Ask the Author: Marcy Pusey
Answered Questions (6)
Marcy Pusey
I observe life all around me. Sometimes on a walk, ideas will come. Often it's just listening to people talk and interact with one another. Kids are my favorite to listen in on- they have all SORTS of great ideas!
Marcy Pusey
My son is nine years old now, but when he was about two, I noticed how everything he did was a lot in his imagination. Pillows were a bridge over a carpet of lava. Sticks were swords. I was a horse or a monster or a princess. I then wrote a book about a young boy, entirely from his point of view. But when you flip the page, you get "reality." It's a story every parent and child can relate to.
Marcy Pusey
I would love to say I've overcome writer's block and have the perfect potion for curing it. Alas, I don't. However I do keep in mind the words of those more wise and disciplined than I. One of my favorite ways of working through writer's block comes from Laurie Halse Anderson. She encouraged a group at her workshop to go on art dates. She noted that when our own creative tank is empty, it needs to be refilled. So fill it on dates with art at galleries, movies, museums, concerts, musicals... wherever and however you can expose yourself to the creativity of others, do it. This will overflow into your own work. I LOVE THIS!
Aside from art dates, I know to battle writer's block by continuing to write. Even if it's total junk... the gems may be just beneath. Write every day, whatever comes to mind, and eventually you'll find yourself back in a great groove. My greatest life seasons of productive (and good) writing have come from this initial discipline.
Aside from art dates, I know to battle writer's block by continuing to write. Even if it's total junk... the gems may be just beneath. Write every day, whatever comes to mind, and eventually you'll find yourself back in a great groove. My greatest life seasons of productive (and good) writing have come from this initial discipline.
Marcy Pusey
I am working on a few things... I have a memoir that is in editing about the murder of my mother in law (while my husband and I slept in the house where she was murdered). I am revising a YA novel which is really exciting and you'll just have to wait and see what it's about. AND I'm writing a book on simplicity- the social experiment my family chose to live in 2010 where we didn't buy anything new for an entire year. :) Whew! I'm busy! (Or, should be, between raising four kids!)
Marcy Pusey
Writing is beautiful and painful and healing... but it is also full of temptation- to sell yourself out to a market, to trade in the joy of writing for the stresses of being a business person, etc. It is full of discouragement and waiting and rejection. BUT KEEP AT IT. If you know this is what you want to do in life and it GIVES YOU LIFE to do it, then shun the rejection and discouragement and fears and just keep writing. Learn the skills, yes, but don't be boxed in by the market. Write and write and write.
Marcy Pusey
The best thing about being a writer is two-fold... the first is how much I learn about my own self when I write! There's a great quote by Conner O'Flannery "I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say." YES! This is so true for me. The second half of the fold is how much I love being a source of hope and encouragement to others through my own life journey or discoveries. As a reader, I gain so much from the writings of others. I love knowing I can be a voice offering what I've received to others as well.
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