THERE ARE VOICES inside Suzanne Durant’s head. Don’t worry, there’s nothing crazy going on – except, of course, for her love of writing.
In fact, these “voices” are her characters, who guide her through the growing pains of creative writing. And the 47-year-old said that this intuitive input is what has allowed her to become one of the Caribbean’s writers on the rise.
Suzanne published her sophomore fiction Dark Energy last month. She has already heard the call of the voices to continue the story, which centred around good-girl-gone-interesting, 21-year-old Licia Small.
“When I write, I am not in charge of the story. There are some writers that have a nice little plan, and I have tried that and have always failed. When I am sitting at the computer writing, the characters are in my head telling me, ‘That is not what I want to do. They drive the story for me and I just follow along with my fingers,” she revealed.
“In this one, Licia is telling me that you are not done with me yet – there is still more that you can do. Jackie [protagonist of Suzanne’s first novel] had told me, ‘I am done’, but I forced a story with her and it wouldn’t work.”
Dark Energy took the author a year and a half to finish – half the time it took for her to complete her debut work, Her Own Daughter, which is also considerably shorter.
Like many contemporary Caribbean authors, Suzanne’s work is self-published, which also meant the grunt work fell squarely on the mother to Samara, four, and 14-year-old Jonathan Durant.
“It is a battle when you have to write and do your own publicity and your own accounts. It is like running a small business,” she said. “I still have my regular work at [the University of the West Indies] teaching the English language foundation course, and I have to put that in front. It is tough and I have my two children who keep me busy.
“There is a lot of work and there is lots to do . . . . The only time I get a rest is at night before I go to bed. Honestly, I don’t know how or where I find the time. My friends ask me where I find the time to write the books . . . . But the thing is, the work is relaxing, so when I have a quick moment, I would write. Time was not always there. I had to find it.”
Dark Energy has received favourable comments from the general public, and marketing efforts have already started in earnest. The former journalist expressed the hope that the work would be something young women could relate to: “ . . . There are decisions that we make as young people [and] there are some difficulties that arise. We try to make the best decisions possible – or what we think are the best decisions possible, but things don’t turn out the way they are supposed to, and that is what happens in the book.” (LW)
