A JCPL librarian interviews published writers about their favorite writing prompts—exercises that can help inspire, focus, and improve your creative writing. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, a novelist, essayist, or poet, you’ll find ideas and advice to motivate you to keep writing. A partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.
PtoP Ep 30 McPherson Edit 1
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Carrie: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Prompt to Page podcast, a partnership between the Jesamine County Public Library and the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. I'm your host, librarian and poet, Carrie Green. Each episode, we interview a published writer who shares their favorite writing prompt. Our guest today is J.
C. McPherson. J. C. has a background in writing, electricity, and general troubleshooting. A recipient of the 2022 2023 National Leaders of Color Fellowship through SouthArts, he is an Associate for the Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative, Creative Writing Instructor, and Arts Administrator. He is a member of the Affrilachian Poets and the author of numerous collections of poetry.
He's also a member of the Society of American Baseball Research. Welcome, JC, and thanks for joining us.
JC: Thank you. It's great to be [00:01:00] with you today.
Carrie: So, your colleague, Claudia Love Maier, appeared on the podcast, I think in 2022, can you maybe refresh our memory for those who didn't catch that episode about what the Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative is and what your, maybe what your role is with it?
JC: Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative was an initiative that was started back in 2022 here at the Carnegie Center. And to make a long story short, we wanted the Carnegie Center to repair its history of not reaching out to the Black community the way that it should have. Especially in response to the killings of George Floyd and, um, it's, it's not funny, but it's ironic that we're doing this today because this being the four year anniversary of Breonna Taylor being [00:02:00] killed, in Louisville.
We wanted to try to eliminate as many barriers as we could for Black people who wanted to take classes at the Carnegie Center, who wanted to develop their writing, who wanted guidance with their writing. And that's what we've been doing for, the past couple of years. We've had a lot of success.
We were just like talking about this morning, like what we've been able to pull off over the past couple of years, and it's been a it's been a fruitful special time. It's a good start because we me and Claudia were never the type to achieve something and just rest on that. And we always want to do more, and we always want to push the envelope as far as the programming that we do.
Carrie: Yeah. We're glad that you're here and that you've been able to do so, so much great work. Thank you.
JC: Appreciate that.
Carrie: So you mentioned in your bio that you're a member [00:03:00] of the Society of American Baseball Research.
JC: Yes.
Carrie: And. And I think you also write poems about baseball, correct?
JC: Yes, I do.
Carrie: So does that membership and that research, does that kind of inform what you write?
JC: It does. I became a member, a few years ago because I have this, let's say, I have this, I have a story that I want to tell about a baseball player who's played in one, who played one game. back in the late 1800s. And, if it pans out, it's, it's a pretty amazing story. And I've been a baseball fan my whole life when my my sister used to just grab me from whatever I'm doing and drag me in the living room so she would be allowed in there to listen to the radio and rock me in a chair as she listened to the Cincinnati Reds play.
So, [00:04:00] I'm a lifelong Cincinnati Reds fan, for good or for worse, which most of the time it's for worse. Um, but Yeah, it's getting to be that, that time of year, spring training is going on right now and opening day is the day after my birthday this year. So yeah, I can, I can, I can smell baseball in the air right now and I'm really excited.
Carrie: Yeah, well hopefully you'll get, you'll get some more writing material out of this season in a, in a good way.
JC: I always, even if we have a terrible team, there's, there's nothing like sitting at a baseball game and just baseball, like being at a baseball game, it's the only sport that it really lends itself to conversation and like, just like the, the ambient sounds and like the pace of the game, there's always moments between the action in which you can comment about the game or, you know, Just talk about whatever that that's baseball is a [00:05:00] very very poetic game.
It's it's not for everybody
I mean, it's, I get it when people say that baseball is boring, it's like watching paint dry. I was like, yeah, I get that. I really do get that. But for people who are really fans of the game, I mean, it's, yeah, I'll be, I'll be a baseball fan till the end of my life.
Carrie: Do you use writing prompts yourself in your own writing process or did you maybe start off using writing prompts and then kind of work away from it?
What's, what's your experience with writing prompts like?
JC: Well, I was talking to, Katerina Stoyakova the other day, um, about poetry and I'm a trained master electrician. And that's the way that I, I, I, I troubleshoot things. That's just immediately the way that my mind works. And I told her [00:06:00] that I've never considered myself a poet.
