“I haven’t found any particular thing to be a consistently reliable source of inspiration. If there’s any consistency, it’s that it’s always something different. With Gainesville (Atticus Books, 2013), I listened to “Honey Hi” by Fleetwood Mac on repeat. I wrote every word of that story to that song. With Haints Stay, it was the band Earth and the soundtrack to There Will Be Blood. With the book I’m working on now, I’ve been watching scenes from Punch Drunk Love out of order, and—but in order—An Autumn Afternoon directed by Yasujirō Ozu. When I find something that works, I stay with it until it stops working. But if something works for a particular project, I can’t ever return to it—it becomes too closely associated with that project. I don’t want any of my books to feel too much like any other, so I force myself to accept the frustration and fear of not knowing what’s going to click when. That might be the thing I revisit the most: a voice in my head (or a recording, or an alarm clock) programmed to remind me to be patient, no matter how many times I fail.”
—Colin Winnette, author of Haints Stay (Two Dollar Radio, 2015)
Photo credit: Jenn Yin