Missy won first place in the Graduate Non-Fiction category for her piece “Legacy: A Life in Ten Items or Less.” Congratulations, Missy!
INTERVIEWED BY AUBREN KUBICKI
Student Awards winner Missy Hatfield
What does winning this award mean to you?
I feel very honored to receive this award. The support and encouragement of the IUSB writing community has been very inspirational as I complete the requirements for my degree and pursue my writing goals.
How would you describe your writing? What themes, ideas, styles do you find recurring throughout your work?
My nonfiction writing centers around my family and everyday life here in the Midwest. I recently dipped my toes into fiction writing when I took Dr. Ervick’s Start Your Novel class. There I began working on a novel that explores themes of life and loss and what literature means to readers. I’m excited to continue work on that project and see where it takes me.
Who are some of your favorite authors? Do you see these authors as influencing your writing?
There are so many amazing writers and so little time to read! Some of my favorite contemporary writers include Jodi Picoult, Kate Quinn, Ariel Lawhon, Barbara Kingsolver, and Ken Follett. In an effort to expand my reading horizons I have recently read some fantasy works by Rebecca Yarros and TJ Klune. And I will always be a fan of classic writers such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Bram Stoker, and Toni Morrison. Everything I read helps me to see new ways of structuring plot or using language that I hope enrich my own writing.
What is your writing process like?
Panic and prayer? Just kidding, I have never been very good at outlining. I usually have to “write my way in” to a topic. So, once I settle on an idea I just try to get my fingers on the keyboard as much as possible and see what comes out. After I get some thoughts on the page I like to read back through and see what could be cut and what threads are emerging that I could build on to produce a finished piece. And, like most writers I go through a “this is great – actually this is awful what was I thinking” stage pretty consistently.
How did this particular piece come about? What was your inspiration?
“Legacy: A Life in Ten Objects or Less” grew out of an assignment in Dr. Mattox’s Prose Style Workshop class. The feedback I received in the workshop from my amazing classmates helped me to polish the essay into what it is today.
Jessica won first place in the Graduate Fiction category for her piece “Faith No More.” Congratulations, Jessica!
INTERVIEWED BY AUBREN KUBICKI
What does winning this award mean to you?
Winning this award is an honor because I’m being recognized by a working artist who sees potential in my writing.
How would you describe your writing? What themes, ideas, and styles do you find recurring throughout your work?
I’m always exploring existence. It’s in everything I write. Comedy or drama. That and anything that transcends time or space. Universal truths. Women trying to be problem solvers.
Who are some of your favorite authors? Do you see these authors as influencing your writing?
Brit Marling. It’s all I can think of right now. She and her writing partner think beyond a linear idea. It’s magic.
How did this particular piece come about? What was your inspiration?
My husband and I spent time at a property near the site of the murder and cult. We’ve been obsessed with it all for years. Then I started to obsess about the women and their lives at the time. After getting to know the culture of the town I decided this made sense.
“How do you get started if you don’t even know what you’re starting with?”
By Aubren Kubicki
I’m terrible at coming up with ideas.
Okay, that’s not entirely true — I know my friends and family are shaking their heads at me right now, protesting that I’m one of the most creative people they know! And in certain situations, that’s the case. But when it comes to figuring out what to write — for a class assignment, for myself, even for the blog — all my cognitive abilities freeze up, scramble for an answer, and draw a collective blank with an apologetic shrug. It doesn’t matter what kind of writing either; academic research papers, personal prose essays, poetry, short fiction, screenplays, all of them elude me at first. Getting started is always the hardest part for me, and how do you get started if you don’t even know what you’re starting with?
I’ve coined the term “inspiration paralysis” to describe this phenomenon, stealing inspiration (wink wink) from something known as “decision paralysis” or “analysis paralysis”. Both occur when someone — a writer, for instance — is faced with a choice of some kind — what to write about, perhaps — and, rather than choosing between A or B, chooses C: to do nothing. This leads to procrastination, which leads to crunch time writing, which often leads to less successful work. Both decision paralysis and analysis paralysis stem from overthinking a choice: what if I choose A and get halfway through and realize I should have chosen B? What if I choose B and it turns out to be harder to write than A? Sometimes, as is the case for me when trying to figure out what to write, there are simply too many options to pick from. Overwhelmed, my brain shuts down and gives me nothing instead of trying to dig through the haystack to find the needle of inspiration I need.
So how do we overcome this so-called inspiration paralysis, you may be screaming at me. Aubren, get to the point! Well… Truth be told, I’m still not entirely sure. I’ve found some methods that work for me, and some that don’t, and sometimes the inspiration paralysis wins and I just don’t write. Or I find myself frantically pounding out an 8 page essay the night before it’s due (would not recommend). Still, so that you don’t unsubscribe from the English blog and write a public complaint about me online, I’ll give you a list of some things that have worked for me — and some that haven’t too, just for fun.
Free-write. One of the most successful techniques I’ve found for getting over my initial inspiration block is just sitting down at my computer, or with a notebook and writing implement if you prefer the old school, and just writing. It can be words, stream-of-consciousness, phrases — anything goes. If you’re writing within the parameters of a research essay, or a piece with more specific guidelines, sometimes your free-writes will benefit from starting off with a topic or theme. Sometimes you can even end up using portions of what you’ve written in your actual piece! What’s most important is that you throw your inhibitions, perfectionism, and presupposed notions to the side and write. Something is always better than nothing.
Stare mindlessly at your computer screen/notebook/whatever you’re writing in and wait for the muse to magically fly into your head. More often than not this doesn’t work, and it just makes you feel bad about yourself for wasting time. Not recommended.
Find inspiration in other art! Personally, I love ekphrastic pieces: works, traditionally poetry, based on pieces of visual art. That doesn’t mean you can only use visual art as the inspiration for poetry, though. Or that you can only use visual art to find inspiration — maybe there’s a song you find particularly inspiring that can kickstart that short story you’ve been wanting to write.
Perform a seance and summon a ghost to write for you. Never tried this one, but maybe it could work. That’s where the term “ghost writer” comes from, right?
Seek out examples and advice. Sometimes the inspiration paralysis comes not just from what to write about, but how to write it. That’s where turning to other writers — on the internet, in your community, in your classroom — can be helpful. Sometimes reading examples of pieces similar to what you want to write can get those brain juices flowing a little more easily.
Procrastinate by doing something else that you also need/want to do, but that isn’t the writing you maybe should be doing. I am very guilty of this. I’m doing it right now, actually, as I write this piece for the blog! I should be writing an op-ed for class instead. Oops.
Play around with AI. I think we can all agree that having an AI write an entire piece for you is somehow unethical, and that’s not what I’m suggesting you do here. Instead, try throwing prompts of your own writing at it and see what it comes up with. Have a conversation back and forth about the project you’re seeking inspiration for. The results will depend on what you put into it and what AI you’re using, but I’ve seen some really interesting use of AI as a tool for writers rather than a crutch or a competitor. (If you’re curious, look up the essay “Ghosts” by Vauhini Vara for an excellent example.)
Talk it out. This is the method I use the most often, and with the most successful results. Even if the other person isn’t in class with you, doesn’t care about writing whatsoever, has no idea what you’re talking about — it helps just to be able to spitball your ideas at them. It forces your brain to think about the decision to make rather than just avoiding it altogether, and by the end of the conversation you’ve got a pretty good idea of where you want to start.
And there you have it: 8 techniques to try next time you’re feeling gripped with inspiration paralysis about your next writing project. Let me know if you try any of these — I’d love to hear how they work (or don’t work) for you. Good luck and happy writing!
The Deadline 