Write Now with Jenny Lawson

Who Are You?

The Bloggess, Jenny Lawson, author/blogger/weirdo, San Antonio TX.

What Do You Write?

Irreverent humor for intellectual misfits. I usually ask people if they’ve ever wondered why Jesus wasn’t classified as a zombie since technically he came back from the dead and if they aren’t offended that’s usually my test to see if they’d like my writing. I’m painfully introverted and I have anxiety disorder on top of that so for a lot of my life the only way I was able to really express myself was in writing. I was lucky to find a community of amazing, strange people who also thought they were alone and also had the same bizarre sense of humor.

Where Do You Write?

I made the dining room in my house into my office. There aren’t doors so I constantly have cats all over my desk but they’re less distracting than most of the coworkers I’ve had in my life so that’s fine. I tend to type out my work on a Mac and then print it out to edit it by hand because I like to walk when I edit. (I fall a lot.) I delete about 75% of what I write. I have a hard time judging my own writing so I ask friends to listen to my work and then I use them to judge if I’m getting the laugh or if it goes on too long.

When Do You Write?

I am forever behind on deadlines. When I’m depressed (which is more often than I’d like) I can’t write at all and feel like I’ll never be funny again. Then I come out of the hole and realize that was one of the lies depression tells you. It never gets easy.

Why Do You Write?

I can’t not write.

How Do You Overcome Writer’s Block?

I really struggle with writer’s block a lot. When it’s bad I try to read books that are similar in tone to what I want to write so that it inspires me. If that doesn’t work then I switch to another project or answer emails or do something else until inspiration hits again.

Bonus: What Do You Enjoy Doing When Not Writing?

I built miniatures. I have a multistory haunted dollhouse filled with allusions to all the horror/magic books and movies I’ve loved in my life. It’s a great distraction even though I’ve managed to glue myself to the table multiple times.