Erin sits on a pink chair in front of a bookshelf, in the corner of her room, next to a framed Rolling Stones cover of Lizzo wearing a royal blue, America Hates Us shirt with the words “Blue Lives Murder” written on it in bold font.

A Time of Building and Releasing: Notes on COVID-19, the Creative Process, Rigidity, and the Possibility of Renewal

How do you best serve the world through your purpose?

I feel pulled in a million different directions, brainstorming three different essays in my mind, I’m needing to sleep, time is escaping faster than ever it seems, yet the hour seems frozen. I’m procrastinating, feeling pressure to produce, but I let myself wake up this morning without making my bed because my virgo-rising-ness needed a break. Note to self: processing, thinking, staring out the window, cooking, listening to music, watching shitty TV, is sometimes crucial to the creative process.

In an interview on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon asked C Pam Zhang, author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold, “How were you doing in this time? Are you writing? Are you writing about this — what’s going on — something other than this?”

“I’m not writing. I think we have to expand our definition of writing. I’ve taken to saying in recent years that walking is writing. Crying is writing. Talking to your friend is writing. All these experiences help you give a shape to what you’re thinking about the world, and that will come back to the page eventually, even if you’re not able to form words right now.”