Write Now with Jenny Lawson

How The Bloggess creates irreverent humor for intellectual misfits

Write Now with Jenny Lawson
Photo courtesy of 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.