitious and less tolerant of my own writing.


JANE: Have you ever suffered from writers’ block and if so, how did you get over it?

TOM: I didn't suffer block – I just stopped writing for quite a long time.


JANE: Have you needed to make any sacrifices to allow you to write, and if so, what?

TOM: I've not had to make sacrifices to write. I would consider performing one to write better...

Tom, thank you. Wishing you a speedy journey back into your world of writing.