Ask the Author: Jeff Vande Zande
Answered Questions (5)
Jeff Vande Zande
Writing Detroit Muscle, I really wanted to write about Michigan and how it's coming out of its addiction to the auto industry. To do that, I wrote about Robby Cooper, an Oxycontin addict just coming out of rehab. He returns to Michigan to put his life back together... the same way the state is trying to reestablish itself.
Jeff Vande Zande
Ideas come to me, and I hope that they go away. If they are still gnawing at me weeks later, then I start to write.
Jeff Vande Zande
Nothing currently. Working on raising my kids who are now teens.
Jeff Vande Zande
I welcome it as a reprieve. I get back to living. I do other things. I don't worry so much about it. Don't define yourself as a "writer"... define yourself as a human. Writers need to be people first. If you're always writing and talking about writing and worrying about writing, you won't live. Writers should be steeped in life. Writing blocks give you the chance to do that. I've been in a two-year writing block, more or less. Doesn't bother me.
Jeff Vande Zande
Read as much as you can. Even though I teach creative writing, I don't believe taking class after class after class is the way to learn to write. Read as much as you can in the genres that you admire.
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