We are excited to share that one of our recent WGI Writers, Maggie Boxey, was featured on a TEDxOjai talk this year! She participated in our workshops partnered with #MEAction Network, an organization focused on building awareness and power to achieve effective and well-funded research, treatment, care, and support for all people with ME (Myalgic encephalomyelitis) and Long COVID.
Watch Maggie’s TEDxOjai Talk above and check out our interview with her below!
You can find more of her work at her website: maggieboxeywrites.com
1. What was your experience like giving a TEDx Talk? How did you get that opportunity?
It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Beautiful and brutal at the same time. I had to pace aggressively before and after, and travel is always a question mark for my body these days, but the message was worth the risk.
Ojai has a special place in my writing journey. I’ve gone on a couple of writing retreats there, and when I found out there was going to be a TEDxOjai and the theme was “Rewrite the World,” I had to throw my name into that hat. If you have the goal of giving a TEDx talk, the website has upcoming events listed- see individual events for the application process.
2. What is your earliest memory of writing?
I wrote a poem in 2nd or 3rd grade about being a twinless twin. My brother passed away at 36 hours old, and that was the first time I tried to put something big into words. It was featured in a little school anthology, and I was so proud of it. I wish I could tell you that I have written consistently ever since, but that is not my story. I had to spend many years as “not a writer” and without “a creative bone in my body” before I could step into my role as writer.
3. What/Who inspires your writing?
My grandmama, Rosalee Jay, wrote a weekly column in our small-town newspaper for decades. I still hear her voice when I sit down to write.
Pain inspires me too. Heartbreak. Joy. Fire to change myself and the world. Wrong things that need to be made right. And the tiny ordinary moments that we tend to overlook. I write to process and I write to share what I’ve learned about the process.
4. What do you think makes a good story?
Relatability, even in the most magical worlds. Something true enough that you recognize yourself inside it, even if the story isn’t about you.
5. What are some of your favorite books, TV shows, movies?
Books: The Color Purple. The Parable of the Sower. My Reading Life by Pat Conroy. Proud plug: The 3 Things: A Practical Path to Collective Recovery by me <3—
TV Shows: Ted Lasso, Shrinking, The Good Place, Schitt’s Creek, Lovecraft Country, The Gilded Age, and right now I’m obsessed with Welcome to Derry.
Movies: Marvel (especially Black Panther). Sinners. The Shawshank Redemption. And I deeply, unapologetically, love Christmas movies: Love Actually, Elf, A Christmas Story, Scrooged, A Christmas Carol (just about any version), Noelle, and so many more.
6. Tell us about your writing process.
My writing comes in stuttered starts and stalls. Writing with ME/CFS is a whole different landscape. Before I got sick, I had a solid morning pages practice, three longhand pages every morning. Plus, writing a book is intense and requires dedicated practice. I wrote my book through illness, but didn’t have a diagnosis so I regularly struggled with deadlines and crashes not knowing what was going on- I pushed through.
Now, writing by hand is exhausting and can trigger PEM, so I only do classic morning pages when I’m really inspired or really stuck. I use Goodnotes or the Notes app on my phone to capture ideas that feel important. My mind stays busy, but energetically, I can’t always follow through.
I gather all those fragments of future stories every few weeks, and shape them into something I can share when my body has the capacity. These last few months have been rough, so my writing has been frustratingly sporadic.
7. What is the most surprising thing you have learned from writing?
The resistance (blocks, procrastination, self-editor, inner a-hole) isn’t unique to me. I used it as proof that I wasn’t a real writer, I had this idea that real writers write with ease and confidence. And maybe some do, but I’ve found the best of the best put their pants on one leg at a time, and also wonder if they’ll ever write anything worth a crap ever again- and then they do. (Book recs on writing: The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield, On Writing by Stephen King, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Also unrelated: I just realized that I avoid writing by reading about writing ha!)
8. How did participating in a Writers Guild Initiative workshop help your writing, if at all?
It gave me community. Writing with ME/CFS often feels like writing from the bottom of a well. It’s dark and quiet, and the only light is whatever lands directly overhead. WGI has been that light for me this month.
9. Any advice, tips, resources or guidance you’d like to share for someone who wants to write?
Don’t should on yourself. Yes, writers write, but nobody can tell you what your practice is supposed to look like but you.
Give yourself permission to keep creating new normals. What worked before might not work now, and that’s okay.
Be kind to yourself. Feel the fear and write anyway. The world doesn’t need perfect writing; it needs YOUR writing.
The first draft is for me. The revisions are what others will read. Don’t edit yourself until the first draft is entirely down on paper.
