worked out, right? GH: Right. RW: Sometimes I wanna say, “Not knowing is okay. Sometimes when you don’t know, then you stumble into something. It can work out.” BG: It’s an adventure. RW: Yeah. It can be an adventure, and it then can end up being the thing that you’re like, “Whoa, I really do wanna do this!” When you think about it, as opposed to kind of feeling pressure like, “I have to have something to do!” Then choosing something, and realizing, “Hm, I don’t know if I really wanted to do that.” I think having time between all of my degrees—I know that’s not for everyone, but I preach it to my students, “It’s okay to take a year. It’s okay to take two years. You don’t need to go to grad school right away. Live your life, go out with your friends, answer the phones and make copies, order the donuts.” That’s not exciting, but I got a lot of writing done, and I got to really realize how important it was to me because I never stopped doing it. I kept doing it even though I had that job, and I think that probably was telling me something even though I didn’t consciously know it. It’s kind of some advice— unasked for advice. GH: What are some common traps you see for young writers, and how have you gone about avoiding them? RW: I think that some of the young writers I work with don’t understand how important reading can be, and how they need to read for pleasure, and they need to kind of love some of what they read, and that when they love what they read, they should just take note because that’s the thing that you want to try and do in your own work. It’s not to say copy, but to be inspired by. What is it that really speaks to you? So I think sometimes my students see, you can read a poem in two minutes, and it can pass over you, and that’s okay. I mean, sometimes I read poetry that way. I’m just kind of looking through it, and I’m just reading it, and I’m just catching whatever I want, but there are also times when you need, as a writer, to read and really look at, ‘okay what’s going on here? What’s happening in this book or this poem?’ And I think that, if I were to say a piece of advice, I would say read and actually pay attention to what you read, and think about it as much as you can, and if that only happens in a class, that’s fine. It’s a good place to be forced into it, but you should still read for pleasure too. I think also, don’t be afraid of rejection and criticism. It RUTH WILLIAMS INTERVIEW
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