Beyond the Novel: A Deep Dive into Urraca’s Creative Process

Often, diaries or travelogues by novelists are considered secondary to their main body of work.Though, Sabina Urraca’s Write Before transcends this categorization. While ostensibly a writing diary documenting her latest novel, The Zeal, it emerges as a notable work in its own right.

Echoing Stendhal’s famous description of the novel as a mirror walking along a road, Urraca’s diary meticulously captures the details of her creative journey. These seemingly minor observations – a bitten nail, an awkward silence, a vivid dream, or even a malfunctioning toilet – become the building blocks of a deeper exploration of the narrator’s life.

The Workshop Unveiled: Surroundings as Character

The entries in Write Before, though seemingly random, are underpinned by a sharp observational precision that elevates the anecdotal.Urraca thinks through astonishment, a kind of frantic amazement. The book navigates the spaces between Sanià and Madrid, between 2022 and 2024, and between the tranquility of the Finestres Literary Residence and the anxieties of urban life. These locations, along with a cast of characters, become integral to the narrative.

These “secondary characters” include a lead bitch, internet trolls, a broken toilet, the imagined presence of Truman Capote, television sets, readers, social gatherings, yoga classes, pets (both hers and others’), and the ever-present drunks on her terrace-turned-office. All contribute to the rich tapestry of Urraca’s creative environment.

The different entries, in disorderly or intuitive appearance, are sustained by surgical precision in observation.

Urraca herself acknowledges the importance of her surroundings in her creative process. As she states early on, this newspaper, more than the diary of the writing of the novel or of the stay, will be the story that tells my attempt to flee from the distraction and stories of the environment itself.The environment runs behind me to engulf, I run away. And while I run away, I tell it. This tension between the artist and their environment is a central theme.

Literary critic James Elkins has argued that academic and critical circles often overlook the artist’s workshop, focusing instead on finished works and romantic notions of genius. This neglects the crucial role of editors, the material context, collaborative networks, and even errors in the creative process. In contrast, Sabina Urraca throws open the doors to her workshop, offering a kind of embedded sociology of literature.

Childhood Echoes: From Lighthearted Writing to Survival

Like many writers, Urraca delves into her childhood, echoing Leopoldo María Panero’s sentiment that in childhood we live and then survive. She explores the transition from the carefree writing of her youth to the more demanding writing required for survival as an adult.

She recalls a time when writing before was easy. You just had to fold a role in two and write something inside. […] Write something inside without fear. Anything. Sign it.take it to grandfather. Receive a pure tobacco kiss. This contrasts sharply with the pressures of adult writing, were deadlines and expectations can stifle creativity. I have to write,write,write until I finished. But months ago I committed millions of things and orders that are now an avalanche that slowly goes down on my burden. The connection between these two worlds forms the core of Write Before.

A Physical Artifact: The Book as Scratched notebook

Comisura Editorial, with a striking design by Choche Hurtado, presents Write Before as a physical object reminiscent of a well-worn school notebook. The book’s design reinforces its intimate and personal nature. The content itself is a hybrid of diary entries, poetry, drawings, photographs, handwritten notes, a commonplace book, and fragments of stories.It’s a collection of scattered thoughts and brilliant flashes of insight.

The Editorial Comisura, with a wonderful design by Choche hurtado, gives us this Write before how materially a scratched notebook.

As Urraca herself concludes, To be fine, all I have to do is write. This sentiment encapsulates the essence of Write Before: a testament to the power of writing as a means of self-discovery and survival.