06/24/2025
This week’s features Stephen Statler, author of GODS OF GLENHAVEN.
Where do you write? ✍🏼
My best ideas pop up during walks, and one of my favorite walks is the Sea Cliff trail in San Francisco, pictured here. I also write at cafes, on the back patio of my house and—occasionally—at my desk.
Do you have any sacred writing rituals, or rituals that at least help you write later on? ✍🏼
My favorite story about writing goes like this: A Warner Bros. executive in the 1940s walks into an office on the studio lot where he finds two staff writers (yes, they used to have those) pacing back and forth and talking animatedly. “I thought I was paying you guys to write,” the exec says. “This is writing,” says one of the writers. “The rest is typing.”
I often voice-text whole paragraphs into my phone (Google Docs) while I’m walking. Walking also fine-tunes my bu****it detector, and I often reject whole chapters I’ve already written because they suddenly seem false. I walk every couple of hours during any writing session to fend off fatigue.
I also love to read out loud—the book launch for Gods of Glenhaven, pictured here, was a lot of fun.
