Ask the Author: Harry Youtt
Answered Questions (4)
Harry Youtt
The two very best things about being a writer can also be viewed as two of the worst things. First, you get to pick your own hours and worksites, which you soon discover also means you can never get away from your craft, the way production line workers get breaks and the privilege of clocking out at the end of a shift. Second, as a writer, I'm always invited to see the world with fresh vision: clarity and focus, which sometimes becomes totally depressing when I'm forced to recognize that a lot of the world is pretty dismal.
Harry Youtt
I deal with it first by never saying the phrase out loud, never allowing myself to use it to explain away the times I'm not writing. Officially for me, it does not exist. Also I try to keep two projects going simultaneously. That way when my creative energy for one of them wanes, I just shift gears to the other project. I call this "the reciprocating engine of creativity." Each project is a separate cylinder. I am the carburetor.
Harry Youtt
I'm currently working on two major projects: a novel, and a book about a revolutionary technique for fiction writing that will render obsolete the classic advice to fiction writers: "Show it; don't tell it." And of course, through it all, the poetry somehow manages to keep coming.
Harry Youtt
Do not give up your day job, but whatever you do, do not give up.
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