Andrea Caswell
A CRAFT CHAT WITH SOFI GUVEN

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Sofi Guven’s short story “Proximity” (Issue 45) is an exploration of people’s boundaries, both emotional and physical, in a world in which we are all connected. In this chat with fiction editor Andrea Caswell, Sofi offers insights on her favorite parts of writing, how she repurposed a sentence she wrote years ago, and what she works on in revision.

Andrea: What came first when you wrote this story? A title to work with, or the narrator character, or the fantastic premise? Thanks for sharing your early ideas as you crafted this narrative.

Sofi: The first thing that came to me was actually the first line of the story: “When I get home, I start to make bread.” I find that happens to me a lot—I think of a first line, or sometimes a final line, and try to shape a story around it. I think it’s because my favorite part of writing occurs at the line-level, things like language choice and the rhythm of sentences. The plot of the story unfolded after that. I was interested in the idea of competition between virtual strangers, as well as the idea of using competition and pretense as a distraction from one’s own problems. 

Andrea: The fabulist elements in “Proximity” are so subtle that they don’t overtake the piece. On the other hand, the Earth literally shifts beneath the characters, a moment I loved when it first happened. How did “magic,” for lack of a better term, help you accomplish what you wanted to here?

Sofi: I thought of the shifting as sort of an earthly manifestation of conscious and unconscious desires. The narrator’s first apartment shifted away from Maya’s, as Michael’s influence over her grew. Her and Silvia’s apartments moved closer together to literally force them to realize that they would rather connect with someone going through a similar experience than compete with them. I guess I was sort of imagining a world in which interiority is made physical. Humans are forced to confront what is happening inside their heads, and everyone has to accept living with constant change. Routes are constantly changing, roads grow and shrink, and most of the time, we don’t know why. 

Andrea: The conclusion of the story is both surprising and satisfying. I wouldn’t have wanted it to turn out any other way. Did you know that’s what you were working towards, or did the ending develop organically as you wrote?

Sofi: I knew I wanted to end with a moment of conciliation. Once I’d established the concept of the moving streets, I liked the idea of two characters being literally forced to look more closely at each other and drop the acts they’ve been presenting to one another for so long. The final line is mostly lifted from a flash fiction work I wrote many years ago. That piece wasn’t great in itself, but I knew I wanted to do something with the image of one person listening to another from the next room, hearing their music, recognizing their presence, but at the same time, being alone with their own thoughts and feelings. I realized midway through writing this work that it could be where the line really belonged. After that, I just had to write towards this line to create the story’s conclusion.  

Andrea: What challenges did you experience in revision? How did you address them?

Sofi: In my initial draft, the shifting streets were less present, so much so that a reader could almost miss that element of the story if they were reading too fast. During revision, I added the character of Maya, the narrator’s neighbor and ex-best friend, to emphasize the magical realism, and also to develop a correlation between the shifting and the narrator’s relationships. That also helped with pacing, which is always something I focus on improving in revision.

Sofi Guven is a writer and poet who enjoys words in all forms. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, she currently lives in Philadelphia. She has previously been published by Wilderness House Literary Review and she is the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Prize through Bryn Mawr College.

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Andrea Caswell runs Cleaver’s Short Story Clinic, offering detailed feedback on fiction up to 5500 words. Whether you’re wondering how to improve a story, getting ready to submit one to a lit mag, or preparing an MFA application portfolio, editorial feedback will be personalized to help you reach your fiction goals. Writers may also schedule a conference with Andrea as a one-on-one workshop to discuss their work further.

Read more from Cleaver Magazine’s Writing Tips.
Read more from Cleaver Magazine’s Issue #45.