After I got to my MFA in Wisconsin, I didn’t write the whole first semester because I was just struggling so hard with imposter syndrome that I was like, “Oh, god, they’re going find out that I don’t belong here and they’re going to send me back.” But at some point, I had this idea for this story. I think I was watching something on Netflix, I don’t remember what it was. But I oftentimes will get a seed of a story while I’m watching movies or TV shows or something. And what I do is I collect images and ideas and things in my Notes folder on my phone. At some point, my brain is making these connections by itself. And then I realize that these things are connected, so I move them in a folder together and that’s how they become a story.
Dantiel W. Moniz is the author of the debut collection, Milk Blood Heat. Find the FIRST DRAFT podcast at this link:
https://megaphone.link/LIT5467887241
