The beauty of writing? You can't mess it up ✍️
Today's guest is author Sarah Perry.
Writing isn’t a passion; it’s a practice.
Many view writing as a romantic calling, trusting inspiration will strike and words will flow at the right time. But the reality is often far less dreamy.
Sometimes writing means waking up early when you’re not a morning person, or carving out time to write even when it requires sacrifice.
It’s about showing up and doing the thing you’ve resolved to do.
Writing doesn’t demand urgency the way other responsibilities do, which can make it easy to push aside. But just because something isn’t urgent doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Committing to your writing—whether by treating it like a job, setting boundaries, or embracing the space between projects—creates the freedom for creativity to thrive.
At the end of the day, no one is looking over your shoulder, and no one will see your work until you’re ready to share it. That means it’s fully up to you to show up—again, and again, and again.
In today’s interview, author Sarah Perry shares how she balances discipline with creative freedom, the habits that have kept her grounded through the chaos of book publishing, and why she’ll always keep a “process journal” by her side.
OUR SPECIAL GUEST TODAY IS…
Sarah Perry
Author
Sarah’s new essay collection, SWEET NOTHINGS: CONFESSIONS OF A CANDY LOVER is available now!
How do you balance finding time to write and managing other obligations and responsibilities?
This is an ongoing project, and I try to tell myself that's okay. I have not historically been a morning person, but I have the most success if writing is the first thing I do in a day. Similar to "paying yourself first" when budgeting. Don't mistake what's urgent with what's important. And stand your ground if people want to take your time during what should be your writing time. As Franz Kafka said, “A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.” You are protecting your loved ones from the monster.
What is one thing you wish you had known about the publishing process before going through it yourself?
This is something I'm still working on, but before your first book comes out, it's a good idea—if you're a "bad emailer" like me and many people—to get a handle on your inbox and come up with a sane management system for correspondence.
Just your publishing team—editor, agent, PR, marketing—will be a lot of traffic (if all is going well), and then, if you're extra lucky, you'll be getting all these kind notes from friends and even strangers, and interview requests, etc., etc. If you're a person who always has a ton of unopened email, get a handle on that by six months before pub date. Start unsubscribing from things now so you reduce traffic.
Also, when you're standing up there at your book launch, take a picture of the audience. It's super heartwarming to look back upon (especially on bad writing days), and it's such a delightfully overwhelming experience that it can be hard to remember who was there. The next time you see a friend, you want to acknowledge their kindness in showing up. And you definitely don't want to say "thanks for coming!" to someone who didn't!
What is the most memorable writing tip or technique that you have heard, and how did it influence your process?
I'm going to be sneaky and include two: one from each of my closest mentors. From presidential biographer Patricia O'Toole: even if you disagree with a comment that someone—a member of your writing group or workshop, a friend, or even your editor—makes on your manuscript, try to give it some consideration. It is often the case that there is a problem in a spot they've indicated, but their assessment of just what's going on isn't quite right. The diagnosis may be off, but there is probably still something there to be altered and improved.
From cartoonist, poet, novelist, and essayist (!) Alan Michael Parker: if you find that you're too in your head about your writing, too worried about perfection and artistic inspiration, just treat it like a job. It's a calling you've decided to follow, but it's also just something you've resolved to do. Try not to let the romance of the thing keep you from showing up to the desk.
Are you a plotter or a pantser? What's your personal drafting process like?
I am absolutely a pantser. I write a great volume of words and then cut/revise/rearrange/restructure/rewrite from that body of potential work. I follow the energy on any given day, and don't write anything in order (least of all books).
This isn't efficient, but it's how I do it, and it allows for the combination of instinct and craft that works for me. But while I'm pantsing, I'm thinking a lot about what I want to do with the overall project (more and more as the months go on), and what it might look like.
I keep a "process journal" alongside the main text—a separate file where I regularly talk to myself about the work. I reflect on the writing to be done that day (or that I've already done), reading I've been doing, personal challenges around writing, how I might accomplish big dreams, strategies for fellowship applications, really anything that comes to mind. It's especially useful as a safe space to store epiphanies and realizations before I act on them, and serves as a record of my process that I can look back on when I'm revising, or when I become stuck.
Ready for feedback that takes your story to the next level?
“With Alyssa's input, I see what needs to be revised in my draft, what works, and what does not. I am encouraged to keep going after Alyssa's professional assessment.”
—S.A. Mulholland, fiction author
What's one writing "rule" or commonly followed piece of advice that you decidedly break?
I often hear the advice that by the time your book is coming out, you should be well into the next project, so that you feel like you have momentum and that you are still a practicing writer. But that hasn't panned out for me (yet).
I'm still so immersed in the ideas of the last project when I'm on tour—talking about it, answering questions, etc. And those thoughts can be productive—that can be valuable reflective time that helps you figure out what you might want to do next. But I am trying to reduce time between projects! Sweet Nothings came out this February, and I hope to have a proposal for my next book by the end of the year.
How do you personally get over writer's block?
I treat writer's block like seasickness: the more you think about it, the more likely you are to feel it. Next question!
Seriously, though: I struggle more with avoidance of the desk than a block once I've sat down. The world and its urgent demands presents a never-ending buffet of procrastination. Try to remember that writing is a privilege, that art is deeply important, and that you can't really mess up. You can always revise, and no one's looking until you let them.
ICYMI…this week on YouTube, I’m talking about the
7 deadliest plot mistakes
"even if you disagree with a comment that someone—a member of your writing group or workshop, a friend, or even your editor—makes on your manuscript, try to give it some consideration." Is very wise. It is far to easy to brush off whatever we disagree with to protect our own view of things.