Pursuing Weird, Playful Work
Random musings.
I have no interview to share with you today. I thought I had something to share, but then learned that the interview subject has an exclusive interview with another (probably mainstream, traditional, much more powerful than Substack) media outlet, so I can’t run that interview until next week.
Hmph.
In general, work has been quite slow lately, which is partially my fault. I decided to take a break from doing author interviews for a while. I adore doing them, but for the past 4 years I’ve done so many that I’ve had a seemingly never-ending pile of books to read for my job. And although they’ve all been great, for every novel or memoir I’m assigned to read, there are three more books piled up in my office, vying for my attention. I’ve felt bad, seeing them there, all unread and accumulating dust. They looked lonely and sad. So I decided about a month ago to focus on reading for pleasure rather than reading for work, which has brought on somewhat of an interview drought. I’ve appreciated the break, but I also feel bad that I don’t have something new and shiny to share with you this morning.
So, instead of one long interview, I’m here with a few things that have jumped out at me this week.
Find Your Work
A recent (yes, book-related) interview I did with author-illustrator Maira Kalman was published in Next Avenue earlier this week. When I asked Maira for advice on how to seek out inspiration she said, in part, “Find your work. Whatever that means. Find your work.”
I so appreciated this. I’ve spent much of this year doing a lot of unpaid labor. What used to be a low-paying-but-still-profitable career has essentially turned into a glorified hobby, and yet I’ve continued to show up for it, day after day. And until now, I haven’t figured out why. I mean, what’s the point of putting in the effort if your bank account has nothing to show for it, amiright?
Well, to Maira’s point, I do it because it’s my work. It’s my joy. It’s what fulfills me. It stresses me out sometimes, yes, but mostly due to the pressure I put on myself. The truth is, I really love my job. I love doing interviews and talking with people and getting insight into their creative process and trying to figure out how I can apply their methods to my madness.
Be Weird and Playful
Last week’s interview with Jocelyn Mackenzie was so good. It’s not often that I get to interview someone who has literally spoken to the dead. There was a big chunk of the conversation that had to be cut (because we chatted for so long), part of which was her advice on how the rest of us can hone our psychic abilities. Here’s what she said that didn’t make it into the final piece:
“I always tell people, if you want to develop these skills, start small and keep it playful. Build it into your mundane life. Go to the grocery store and open your mind. Protect your energy. Say, ‘Only good stuff come in.’ Then open your heart and go, ‘Okay, spirit guide. Where do you want me to go? You lead me. Which aisle do you want me to go down?’ And you’ll get a hunch. Follow it. ‘Show me a sign.’ Be ready to experience it in a way that you weren’t expecting. So say, ‘Show me a sign. I want to see a yellow duck.’ If you see a picture of a yellow duck, that counts. You might see somebody wearing a shirt with it.
Just have fun with it. The weirder it feels and the weirder it sounds, the more likely it is to be not coming from you. That’s what I had to learn when I started giving readings. I would hear stuff that made no sense to me. I would be like, ‘I gotta figure this out so I can translate it to this person because it has to mean something.’ No, it doesn’t have to mean anything to me. It’s not about me. I would hear ‘artichokes,’ and be like, ‘Maybe that means they had layers around their heart.’ No, just say the word. ‘I don’t understand this, but I’m hearing the word artichoke.’ And then somebody starts crying because they have some very personal connection with artichokes. Just let it be weird and let it be playful.”
Let’s repeat that together, everyone: “Let it be weird and let it be playful.” Man, did that phrase jump out at me—and not because I’ve been trying to ramp up my psychic skills (though that’s pretty cool, too).
I’ve been doing some of my own creative writing recently. Like so many others, I have a tendency to get caught up in needing the perfect word or the perfect phrase to fit into the perfect sentence. I get bogged down in the muck of perfection and eventually give up, convinced that whatever I’m writing isn’t right enough. “Let it be weird and let it be playful” needs to be my new writing mantra. Better yet, my new life mantra. Fuck it, I’m going to start wearing boas and top hats as I write a kooky novel that would make Tom Robbins proud.
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Change Your Process
There’s a great line in a book I’ve been reading (Chuck Wendig’s Gentle Writing Advice), which states, “When your process fails, change your process.”
Um, yes. I feel like this entire year has been an evolution of my process. Much like a baby bird nudged out of its nest and expected to instinctively know how to fly, I feel as if some unseen force shoved me off a building called 2024 and I’ve spent the past 10 months flailing as I inch ever closer to the cold, hard concrete.
So much of my personal and professional life has been upended over the past 12 months that I haven’t come to terms with it all, and with each fun new thing thrown at me, I’ve had to pivot. Relentless pitching to editors wasn’t working anymore, so I launched my own publication on Substack. Pursuing interviews with high-profile celebs was no longer serving me, so I requested interviews with artists who aren’t household names yet, but certainly should—and hopefully eventually will—be. Obsessively reading book after book for work was draining me, so I decided to take a break from author interviews. And I feel as though I’m going to continue to change things up in the coming months, with personal writing projects and other professional endeavors that are still morphing and taking shape.
So, that’s what I’ve got for this week. Interviews will return next week. Until then, remember: Find your work. Let it be weird and let it be playful. And when your process fails, change it up.
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