Um, I consider myself a person who can write poetry. Cause like writing a poem is no different than wiring up a new room, like putting new lights in the outlets. And it's a process. . So prompts I've always had a lot of success with that were whatever prompt that was given to me. Mm-Hmm. . because it's, it, it's just sitting back and looking at things.
I've, I've never let myself become overwhelmed by, oh, I have to create, I have to do this. Mm-Hmm. . But it, it's a process. I have something that I want to tell and it's just figuring out. Okay, how do I tell it?
Carrie: Yeah, but I mean, that's a really interesting metaphor using your background of electricity. It's so interesting to me, I think, especially poets, you know, and I'm a poet myself with a day job.
We all have these different jobs, different work that can in some way [00:07:00] informs what we do. So, so that's really interesting to hear how your work informs your process.
JC: I used to be, like I said, a master electrician, but working here at like the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning now, it's, it's, it's different.
Because I work around a lot of creative people. Who have their own processes of doing things, and it's interesting. It's almost like being on the Discovery Channel, just sitting back and watching how other people create.
Carrie: Right.
JC: It's fascinating to me. And I love I have that inside access to a bunch of different writers on the regular.
It definitely feeds my writing.
Carrie: Is there a process that is maybe least like yours? Um, someone, I mean you don't have to name names, but I'm just curious if there's someone that you've learned from because their process is so different from [00:08:00] yours.
JC: I was talking with Frank Walker actually about this and he was telling me how, I mean he gets up at like 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning.
To write every day. And I don't see how people write every single day, just setting out that time that at four o'clock I'm gonna sit down. I'm just gonna start writing. Um, that's something that I can't do
because I don't see the point of just sitting there. If I'm, if I'm not like, like writing something down, I'm just not going to sit there and write. Like I'm gonna think about it. And the majority of the time I've written 75, 80 percent of a poem inside of my head, before it ever goes down to the page.
And I actually think that, can be attributed to me being 48 years old, roughly [00:09:00] the same age as hip hop and thinking like an MC, always thinking of like on my feet, thinking like rhymes and everything, and, like, whatever I'm doing, that creative process is going on in my head, in the background. And, , just in everyday life, I pick up on, like, lines, or words, or just thoughts and feelings that I hear from, like, other people.
And, like, you sit there and put that away. You know, it's a jigsaw puzzle, just putting things together. And then when I finally got that chunk in my head, I'm like, all right, I can put it on the page and I can build around that now..
Carrie: Your antennae are kind of always up.
JC: Oh yeah.
Carrie: Well, would you like to tell us, about your writing prompt, your favorite writing prompt?
JC: My favorite writing prompt , it goes hand in hand with, my electrical troubleshooting mind because like when I'm presented with a problem , it doesn't matter if it's [00:10:00] technical problem on the computer or if it's some kind of mechanical problem or if it's a creative problem. The first thing that I do is go back to the absolute basics What could be the simplest solution to this?
I don't, I don't, I don't think I've ever had a writer's block. I just think it's, is it a time for me to write right now? If it's not, oh well, move on to something else. Cause there's, I, I, I'm not going to torture myself if I'm not creating. But my favorite writing prompt, and I think I was, taught this while I think maybe back when I was like 19 or 20 years old is that if you woke up a different color, not race wise, but if you woke up and you were red or if you woke up and you were purple, write about that without using [00:11:00] that color
in time to writing.
And that just, I don't know, that's always work making me just think outside of just thinking outside of my lane. Like how can I describe, describe what's it feel like being purple without saying purple?
Carrie: Yeah, that is an interesting challenge.
JC: And, and most of the time it turns out really fun. I mean, uh, I think a lot of times we, especially in writing, we, we, we take ourselves too seriously.
, Because like we, we write about at times we write about really serious things, really heavy things. And , that's great, but I mean, you got to cleanse the palate.
Carrie: Mm
hmm.
JC: I had a , a librarian , in high school, Woodford County High School, her name was Deanna Dennis, and I would go into the library all the time, and back in high school, I was just reading, like, these really heavy
[00:12:00] things and she was just like, look, you got to clean your palate, man. I didn't understand what she meant and she goes, here read this and she gave me a Harlequin romance novel. And I'm like, what is this? And she was just like, now read this. Just read it. And I did. I mean, it was horrible, but I found myself laughing through it and just like, like, like having a good time with it.
