When I’m feeling creatively blocked, unmotivated, or just reaaaaaallllly tired (like today, after I’ve been traveling all weekend and am only now, at 6:36pm Pacific time, coming to grips with the reality that I don’t have an original letter in me today), I turn to other creative people who’ve inspired me.
just might be the author who’s inspired me most. Her Fairyland series inspired me to start writing fiction again, and for that alone, I’ll be forever grateful.She also has many, many smart things to say about creativity and the craft of writing, like this comment about the “chosen one” trope from her 2022 interview in The Festival Review:
We are the ones making choices. None of us are “chosen ones”, but some of us choose extraordinarily difficult paths for ourselves. It can look — at the end of that path — like fate was involved on some level. But it wasn’t. A person chose, over and over again, to make the more difficult choice, to do something heroic, to create the story around them. I don’t think there are any chosen ones. I think there are people who choose.
— Catherynne M. Valente
Check out her Patreon here, or read literally any of her books. You might be confounded. You’ll probably be impressed. You will not be disappointed.
Added to my want to read shelf. Thank you ✌️