#sparkchamber 051721 — Simone de Muñoz
One thing for sure about the crazy upside-down pandemic world we’re living in is it’s never 100% clear what day it is. [Today is Tax Day.] Another sure thing is that the pandemic will leave a mark on the creative output of the era. Cut to the perfect #sparkchamber proofpoint, writer Simone de Muñoz.
Simone writes fiction — dystopian or utopian, depending on your perspective — where women drive the story … and sometimes even run the world. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from UC Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from MIT, which she uses in her day job as a data analyst at a nonprofit. “At my core, I’m a policy person trying to make the world a better place.”
In her spare time, she writes personal essays and fiction, both of which are influenced by her perspective as a woman — “I find pain points in the world as it currently exists and write about the possibility of change.”
Her debut novel Manflu imagines a world where women are in charge after a pandemic kills or weakens men. “In part, I ask what policy changes would flow from a world run by women.” Sign me up!
1.] Where do ideas come from?
Ideas come from being out in the world experiencing life. The pandemic has been challenging from a creative perspective because everything feels so stagnant.
2.] What is the itch you are scratching?
Writing is solving the puzzle of getting my ideas into a form that makes sense to other people. When I write, I’m transported into a flow state where time races by. I write because I crave that feeling.
3.] Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?
To write my novel, I set a goal of 1,000 words per week because that was what I could fit into my busy life. I work full-time and have two young kids. Now that I don’t have that looming deadline, I write when inspiration strikes. I enjoy writing on the weekends when I have a bigger block of free time to lose myself in my work.
4.] How do you know when you are done?
I read a piece through several times to improve flow and cut out extraneous words, but I’m not a perfectionist. When something reads smoothly, it’s done.
