How I Write

“How do you manage to come up with such stories?” That’s the question I hear most often. Sometimes I pretend to be a professional writer, and lie about the detailed planning I never did. Sometimes, I give credit to all the experiences from my life that inspired me. Sometimes, I just laugh, and say, “Oh you know.”

But the truth is, I’m terrified of deadlines, and that somehow helps me write. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE writing, but it’s really hard to pull stuff out of your head when you don’t have anything in it in the first place. Deadlines kind of force me to think really hard, and squeeze out all sorts of material that I can use to write.

Everyone has different tactics as to how they write stories, and it’s really interesting to see what those tactics are. Maybe one day I’ll get a better tactic, or improve my overall time-management skills, but until then, I’ll just have to juggle between writing my short stories, and the responsibilities of my academic career.