Ask the Author: Pat Morgan
Answered Questions (6)
Pat Morgan
I lived it. After spending almost every weekday afternoon for five years in the basement of a church with 50-100 homeless people, most with staggering levels of disabilities, and losing some of them to the concrete killing fields of homelessness, writing about it wasn't just an idea. It was an obsession, born of my promise to tell their stories. What I hadn't planned on doing was including parts of my story but the more I wrote, the more I realized that their stories and my story had morphed into our story.
Pat Morgan
The news from all over the country about homeless, mentally ill people who are living on the streets in conditions worse than some third world countries, and/or are in jails and prisons, in subhuman conditions are all the inspiration I need to write.
Pat Morgan
As time permits, another book about the homeless people I've known and tried to help, with and without success, since I moved back to Memphis. Also thinking about producing a small pocket guide to helping homeless people for people who want to help but don't know how or where or when to help.
Pat Morgan
Don't try to write like a great writer. When I went back to college (at age 48), along with the courses I really needed to earn the degree I was sure I needed to have a more credible voice in helping to develop more effective policies and programs to help homeless people, I registered for a writing course. At the end of the first day of that class, I walked up to the professor and said "THANK YOU." He asked me why I was thanking him and I told him exactly why. "I feel as though I've wanted to write my whole life and somebody just gave me a pen." He'd said, during the class, "Don't try to write like a great writer," and it was as though the weight of the world had lifted from my shoulders. I was free to write what I thought, saw, heard, and felt. No more writing words I never used when I was talking. No more "waxing eloquently" in an effort to impress somebody with what I knew. In one fell swoop, I'd found my voice. (P.S. That didn't mean that I wasn't able to write term papers and, later, professional articles and reports. It just meant that I'd learned to use plain language along with big words like deinstitutionalization.)
Pat Morgan
Feeling that, in some small way, I'm making a difference in someone's life. I've been surprised and deeply gratified by the responses of people that I never expected would be interested in homelessness, mental illness, substance abuse, or my personal story. I knew I'd found my calling when I lost myself--and found myself--trying to help helping homeless people in the basement of my church. I didn't know that it would lead to my literally living out my dreams. It's really rewarding when someone tells me that after reading my book, they're wondering if they've "found their calling."
Pat Morgan
I give myself time to let my thoughts and the words I want to use to express them "percolate." Think of how much better coffee smells (and, for those of us who love it) tastes, after it's had time to percolate. If the weather is nice, I go for a walk along the river. (I can walk to the Mississippi River in five minutes from my house in Memphis.) It's amazing how well and how often the words flow into my mind when I'm not trying too hard. If it's cold or rainy, I may do relatively mindless stuff that I probably needed to do anyway, clean the house do laundry, etc. However, I'm much more likely to lose myself in a good book, which either takes my mind off the fact that I'm feeling "blocked," or gives me an idea of what I can write to get past writer's block.
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