Write Now
Write Now with Tomas Moniz
How connection fuels an acclaimed novelist
Write Now provides a glimpse into how different people write for a living. Today's edition features Tomas Moniz, whose debut novel Big Familia was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Debut Novel 2020 Award, a finalist for a LAMBDA 2020 award for Bisexual Fiction and a finalist for the Foreword Review Indies Award. He edited Rad Dad, Rad Families, and the children's book Collaboration/Colaboración. He teaches at Berkeley City College.Who are you?
I’m Tomas Moniz: a teacher at a community college, a writer, performer, father, brokenhearted Raiders fan and a community collaborator based in Oakland, California.
What do you write?
I write in multiple genres. Initially, I did most of my writing as a creative nonfiction zinester, exploring the ideas of building family and raising children in radical ways. But I evolved into a poetry writer and fiction writer. My most recent novel was a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway award and a few others. However, I still enjoy making zines that I mail out.
Where do you write?
I tend to write at my desk and then at coffee shops. I enjoy keeping books around me when I write (right now I have Song of Solomon and Giovanni’s Room) so when I get bored I can pick up a book rather than scroll social media; for the most part, I just type away on a keyboard. I reread everything the next day. That back and forth between writing and revising keeps me connected to that process.
When do you write?
I discovered morning is a good time for me now that I’m no longer doing the young child parenting. When I was raising babies I only wrote after they were in bed. Today, I wake up, have coffee, do my initial scrolling on the Internet, and then I usually give myself, depending on where I am in the writing process, some type of goal. It might be 500 words a day or editing 10 pages. Basically, I just try to follow what Nina Lacour said in one of her podcasts: Write some words every day.
Why do you write?
Why do I write is an interesting question. I think if I were to be philosophical it would be to figure out what I’m feeling, to push myself to become a better person, especially when I’m writing about how to parent, or be a better partner, or to explore the edges of desire or anger or love. But I also really enjoy writing for the pleasure of performing it, the intimacy and vulnerability I feel when I share it with an audience or small group of friends. When I get random letters from strangers who picked up a book in the library or found a zine in a bookstore and they write to me how they saw themselves in my work. That kind of connection is worth everything.
How do you overcome writer’s block?
I’ve come to believe you don’t get over writer’s block; you just kind of turn away from it. That’s the best way I can describe it. I don’t fight it, so if I can’t write, I don’t write. I’ll beat myself up sometimes, but at some point, I’ll get sick of hearing myself complain and suddenly I realize I’m starting to write again. I love postcards and writing to people: that gets me back in the seat, that gets a pen in my hand and then suddenly I am writing. Find the little things that get you to put pen to paper, your butt in a chair.
Bonus: What do you enjoy doing when not writing?
When I am not writing, I enjoy hanging out with friends and going to shows. As I write this now, we’re in lockdown and, of course, I’m romanticizing all the ways we socially interacted. The hikes on trails, the standing in line next to each other, the front rows at concerts. But really I just enjoy being around people and, of course, being around people helps me be a better writer: listening, interacting, observing, celebrating, living.
Write Now is curated by Justin Cox. Want more great stories like this one delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to Justin's newsletter!