And I get it. You have to clean, you cleanse your palate and, and just, just go back to the basics. And that, that prompt just, I pick a color and just like, write about that color. Mhm. And that always, always just shakes something loose and it like relaxes me and it's just like, alright man, you know you can still do this, just relax.
It's still there. You know, just, just, just work with it a little and it'll be there.
Carrie: Mhm. Yeah. I think a lot of writing is Tricking yourself into [00:13:00] doing the writing. So it's great. Yeah, it's great to hear other ways of doing that and ways that you might have fun doing that.
JC: You have to. , like I said, a lot of the things that we , can write can be serious and it can like tear us up.
But I don't ever want to, leave something that I wrote and feel like worse for wear. I think writing, I think I'm starting to appreciate writing more as, like, I get older. Um, I'm starting to understand that it can be cathartic. And again, that goes back to me just looking at everything from a technical eye the first time like I encounter something.
I'm starting to like really understand the benefits of how writing can help, can help you heal. It can help you learn. It can help you grow and just not be that [00:14:00] process. That's the only way that I can write now, write right now, is to look at it as a process. Like I, I'm at A, how do I get to B?
Carrie: Right.
JC: So.
Carrie: Yeah. Do you have any other tips that you'd like to give our listeners? Any, any writing or reading or whatever kind of thing that's on your mind?
JC: Definitely relax. Yeah. Definitely. I mean, I, the world's not going to end if you don't, you know, write the greatest poem or write the greatest story that's like ever been written, you know, life will go on.
Um, and don't take yourself seriously, no matter how successful you may become.
I mean, like, don't lean on that. I mean, that's great that you accomplished something, but [00:15:00] all right, what's next?
I mean, it's always like, I appreciate the things that I accomplished, but you know what? , there's still a road ahead of me, and I want to see what's over that next hill.
And I want to see what's around that next corner. I've already been behind me, and I have those memories, but you know, I want to see what's next. And it's, writing should be fun, even if it's heaviest times, you, you should still find enjoyment in that. And if you're not finding enjoyment in it, I mean, back away from it.
I mean, because, like, if you try to force yourself when you're not enjoying something, it's, it's not fun. It's going to do more harm than good.
And read, yes, and read as much as you can. And you'd be surprised where you can find inspiration from. Because I, I, I don't read a lot of poetry. To let you in on the secret, I'm not a big fan of [00:16:00] poetry.
You know, people tell me like, oh, you really need to read this. And I'm like, Oh, I'll read that. But I don't seek poetry out. If I'm not reading about baseball, I'm reading about space. , if I'm not reading about space at that point, I'm just like catching up on things that I've been stacking up for years.
So I rarely touch , like fiction or poetry, anything like that, but I find so much inspiration, , like reading, like, like baseball, like I have so many books that I just like read about the history of baseball and just nuances about baseball and it's absolutely amazing the stories that come from that.
So don't like, so always be always like, like you said, have the antenna up because there's, you can find inspiration in anything.
Carrie: Yeah, that's, that's great advice. Does the Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative, do you have any events [00:17:00] coming up that you'd like to mention?
JC: Actually , March 21st at our next burn the mic reading, we're going to have Dorian Hairston come back and, , do a reading.
I mean, like, I love talking to Dorian because he, like, he's a baseball head and like his new collection about Josh Gibson is wow, it's, it's one of the most well put together and finely written collections of poetry that I have read in recent memory. I would say that even if he wasn't like a little brother to me.
But I mean, the kid has a mighty pen and like, I'm, I'm proud of his work. Let's see, in, in May, our next, , Black and Lit book session is going to be, uh, with Shayla Lawson. So we're, we're looking forward to that because she's, she's such an incredible writer and even a more special human being.
I'm so glad she's a, a dear friend of [00:18:00] mine. So you know, we, we, we always have like something going on and, People can check us out at CarnegieCenterLex. org and see everything we have going on and check out our page on Facebook too. Yeah. We're always updating that.
Carrie: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your writing prompt and your process.
We really appreciate it.
JC: Oh, thank you so much. I'm just glad I was able to come on.
Carrie: Thank you for listening to Prompt to Page. To learn more about the Jessamine County Public Library, visit JessPubLib. org. Find the Carnegie Center for Literacy and learning at carnegiecenterlex.org. Our music is by Archipelago, an all instrumental musical collaboration between three Lexington based university professors.
Find out more about [00:19:00] Archipelago: Songs from Quarantine Volumes One and Two at the links on our podcast website.