I spend months planning projects that I will lose interest in and never return to. I mull things in the back of my mind while I binge TV. I type frenzied notes on my phone that I’ll never return to. Such apparatuses work for a short period, but inevitably, after a time, I come to see schedules and regimens as dictates, authoritarians-things as an anarchist I cannot abide. Perhaps the best way to describe how I create would be anti-process, in fact. If I have a creative process, it’s haphazard and not one I’d necessarily recommend. What does your creative process look like? How do you maintain momentum and remain inspired? It’s a tension I’m still navigating as an adult, a little me and a great me, and one my characters are often navigating as well. I try to be gentle with my loved ones, I try to be the great me whenever I can. I would never do that to a child-tell them they’re not being their best self when they’re angry, upset, sad, or vulnerable-but I must admit I still think about that book whenever I’m feeling mean-spirited, disdainful, or defensive, whenever I’m lashing out at those who don’t deserve it because sometimes we do that to make ourselves feel big when we are feeling small. My father had a copy that he read me often and referred to when he thought I wasn’t being my best self. Lou Astin’s The Little Me and the Great Me, a picture book originally published in 1957. What was the first book or piece of writing that had a profound impact on you? 2023 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremonyġ.
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