Ask the Author: Josh Ritter
Answered Questions (4)
Josh Ritter
The best thing about being a writer is getting to write. I have had so many wonderful days making up stories and living in parallel universes through my work. There is, of course, the thrill of completing and publishing a piece of writing, but over time, what I really remember are the instances of creation.
Josh Ritter
I deal with writer’s block by doing one of two things: either I write through it, putting words down on the page until one of them sticks, or I tell myself that I just don’t have anything important to say at that moment and maybe I would be more useful if I did the dishes. There’s no rule that says you have to always have something to say, and when you make up something just to speak, people get tired of you very fast. So sometimes it’s best just to keep mum. Actually, the third way, complaining a lot to significant others like family and friends, can sometimes be satisfying as well, and a healthier option than drinking.
Josh Ritter
Get comfortable with yourself. That doesn’t mean give yourself slack or be too hard on yourself, it just means be comfortable with the fact that no matter how hard you try to be somebody else, your writing will always reflect your deepest self in some regard. It may be the part that annoys you the most, but it’s usually the most genuinely you part of your writing. So get comfortable with it, because you’re stuck with you.
Josh Ritter
The idea for GGG came about out of a mixture of homesickness for Idaho, a curiosity about the landscape that I grew up in, and a love for the irascible voice of Weldon Applegate in my head. I loved his character and was always listening to things that he would say. I started writing them down, and that’s where the story came from. It’s a wild thing how separate Weldon feels from me, but that only made his pronouncements and predicaments seem all the more magical and fun.
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