Ask the Author: Donna Peizer
Answered Questions (6)
Donna Peizer
When I first started to write, what came out me for some reason terrified me. I felt exposed. The inner critic was harsh. I stopped writing for a long time. I guess that was writer's block. I just turned my back on it. At some point, though, I knew that these obstacles were coming from ME. I was stopping myself, and I simply started again with a different attitude. Its not like the inner critic and my own misgivings were not still there; I just stopped paying so much attention to them and instead focused on the pleasure of writing.
Donna Peizer
The best thing about writing is that feeling of being transported into another reality by the words that are flowing through you. The best thing about writing that time passes and you don't even realize it because you are so totally in the present. The best thing about writing is when your writing time is over, and it's like you've been dreaming. Maybe you even drool a little. Ha-ha!
Donna Peizer
Find a writer's group, even if it's just you and one or two other people. Make a commitment among yourselves to meet two or three times a week, even if it's on Zoom. Give each other encouragement, and always show up. Give one another the space to write whatever without judgment.
Donna Peizer
I'm currently working on an essay about academic freedom and the First Amendment rights of professors at the University of Florida, which has been an hot-button issue in the news recently. I have another novel in mind in which I will probably invoke Annie and Clydeen once more. Hope to start the process soon.
Donna Peizer
By having an idea and taking the first step. I find writing to be very hard work, easier if you know where you're going. Once the idea comes into focus through one or more plot lines and the characters who bring those plot lines alive, it become very gratifying.
Donna Peizer
I wanted to explore the nature of society in post-WWII America. Who was benefitting from the newfound national pride, optimism and prosperity, and who was not. I had developed the character of Annie right up to the point where she takes refuge on the mesa, and I asked the question: What happens next? Looking for a way to juxtapose the world views of a white middle-class young person versus that of an underprivileged black person of the same age.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more