“For me, the struggle to move forward in my writing tends to be an issue with the characters in my short stories. I don’t know them well enough. The writing feels forced, labored. I step away from my computer. Maybe the hour I had designated for my writing ends up with me lying on my back on my yoga mat outside. I meditate on my characters. A narrative starts to form. Perhaps a line of dialogue comes to me. Sometimes instead of lying down, I go for a walk. I find that my imagination is most fruitful when I allow myself to be. So much of life is spent worrying and wondering, or on a device, and when I sit in front of my computer, I take this chaotic energy with me. Stepping away grounds me in my body and my mind, which feeds the process. It feels good to relax into a story.”
—Alexia Arthurs, author of How to Love a Jamaican (Ballantine Books, 2018)
Photo credit: Kaylia Duncan