Crissy Van Meter: On Writing About Love and Trauma, the Duality of Personhood and her debut novel, "Creatures"
Crissy Van Meter’s debut novel, Creatures, captivated me from the first page. Set on a fictional island off the coast of Southern California, brimming with fisherman and life long islanders, the novel opens with Evangeline, a woman soon to be married, whose husband-to-be has not returned from a recent boating expedition. We follow the tides of Evie’s life, moving forward and backward in time as she grows up with a distant mother, who comes and goes as she pleases. A father, who despite his love and fierce loyalty to his daughter, can only provide for her through his drug dealing and charm, which leaves them homeless on and off through Evie’s life. This physical and emotional instability manifests itself as Evie grows older and enters romance relationships, where her emotional deficits are exposed and grappled with through Evie’s self-aware and honest narration.
Crissy Van Meter displays a true gift for creating complex characters as she writes such with empathy and skill. In the midst of the stormy and broken lives they lead on the island, these characters are bursting with life, with heartache, with sorrow, with the desire to be needed, to be loved. I had the pleasure of speaking with Crissy via email where she talks about creating setting, writing about love in the midst of trauma, the duality of being a person, playing with structure and writing her novel, Creatures.
Setting plays a huge role in this story as it feels like Winter Island is a character of its own. What inspired this landscape? What was your process like for evoking such a visceral experience for the reader in terms of how the island functions within the novel?
I spent a lot of time on the Balboa Peninsula with my dad. He lived there most of my life and I was so mesmerized by this place, but I also so trapped there too. It’s a place full of tourists; nowhere to park; one way in and one way out. When I started writing Creatures, I wanted to create a place that made Evie and her father feel trapped, quite literally, but also emotionally. An island was the perfect place to tell this story; Winter Island represents all the beauty and chaos of the California coast – and of Evie herself.
The relationships we have with our parents no doubt influence our romantic ones, which you brilliantly capture. Evie’s relationship with both of her parents is quite turbulent, with emotional and physical abandonment and substance abuse. We also see her relationship with Liam and how, at times, their marriage seems broken beyond repair but also so loving and warm. Was one relationship more difficult to write about than the other? Or was one particularly important for you, personally, to explore?
I was asking a lot of questions about marriage. I was curious how a woman with a traumatic past like Evie’s could fully love someone. Can a person like Evie give herself to someone completely? I loved writing about Evie and Liam’s marriage because even when it was broken, they still loved each other. I think this is true of so many relationships, especially in marriage. I think for Evie, things are always a bit muddy, and that feels so emotionally true of life. I’m fascinated by marriage, monogamy, and above all, the idea that love only works with some kind of submission and/or trust. So while I liked writing about this marriage, it was also challenging, because I don’t really have the answers.
I find your writing so deeply empathetic. These flawed characters who struggle with addiction and restlessness and self-destruction are beautifully rendered in your prose as people the reader can still sympathize with and root for and connect to. Can you talk a little bit about your process for character development? What provides you with the most inspiration?
I think we are all flawed. It’s part of the beauty and chaos of life. I’ve known many people with major flaws, I’ve been majorly betrayed, and I know many who’ve struggled with addiction. One thing though that always feels so true in my own life, and especially when I’m thinking about or developing characters, is that people are not just one thing. An addict is not just an addict. The joy of personhood is to be many things. When I was writing these characters I knew they all had to be flawed, but they could also be good too.
What do you love most about the ocean? Have you always been drawn to it?
Yes! I think growing up at the ocean ruins you for life; I hate being away from the ocean! I get itchy and scared in landlocked places. For me, nature has also been a source of comfort and answers. The ocean, the sea life, the sunshine, the smell, all of it, makes me really, really happy.
I love the structure of Creatures - moving back and forth in time, the shorter sections that weave sea animal behavior with that of Evie’s father, how you broke each chapter up based on an element of nature. Do you outline before writing? How do you decide on this structure for your novel? How long did it take you to write Creatures?
For me, writing is like a puzzle. I start with a bunch of big questions and I start writing my way to the answers. In the case of Creatures, I wrote a lot of Evie’s childhood with her father first and then kept building. It then took a lot of playing around, asking more questions, and really figuring out what I was writing, to complete the puzzle. I wanted to write a book that represented one woman’s life, but it wasn’t interesting to me to tell it linearly. I think it makes sense that we dip into Evie’s past, present, and then ten years into her broken marriage to discover that so much has changed, and yet, not enough has changed emotionally.
I was also thinking a lot about how we grieve, and how we remember our own stories. That never feels like a straight line to me.
Can you talk a little bit about your writing journey? Did you always want to write? When did you start?
In elementary school, I used to write (and draw!) Disney fan fiction. I’m talking like full-on graphic novels and novels about Aladdin and The Lion King. I’ve always been creative, and my grandfather was an artist, and my grandmother an expert seamstress. I grew up using my hands and building, weaving, sewing, etc. If I was better at fine art – like drawing or painting – I’d be doing that. Also, I wrote a LOT of bad rhyming poetry for years, and if I were better at it I might be a poet. Anyway, I’m not sure I’ll always be just a novelist, but I know I will always be writing, making things, and telling stories.
Do you plan on working on any new projects? Will you continue to write fiction?
I’m studying geology right now, taking a lot of notes, and working on a novel. I’m asking a lot of questions and reading a ton, and I’m letting my subconscious do the work.
Crissy Van Meter is a writer based in Los Angeles. She teaches creative writing at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. She is the founder of the literary project Five Quarterly, and the managing editor for Nouvella Books. She serves on the board of directors for the literary non-profit Novelly. Her debut novel Creatures is out now from Algonquin Books.
