“I never know when a good idea will strike, but I know how to connect to the force. Or, my force. That is: whatever drives me to write and fuels my fight,
my passions, whatever pertains to the current questions needing answers or problems in my life needing to be solved. What I’m trying to say here is I tend to get inspired when I figure out what battles are brewing in my subconscious. And even though they’re unique and personal battles, they’re typically part of a universal one. Usually I physically feel what I need to explore or write about, because it moves me in some way. It causes discomfort. Or it causes so much excitement that I can’t sit still. That’s when I know that something is brewing and I have to get to it. I try to remain calm and cool and if I can’t, it’s time to write. If I need a jolt to get me going again, I look at a good sentence or study structure from one of my go-to authors. My favorites: Vijay Seshadri. Cate Marvin. Susan Orlean. Jo Ann Beard. Virginia Woolf. Kate Manning. W. G. Sebald. Adrienne Celt. Paul Lisicky (a new favorite. His sentence level prose is gorgeous). An amazing book on prose that I can’t recommend enough: Turn Not Pale, Beloved Snail by Jacqueline Jackson. There are things I do to improve me as a human, which improves me as a writer. I spend a hell of a lot of time outdoors. I play with my kids daily. I play with my dogs daily. I try to get enough sleep, and think about my writing right before I fall asleep. Throughout the day, I text my ideas to my husband, just to keep them floating and breathing. I generally do my best to always be questioning.”
—Mira Ptacin, author of Poor Your Soul (Soho Press, 2016)
Photo credit: Shane Thomas McMillan