Tag Archives: junot diaz

fess up friday

the breakdown to breakthrough

i had a kind of quiet meltdown yesterday. i did it all at the writing table. i arrived earlier than usual, the book pulled me out of my usual routine. i sat there, waiting for something, anything to tell me where to begin. i just got ovewhelmed by the worldbuilding, trying to get the underpinnings right so this thing will stand up. by lunchtime i seriously considered going back to bed and watching the real housewives of atl marathon. but i sat there and wrestled with the questions that most writers face (although percival says that he doesn’t stress). am i doing the right thing? am i doing it in the right way? should i have just stayed, oh a secretary or something? this hesitation was nothing but fear in physical form. i could feel it in my body, this visceral desire to flee. i anchored myself down and asked the book what it needed. bravery it answered. i need bravery. i had none, so i looked elsewhere and found an interview with junot diaz at the sydney writers festival.  it helped.

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the new tribe


junot diaz just won the pulitzer prize for the brief wondrous life of oscar wao! i’m not sure why i’m so excited about this, but to tell the truth i have been sitting around the house all day waiting for the pulitzer announcement. maybe its because i went to vona and he is one of the founders (although i didn’t study with him). maybe because last week i picked up the novel because i just had a feeling. maybe because i applied to study with him this summer. maybe because i’m so damn impressed with writers who are brave on the page. it’s probably a bit of all of the above, but i’m tickled.

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