This is a photo of me playing a show in a shirt from Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS). Stoked.

Writing Process Blog Tour

Hello folks! So my dear friend Beck Levy asked me to participate in this post as part of a Writing Process Blog Tour. Here are some answers to questions about my writing process.

1) What am I working on?
Currently I am putting energy into finalizing a project called The Monsters in My Bed. For this work, I wrote lyrics for 5 songs and farmed them out to amazing friends who interpreted them into finished works. These 5 songs are thematically based on the five negative archetypes I've encountered throughout my life - they aren't about individual people per se, but more character types. Additionally, I continue to work on short stories and essays. Most recently I wrote a short story for my nephew for his birthday.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Because I am a musician, I can make poems into lyrics, even if it is just through having friends I love and trust interpret them. Writing can be such a solitary thing, and doing a writing project that calls on your friends for help is a great way to counteract that. Sometimes though I just write little snippets that are for my own enjoyment. I write viscerally and I like words with cadence, and phrases with sharp imagery. Sometimes the themes I discuss are heavy and sad. Overwhelmingly so. But that is how I process a lot of the negativity I see and experience.

3) Why do I write what I do?
Writing is my way of trying to reflect on and understand the world and my own experiences. It's a big part of how I process things that are both external and internal. It's also a way I try to reach out and connect with others.

4) How does your writing process work?
It's very cathartic, and I generally write in fits and starts when there is nothing else I can do but write. I am trying to get better at going back and editing, shaping language after I have had some time to step away from it. But part of me loves the writing in fits and starts, furiously. I usually share things with a few trusted people before taking them to the masses, too.

Next week, I am tagging Charles Clymer, Alex Smith and Violet LeVoit to write about their processes. I met Charles through veterans' advocacy work, specifically around working to end military sexual violence. He's a force to be reckoned with, writing incredible pieces on privilege and power and occupying a powerful social media presence. Alex is one of the founders of Metropolarity, Afrofuturist sci-fi writing collective and event organizers who blow my mind constantly and who you should know about. Violet writes awesome bizarre-o sci fi and fantastical stories, as well as film criticism and essays on a host of other stuff. These people are writers who I would love you to know!!! Wait for their posts next Monday.