CHARLOTTE PONS
An urgent need to write
A journalist, Charlotte Pons published her first novel "Parmi les miens" in 2017, she now devotes herself entirely to writing.
Charlotte Pons has always written, but for a long time she left unfinished manuscripts aside - no time, no energy, no confidence. Until she decided to leave her job as a journalist and editor at Le Point magazine to "give it a go". "It was becoming too urgent, I had to devote time - really, fully - to it. »
Since then, she has been writing every day and her first novel " Parmi les miens " was published in September 2017 by Flammarion. A shocking book that reads in one go and leaves you breathless (and nervous), in which Manon finds herself following a tragic accident, back in her childhood town, to accompany her mother in an irreversible coma. She then dives back into her family past. The unspoken words, the tension of the reunion with the brothers and sisters (which always threatens to turn into an argument), the feeling of incomprehension, everything in this book is strikingly true. The reader becomes one with the narrator, even in her darkest thoughts... We are waiting (impatiently) for the next novel!
At the same time, Charlotte's daily life is as full as her bag: ultra-filled. Between her interviews, her work as a freelance writer and the Engrenages & Fictions writing workshops, Charlotte emptied her bag on the table of a Parisian café just after dropping her children off at school...
Who are you? Charlotte, writer, writing workshop leader, journalist - previously at Le Point, now freelance - and designer/editor for private websites or communication agencies. When I left the editorial staff of Le Point, I wanted to devote more time to writing fiction. I wrote my first novel, started a second one and set up Engrenages et Fictions, a creative writing workshop for everyone, which I run and which also offers manuscript proofreading. And I am above all the mother of two boys, which takes up as much energy as writing!
Which bag(s) do you use on a daily basis? I carry 3 bags, depending on the season or my mood. If I go out in the evening, I can change them. In addition to my bag, I always have a cloth totebag that I use to take my computer if I have to work outside the house, for the children's things or for last minute shopping. Unfortunately, all my bags end up being so full that they hurt my back, except for the totebag and maybe the nice Louis Vuitton bucket bag that my mother gave me, which holds a lot.
What do you take with you? I always carry my iPhone in my bag, a small wallet ready to explode, a book and a notebook for preparing interviews, for my to-do lists or to keep the kids busy. I love notebooks, I have many of them! I'd love to write entire passages for my books and then archive them, but in the end, for my novel, I write everything down on my iphone. Of course, I also have the children's things, their snacks, bottles of water, their jackets if they are too hot... And as I'm a terrible shopper, there's always something to bring back from the supermarket! I also have my recorder for the interviews, which I unplug afterwards with headphones on.
At the same time, I always have coins in my pockets, which have become a kind of extension of my bag...
In Charlotte's bag
How do you find your keys? I always look for them but they are usually in my pocket.
What do you take with you on holiday? Either the same bag as in Paris or a bag or basket. There is always a book, a notebook and also some liquid to clean your hands!
If you go out at night? In the evening I like to go out without a bag, with my keys, phone and money in my pockets.
How do you reconcile your professional and personal life in your bag? Everything is mixed up! Like my instagram account for that matter, or my workspace. As a freelancer, it's hard to make a distinction. Because I work from home and I'm in control of my time, the personal can always spill over into the professional and vice versa. This is even truer when you're a mother and managing the children splits your work rhythm. It is difficult to reconcile with writing a novel, which requires a real retreat - a " room of one's own " as Virginia Woolf said, in space and in one's head. Materially, I don't have a room of my own, and in my head as well as in my bag, children are ultra-present (and so much the better). So I juggle as best I can.
Do Parisian women have a specific relationship with their bags? Not necessarily. Except that unlike women who live in the provinces, they are certainly more loaded, because they drive less. In the end, it's very much linked to their mode of transport.
Your self-portrait, your mantra, a quotation that resembles you. I would say "Everything in its own time", my son tells me this every time I try to speed him up. And he's right, I think. This also applies to books: there is the time, so long, of writing, of maturation, and the time, so short, of exposure - in bookshops, in the media... But in the end, everything takes the time it takes!
Photo: Charlotte Pons ©Gaëlle Magder_Atelier Diptik