Ask the Author: Janisse Ray
Answered Questions (11)
Janisse Ray
The layers of inhabitation of the place I live, from long-ago Native people to now.
Janisse Ray
Hi Donna. The single thing we have to fix is our atmosphere, because climate disruption is catastrophic. I only wish I had the power. Let me know if you want me to say more about this. Thank you for caring.
Janisse Ray
The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane. A book of short stories by Rick Bass called For a Little While. The new book by Chelsea Green Publishing on the coronavirus. Corona: False Alarm? Anything I can get on ancestral healing. Anything on collective trauma. Poetry by friends. All We Can Save anthology, everything by women climate leaders.
Janisse Ray
The wildfires in Australia, California, and so many other places are the biggest horror story I know. Think about all those homeless climate refugees.
Janisse Ray
I would go to Scotland 500 years ago.
Janisse Ray
My most recent book is a manual for placekeeping. It's called JOURNEY IN PLACE: A FIELD GUIDE TO BELONGING. The idea came during the pandemic, when all of us were home, when I realized that most people would be helped by knowing how to love and enjoy the place they lived.
Before that, I got the idea for CRAFT & CURRENT: A MANUAL FOR MAGICAL WRITING from teaching hundreds of writers and writing students over the years. I'd been wanting to put together a writing manual for a long time. I love that book. If you're interested in writing, I think you'll get something from it.
I could keep going about how the ideas for my books arrived to me. If you're curious about another, let me know.
Thank you for asking.
Before that, I got the idea for CRAFT & CURRENT: A MANUAL FOR MAGICAL WRITING from teaching hundreds of writers and writing students over the years. I'd been wanting to put together a writing manual for a long time. I love that book. If you're interested in writing, I think you'll get something from it.
I could keep going about how the ideas for my books arrived to me. If you're curious about another, let me know.
Thank you for asking.
Janisse Ray
Show up at the desk.
Janisse Ray
Living a dream.
Janisse Ray
I don't believe in writer's block. I believe the writer is always working. Perhaps words are not flowing onto the page, but the brain is thinking, organizing, preparing. If you want to get more words onto the page, block off time, remove distractions, and just sit. One other hack is to flow-write, which is to set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes and choose a springboard, meaning a writing prompt. Then write for 5 minutes. Sometimes that will unstick you. Also, in general, I think dreaming helps, sleeping helps, walking helps, eating well helps. It helps to have a positive mindset about yourself, to have enough money in the bank, & to toss aside (for a while) as many worries as possible.
Janisse Ray
A novel, believe it or not.
Janisse Ray
To be honest, I don't wait for inspiration. I write whenever I can, often daily. My only challenge is keeping everything else pushed away so that I spend time at my desk every. single. day. One other great way I get inspired to write is to think about the wonderful people who may read what I am writing and be transformed by it. I write to serve the world, especially the natural world, and all its creatures, including us humans. Try it! Set aside a time, think about all the people your writing can help, and get started.
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