Michele Karlsberg: Do you write every day?
Fiona Zedde: As much as I love writing, I usually don’t write every day. Especially when my deadline isn’t that close. I like to take at least one day to allow what I’ve written to marinate on the page and in my mind. On these write-less days, I think about the plot, where my story is going, or even what I’m doing with my life. I enjoy the staring into the middle distance thing that comes with the writing territory, mentally traveling somewhere else so that I can follow the story wherever it may lead. The local parks and coffee shops become my favorite places.
When I have a close deadline, though, I usually write at least four days a week, from morning until evening, if my schedule allows. This pace helps me to keep my productivity high and to stick to my self-inflicted word count goal, which is normally 10,000 to 15,000 words per week. If the gods of procrastination leave me alone, I can get a decent draft of a novel in a month’s time and then take another month or so to run through at least two more drafts.
Jamaican-born Fiona Zedde is the author of several novels, including the Lambda Literary Award finalists “Bliss” and the recently re-released “Every Dark Desire.” Find out more at www.FionaZedde.com
Sheree L. Greer: I do not write every day; therefore, I suck. I read about writers who do and feel like I’m slacking off and disappointing everyone. I only feel like that for about twenty seconds, though, because then I get all defensive. With teaching, self-marketing, hosting an open mic, running a nonprofit, loving my family, and trying to get a long, hot bath somewhere in there, writing every day is impossible. But I only feel like that for about five seconds. Because then I realize I don’t use the word “impossible.”
I write every day; therefore, I do not suck. I read about writers who are doing a lot of what I’m doing, and more, raising families and taking vacations, giving back to their communities while promoting and creating new work. And it’s then that I realize what writing every day really means.
Writing every day extends beyond sitting at the desk, fingers clicking away at the keyboard. Writing every day means showing up, taking it in, and pushing it out. It means giving when and how you can. It means practicing and thinking. It’s doing the work, all of it—the family thing, the self thing, the career thing. An email, a lesson plan, a status update, thinking through a scene, brainstorming titles, scribbling a clip of dialogue, writing reviews or a note for your lover’s lunch, it’s all thinking, practicing, giving. It’s loving what you do by finding a way to infuse it into everything. It’s writing. Every. Day.
A Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native, Sheree L. Greer hosts “Oral Fixation,” the only LGBTQ Open Mic series in Tampa Bay, teaches writing and literature at St. Petersburg College, and founded The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase the work of ancestor, elder, and contemporary women writers of color. Her debut novel, “Let the Lover Be,” is available from Bold Strokes Books.
Michele Karlsberg Marketing and Management specializes in publicity for the LGBT community. This year, Karlsberg celebrates twenty-six years of successful book campaigns.
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