Heidi Julavits: I needed to understand this random bad bit of luck as...

As a writer, you want to go somewhere else sometimes. You want to vary the terrain that you're exploring.

Heidi Julavits

somewhere-else want sometimes

Whenever I hang out with my female friends, I feel like context is never needed. They can just say two words about something, it's like hearing the first two notes of a song and you can always identify the song. They can just say a word and I know exactly what they're talking about.

Heidi Julavits

song talking two

I obviously read and adore traditional fiction. I teach traditional fiction, I also teach all kind of not-so-traditional fiction. And since I'm such a plot buff, and I'm really such a narrative buff, I can't seem to relinquish my - not just reliance - but excitement about those traditional techniques.

Heidi Julavits

narrative technique fiction

Every once in a while when I get a migraine, I like to think, "Who hates me today?"

Heidi Julavits

hate today thinking

I think female-female relationships interest me so much more because they're so encoded. There is kind of a psychic element that happens within groups of women. Whenever I hang out with my female friends, I feel like context is never needed.

Heidi Julavits

psychics elements thinking

There are some writers who are done when they finish a draft because they've thought it through beforehand. Whereas I'll finish a first draft and I'm nowhere near done.

Heidi Julavits

done firsts

If I'd done the discovery before I wrote the book, then there would be nothing to discover. It would feel dutiful instead of exciting.

Heidi Julavits

would-be discovery book

My husband is always accusing me of being a context-free individual. He asks something and he has no idea where it came from or what it related to. I have to supply him with way more supplementary information than I ever have to supply my female friends.

Heidi Julavits

accusing-me husband ideas

I want the plot to be as complicated as possible. Usually I'll write all the way through to an end, and then I go back and try to fix the ending so that it makes sense. I don't think out the plot ahead of time.

Heidi Julavits

writing trying thinking

I don't usually read my reviews. I've noticed older reviewers are much more bothered by the plot complications. Younger reviews don't seem to be bothered by the complications at all.

Heidi Julavits

complication reviews plot

Some people just make me feel mentally endangered. Whatever dark stuff is going on in their head, it's coming at me and I need to escape.

Heidi Julavits

dark people needs

The dreamed outcome of launching a psychic attack can make you feel small and petty. I think for that reason I'm going to refrain from launching any.

Heidi Julavits

psychics outcomes thinking

When you are expending much energy on someone else's demise, it's like you weaken your psychic immune system.

Heidi Julavits

psychics demise energy

I used to have a really sharp memory. And its loss has proven destabilizing from an identity perspective.

Heidi Julavits

perspective loss memories

Sometimes it can be useful to read your bad reviews.

Heidi Julavits

bad-reviews reviews sometimes

I surround myself with women who inspire me to be more ambitious, and who constantly astonish me with their magnetism, style, and smarts.

Heidi Julavits

smart style inspire

The twisty nature of psychic attack - are you being attacked, or did you bring this attack on yourself? - speaks to me of an American cultural paradox we all grapple with. There's the rampant litigiousness of our society, and the desire to blame others for our misfortunes.

Heidi Julavits

psychics our-society desire

To believe you're being psychically attacked gives you an understanding of your illness that no Western doctor can provide; this can be reassuring when you've exhausted the Western doctor tool kit, and the doctors are sending you to acupuncturists for pain relief.

Heidi Julavits

doctors pain believe

If I can just stop being so stressed out, maybe my cancer will get better! This is far less scary than treating a disease of unknown etiology.

Heidi Julavits

stressed cancer scary

I always think it's useful to get an outside opinion.

Heidi Julavits

opinion thinking

I needed to understand this random bad bit of luck as part of a bigger design. Otherwise I was suffering meaninglessly. This made the suffering a lot worse.