Natalie Nims

Hi! My name is Natalie Nims, I currently reside in Ontario and I enjoy watching video essays, creating visual artwork and listening to lots and lots of music in my spare time.

Question 1: What inspired you to start writing?

I have always loved reading. So I wanted to create my own stories like the ones in my favourite books. After spending so much time routinely writing and trying out new styles of storytelling, I began sending my work out to magazines. In general, what inspired me to start writing was how beautiful and expressive words were, how fantastic the worlds they created could be. When I started reading more poetry, I wanted to write it because of the way poetry has the ability to articulate what you cannot simply say. I always thought of good writing like that as a sort of magic.

Question 2: What do the words “writer’s block” mean to you? 

Writer’s Block, to me, is when I have no inspiration, no ideas and whatever I write doesn’t seem very good. It can be frustrating, especially when I know I should write but just can’t. It usually goes away after some time, I just keep going back to the Google docs app and eventually, I feel like writing again. Or I seek out some inspiration. Maybe I’ll take a break from writing for a short while and read or spend my time doing other things.

Question 3: What is your writing process like? Are you more of a plotter or a pantser?

I usually have some sort of meaning or emotion I want a poem to convey and from there I just start trying out metaphors or new words to describe the movie playing in my mind. Then I polish and edit and rewrite but there’s not usually any planning involved.

Question 4: What is your kryptonite as a writer?

Probably perfectionism, the moment I start to view my art with high expectations of how good it needs to be, I stop wanting to write. I often believe that my work should be at a constant standard when art goes through many stages and drafts before it becomes a finished product. My expectation of perfection is unrealistic and often undefined in my head but once I try to attain it, the writers block begins. I combat this by accepting the way my writing is right now and enjoying the beautiful process of creating.

Question 5: What do you think is the best way to improve writing skills?

The way I improved, especially with poetry, was to write and read as much as possible. I would find new poems and formats, then the more I wrote and experimented with words, the better my writing got. At the start, I was really struggling with poetry. So while I do think that writing and reading is the best way to improve, being overly self critical of my work actually stopped me from improving. What helped me the most was when I rediscovered what I loved about writing in the first place, how imaginative and beautiful it was. Once I let go of the pressure to be perfect and just began to have fun writing, my work started to get better anyways.

Question 6: What do the words “literary success” mean to you? How do you picture it?

Where I am right now is literary success to me, I still can’t believe I have my work out there in the world. If I were to think of the future though, I aspire to publish my own books. I think something as subjective as literary success isn’t easy to picture but I imagine it as being happy with my writing and having a few people out there who find my work memorable.