Wands Spotlight: Emily St. James

Brilliant genius, Emily St. James, is back on Witch's Mark talking about her writing process. You may remember her from our conversation about the Three of Cups.

Emily is part of a television writing team with her wife, Libby Hill (they are currently writing on the hit show, Yellowjackets). She's also a novelist and her very excellent book, Woodworking, comes out in 2025. Emily has written TV criticism for Vox, The AV Club, and many others. She's been published REPEATEDLY in the New York Times and other impressive publications. Oh, and she recently published a book that dives deep into the hit television show, Lost! You'll like her writing, I promise, and I one hundred percent recommend subscribing to her newsletter, Episodes.

Emily is one of my favorite people on the planet, in spite of the fact that she really enjoys writing and is extremely prolific (annoying). Enjoy!

How would you describe yourself? Do you use the word “artist”? Do you use another word?

It would never occur to me to use the word “artist” in the more generalized sense. I think I grew up too firmly associating it with the visual arts. I typically call myself a writer. I dabble a little bit in all forms of writing, so I don’t like to get more specific than that.

How do you know when it’s time to move out of the envisioning/brainstorming/inspiration gathering process and get to work?

I don’t really do a formal division between planning and writing when it comes to self-generated work. Typically, I just write. I’m not afraid to throw out whole long passages if need be. I recently wrote over 80 pages of a novel that just didn’t work, so I started over from page one. But I’d learned a lot in that process. For me, writing is fun, so I don’t mind when things hit a dead-end. On Yellowjackets, of course, we have a very typical TV-writing process for how we approach writing scripts, and I like that system a lot too, especially for collaborations.

Are you a planner/outliner? Is your process more intuitive? How did you discover a process that worked for you? And have you ever worked differently?

I generally go into something with a beginning and an ending – typically when a story suggests itself to me, it will come with those two things – and then I figure out the middle from there. I will outline, but often after I’ve written a first draft. I developed this process by being deeply traumatized as a child. 

If you’re working on a piece of art/writing, and you suddenly get a new idea, how do you deal with that interruption? And how do you determine whether that new idea belongs in this piece or a different one? If you’ve mapped out how something is supposed to be, do you ever divert from the plan?

I am typically switching between at least two projects at a time and ideally more. The novelist and TV writer Emily St. John Mandel (no relation) offered some advice I took to heart, which is that when she gets stuck in a book, she’ll go and work on a different section. So I just go and write an entirely different book or script. Having multiple things going on is good for me.

Can you describe the worst part of your creative process? Which step do you enjoy the least?

The thing I like least is when a thing isn’t working, I know it’s not working, and I can’t figure out how to fix it. This typically happens with greater acuity later in the process. The last major revision on Woodworking, for instance, had several moments where I was, like, “This isn’t working, and I know it’s not, but why??” I experience this as a severe nausea, and I hate it. But also, when my stomach starts getting sick is when I know something isn’t working, and I have to go back and figure out what. This also means I have to write a thing in chronological order, and I can’t just skip among different parts, even if I’m deep enough in the process that I have a pretty firm idea of what’s what. Did I mention I was deeply traumatized as a child? 

What is your favorite part of the creative process and why?

All of it? Even when I hate it, there’s nothing I would rather be doing.

How active is your inner critic in your process? How do you deal with your inner critic? Does he/she ever have anything helpful to say? Do you have any tips for how to silence them?

I don’t really have an inner critic. I suspect that whoever she is gets a lot of exercise working as an actual critic. The only time she comes out to play is when the thing is done, and I become convinced it sucks. Then, usually, I reread it, and I’m, like, “Oh, this is pretty good,” and it’s euphoric. 

Tell me a story of creative conflict, either internally or in a collaboration. How did you work through the conflict? Is creative friction or conflict something that you seek out in a creative process, or try to avoid?

I guess I try to avoid that kind of conflict. Earnest discussion and disagreement is necessary in any collaboration, and as part of a writing team, I’m used to some degree of it, but also, Libby and I are very good at being, like, “What if this was different? What if this was completely flipped around?” The one time a creative conflict became intractable was on Arden, the podcast I co-created, and I just quit because it wasn’t worth it to me to keep going on something where it had become clear I was an impediment to the process.

How do you deal with burnout?

I have only recently become aware that I might, theoretically, experience burnout at some point. I usually just recharge my meters by going to the movies or going for a walk.

What is your spiritual/psychological relationship to your work?

It is the only thing in my life that feels purely holy.

Do you enjoy collaboration or are you more of a solo artist? Is there a story you could tell me about how you came to understand this about yourself?

I love both. I think I slightly prefer working with a partner/team, but I also love locking myself in a room and writing a book. I do think to some extent art isn’t real until it has a viewer, so a book, for me, almost isn’t an actual thing until it has been appraised by other eyes. The process of collaboration means that this is happening from the word go. (Also, all art is collaborative, even if there’s not a formal notes process. It is always a collaboration between the artist and audience.)

What is your ideal creative environment?

Either a large room filled with creative people tossing ideas around or a quiet office with a beautiful naturescape outside. But I also write a lot in coffee shops, so what do I know? 

Can you tell me a story of a time that you got to say “I told you so” creatively? Where you stuck to your guns and turned out to be right?

I hired an editor to work on an early draft of Woodworking, and she really thought I should change the title because it made the book sound like it was for dudes. Obviously, the jury is still out on this, but I’m glad I stuck with my gut here. I think it’s a very good title.

Have you ever stuck to your guns and turned out to be wrong? How did you handle that?

I think a lot of what happened on Arden is the fault of my inability to let go of creative control in favor of letting others’ ideas shine through. As mentioned, I quit entirely.

What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done creatively?

Probably move to California in the first place. I had really good job offers in Omaha, Duluth, and Raleigh, and I took a slightly less good one so I could come out here because I knew I had to try for myself. Then it took almost twenty years to “break through,” but we were all working some things out, and being in proximity to the industry did help my journalism career.

Have you ever had a burst of inspiration where your creative process has felt like channeling? Where something artistic feels like it is pouring out of you, quicker than you can even process it? Do you have any idea how or why that happened?

This, in general, is how I experience writing. It feels like I’m transcribing another world. Again, I suspect the deeply traumatizing nature of my childhood has something to do with this. I got really good at dissociating, and then I figured out how to monetize that because capitalism.

What is your relationship to deadlines? Do you love them? Hate them? Why?

I don’t mind them. They probably keep me honest.

What is the best piece of creative advice you’ve ever gotten?

Libby and I talk about the line “the thing that gets you to the thing” in Halt and Catch Fire a lot. Sometimes, you need to wander down an unproductive alley to figure out where you’re supposed to be going in the first place. Also, the entirety of Samson Raphaelson’s The Human Nature of Playwriting is my creative North Star.

What is the best piece of creative advice you’ve given?

A thing I say a lot that I think I believe is: “Don’t write what you know; write what you know to be true.” A thing I think is true. Mostly.

Also, I think all creative people should get into tabletop roleplaying games because it’s by far the best thing I’ve found for creative elasticity. And if you just don’t want to go to the trouble of finding a group, there are a ton of great solo games out there. Just avoid Dungeons & Dragons.

Have you ever had a creative failure? What did you learn from it?

I have never failed once in my life. (No, I worked in a writing partnership for many years that ultimately just didn’t work out, but I got Arden out of it, and I learned a lot about what I’m looking for in a creative partner. Does this count?)