Chris Higgins
(1995-1996)
How would you characterize the influence of your YWW experience in your life?
It made me confident that I could actually be a creative person in the real world — that I didn’t need someone to bless me or let me into a secret club. It was, for me, an alternate reality in which basically everyone was smart, talented, and interesting. Having grown up in the middle of nowhere, this was overwhelming, in a wonderful way.
After YWW, I wrote to several friends I’d made at the workshop, some of them for many years. I still have close friends from the workshop, and it’s been almost two decades since I first attended.
What’s the best advice you can give a Young Writer (in general or in your specific genre)?
Plan to have your heart broken repeatedly when it comes to publishing, Hollywood, and other “big deal” situations. Know that when you’ve made something amazing that doesn’t make it out into the world as you had planned, it’s not the end — it’s just the beginning of your next thing.
What do you find yourself most often reading or listening to lately and why?
For music, I often return to early Dylan (1964, Philharmonic Hall is great), The Thermals, Rilo Kiley, Yo La Tengo, Philip Glass, and the Pixies. I play a lot of music while I work, and I feel like I need to know all the words or it’ll distract me. (These are all artists with records that I’ve memorized.)
As for recently-read books, I enjoyed Ready Player One, I Am Legend, and Trustee from the Toolroom. I think the only connecting quality there is that these were page-turners, and lately I feel like turning pages.
The only magazine I read regularly these days is The Magazine. Look it up.