Shantih Journal | Page 12

Interview with Joseph Johnston

1) When did you know you were a writer?

This should be easy to answer but I'm laboring over it. I certainly knew I wanted to be a writer when I was a kid. I even carried a pocket notebook around in fifth or sixth grade. I was always the most prolific student when it came time for creative writing in grade school. But I never really wrote much unless it was assigned. Certainly in college I wore the costume of a writer, even spending several summer nights working on a play that I never finished. But the key there was finishing...I seldom finished anything. I wanted to be a writer but I wasn't putting in the work. I suppose it's only recently, within the last five or seven years, that I've come to think of myself as an actual writer rather than a virtual one.

2) How have you pursued your craft?

Two things: 1. Writing. Putting in the work, every day. One of the hardest lessons for me to learn about writing was how much work is involved. Assigned writing always came natural to me, whether creative fiction or essays for history class or what have you. But the only time I'd attempt writing for myself was when I was particularly inspired, and then only if I couldn't find anything else to do. The older I got the more these moments of pure inspiration came less and less and consequently, the less I wrote. Through a gradual process of discovery I learned that the craft of writing requires putting in work, and putting in work

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