She often writes about painful realities especially of the relationships in her family. She’s very good at being completely naked and raw in her verse (that’s one reason she won the Pulitzer). I don’t write anything like that, on any subjects that approach that…and I’m not good at being naked and confronting harsh realities…but if I go for long periods without writing, I become depressed. I feel worse when I don’t write than I do when I do. Writing is like exercise for my brain; it works the kinks out. It’s like meditation; it evens out my interior life. Sometimes it’s even like a shunt in a wound letting the poison out.
When I don’t have a project that I am working on (like now when I am waiting for early readers to return to me with their opinions of the current title I am working on…and I don’t want to start something fresh) I feel aimless and groundless and scared. I feel more fragile than when I am in the thick of a project. I can write in my journal or edit an old story…but it’s not the same as creating a life and a world in a new story or book. When I really fit the words together in the right way, when I am surprised by the actions of a character who has taken over the story, when the story itself says, “here’s what’s going to happen” I am working, writing and I am happier.