Cover Photo: A statue of a tug of war
 

When Do You Stop Writing?

Let’s give answering this difficult question a shot.

This is Thank You for Asking, a column by Cinelle Barnes responding to writing questions asked at workshops, on panels, and in DMs.

loathe baneHate this job. Well why don’t you give me another try?

blechme

How do you know when to stop writing?How do you know when to stop Writing?

Monsoon Mansion

Ahwhew!

In my experienceit’s better to not give it all in one sitting . . . so that I can give something the next time I sit down.

Monsoon Mansion

The things I do to pay off student loansWelcome to class, everyone!

We are not sharing our family histories with each other. We are mainly talking about storytelling and revision techniques.

Thank you for asking. Do you mind expounding?

Thank you for what you’ve shared thus far. What I’m hearing you ask is how do you know when to stop Writing when the story might shake the order of things in your family?

AhMonsoon Mansionafter

aboutto

If Ross feels it, we all feel it!

I grew up kind of broke. I was taught to hustle . . . there’s something ravenous that I notice if I don’t do that [capitalistic] thing. It feels like it comes from a feeling of deprivation, a feeling of fear that I think we’re supposed to feel. I don’t mean we’re supposed to as souls. I think we’re “supposed to” as creatures who are constantly being told that we’re not enough. We’re supposed to . . . do more and do more and compete and do the best and win.

But how do we stop? But how? But who?

themtheymy

lovesMonsoon MansionMalaya: Essays on Freedom

Stop right now. Thank you very much. . . . Hey, you, always on the run. Gotta slow it down, baby. Gotta have some fun.

Cinelle is a formerly undocumented memoirist, essayist & educator from the Philippines, and is the author of MONSOON MANSION: A MEMOIR and MALAYA: ESSAYS ON FREEDOM, and the editor of the New York Times New & Noteworthy book A MEASURE OF BELONGING: 21 WRITERS OF COLOR ON THE NEW AMERICAN SOUTH. She has an MFA from Converse College. Her writing has appeared or been featured in the NYT, Longreads, Electric Literature, Buzzfeed, Literary Hub, Hyphen & CNN Philippines, among others. Her work is anthologized in A MAP IS ONLY ONE STORY. She’s a contributing editor, instructor & writer at Catapult.