Gina Apostol

I stopped writing between 1998 and 2005. Literally. I could not write in the years immediately after my husband died. But I don’t think that was writing block. It was grief. So I don’t think I have experienced writing block in the way people seem to explain it. The fact is, in 2005, when I got back to writing, when I found myself being able to work once again on a novel, it was just sheer joy to know I could in fact return. I cling fiercely to that joy. I’ve kept that joy like a vow.

John Barth, my advisor at Hopkins, always used to say—grist for the mill! Meaning, everything you do, read, smell, see—everything is grist for the mill, a source for writing. I think of that all the time. 

I think one should find that joy and pleasure in writing. That has been key for me—that to me writing is a pleasure. That’s why I do it. And when my writing is not a pleasure—I think there’s something wrong with the novel. So I keep working on it until I find where the pleasure is in the writing of it. Basically, I claw my way to pleasure. When I find that—the pleasure in the writing—that’s when I know the structure is right, the voice is correct, and so on. So pleasure tells me something about my art—it makes me revise, rework, reconsider. I mean, when I don’t have that pleasure—I won’t publish that novel, it is not any good. Every novel I have published comes from that joy—from the fun of art. My advice to new writers would be to write with joy—find that joy, and make that the reason for writing. I think, if you don’t find joy in writing, you should not do it. It’s a very basic human thing, I guess—we should choose joy in life. If writing does not do that for you, then it’s not a bad thing to do something else—in fact, it might be a good thing to seek joy instead. I think it is more important to seek joy than to be a writer. Life’s too short.

Gina Apostol