Wands Spotlight: Jihan Crowther

The suit of wands is all about creativity, impulse, passion, and inspiration. For the next few weeks, in addition to your weekly tarot deep-dives, you'll be getting interviews with some of my favorite writers and artists answering questions that are specifically related to the Wands.

First up, we have my dear friend, Jihan Crowther, celebrated playwright, television writer, and essayist. Jihan's television credits include Daisy Jones and the Six, Under the Bridge, The Underground Railroad, and The Man in the High Castle. Her plays have been produced all over the country (and the world!). Another fun fact about Jihan is that whatever television show she's writing for, she always tries to convince the room to do a story about periods. I love her for that. Enjoy!

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

I say I’m a writer. It’s been a while since I’ve felt like an artist. Though I think of other writers as artists.

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

Oftentimes it’s a scene, line or image that comes to mind that makes the writing of the story feel urgent. Then I know I’ve reached the end of brainstorming. Inspiration gathering is ongoing.

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?

For plays, the process is more intuitive. I just start writing and see where it wants to go. But for TV, I’ve learned to appreciate outlining. It fits the form, to be honest, and I’ll make myself less bonkers in the writing of the pilot or episode if I just outline first. If I try to write TV like a play, it’ll be a mess.

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 never think of a new idea as an interruption. It’s a relief in some ways to keep coming up with ideas. Plus, I like to work on several things at once. If I get a new idea while working on something, I immediately write it down to get it out of my head. Then the idea will eventually tell me if it belongs in what I’m working on or something else.

I’m happy to divert from my plan if a fresh idea arises. But it’s gotta be excellent for me to undo a story that feels solid.

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

Getting stuck in an endless rewriting loop is the pits. You know, where you aren’t entirely sure it’s not just getting progressively worse. And when you get to the point where you don’t even remember what you liked about the idea in the first place. That part can kick rocks.

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

I just absolutely love working through a new idea. Everything is possible and there’s a real magic to it, a discovery. What’s gonna happen? Are all of your characters going to make it? Who can say? I certainly don’t know. The fun is finding out. 

And I like finishing a project (even if it’s just a first draft). It’s just really satisfying. Like finishing a 1,000-piece puzzle. And it proves to me that I can do it again so I’m less afraid to start the next thing.

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? 

My inner critic is pretty quiet early on because we have an agreement: she lets me write in peace while it’s still fun and fresh, then she’s allowed to have her say during editing. That’s her time to shine.

If I hear my inner critic trying to infringe upon my creative time I just say, literally, “not now” which works better than you’d expect. Because I can’t fight myself all day and expect to get anything useful done.

How do you deal with burnout?

Rest. Lots of rest and then a mix of little creative adventures and time in nature. Then reading and other creative pursuits unrelated to writing. I often listen to music a lot. Finally, figuring out a more sustainable way to work on the next thing. Sometimes burnout is just overwork and demands that reach beyond capacity.

What is your spiritual/psychological relationship to your work? 

Hmm, I do think writing is one of the things I'm meant to do while I'm here. I don't mean that in a "fate" way, more that work and that creative expression aligned with skill and obsession. I believe I'm lucky to have landed in this particular time in history when it was possible for me to do it. And, in addition, the circumstances of my life made even the pursuit of it possible. I hope I get to keep doing it for a living.

I learned in my late teens that my favorite great-uncle wanted to be an actor and writer. But he was sold into slavery by a relative and escaped. Then had to flee his home country for safety and ended up in a lifetime of work he wasn't particularly interested in, and that was well below his abilities and intellect, in his new country. He did get to act with Paul Robeson in a play in London, a tiny part, once, so he got a taste. When he died, stacks of his writing were found, so he kept going in his way. But I think a lot about how if he'd been born in a slightly different moment in history or his circumstances were different, the story of his life and how he got to spend it would be unrecognizable compared to how things were in fact.

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 collaboration and working solo. Writing for performance allows you to do both, which is handy. I do enjoy being left alone to work when it’s time to, but then I love when other creative people bring their skills to whatever I’ve written. I get to see something I’ve written bloom into a multidimensional spectacular. Nothing’s better.

I also really enjoy the collaboration that happens in a writers’ room. It can be so fun, especially when you have the right mix of people. It’s also a relief to have other brains working on a problem or a place where the story gets stuck. It’s not just up to you alone to figure it out. It’s the best kind of group project.

What is your ideal creative environment?

It depends on what I need. A café surrounded by people talking can be fantastic unless I need to focus, then it’s home, the library, or an office if I have one. A perfect in between is Descanso Botanical Gardens, which I discovered during lockdown when I needed a safe place to escape to & change of scenery. Now I write in nature whenever I can. 

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

I have to say I feel quite brave every time I face down a blank page with the expectation of filling it and the next 90+ pages. Like, how? How is it going to happen? Nobody knows.

If I start a really big idea and know that it’ll likely fail and I do it anyway (then actually show it to people, gasp), that’s probably me at my bravest, creatively. 

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?

I have! It’s the most amazing feeling. I can’t say how or why it happens except that maybe my brain finally figured out something I’ve been ruminating on and it decides to unfurl all at once.

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

I actually prefer a deadline. Because if you tell me there isn’t a deadline or it’s “whenever it’s ready”, I may spend a month skipping around a meadow dreaming up a million directions to go. If you say you need it in two weeks, you’ll have it.

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

Two things, both climbing related, lol:

1. Climb your own mountain. It’s so easy to compare/despair, especially when it feels like everyone is doing better than you but it doesn’t help you do your best work, nor does it allow you to think about what you actually want to make. 

2. My parents, during a low period for me, said that there’s no point in climbing the wrong ladder. I might as well keep going because if I give it all up to do something else I didn’t like, I’d just be miserable in a different way but with no end in sight. At least if I stuck with writing, there were still possibilities.

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

I just try to encourage newbies to focus on their own voice and interests, that being the most important thing. To write fearlessly and not worry about writing terribly. Everyone writes something they later think is terrible, it’s a rite of passage. I just think it’s hard to get to the good stuff if you’re afraid it might suck. If you’re lucky, it’ll suck and then you get to try again. Finally, I tell folks not to write to the market, write whatever you’re obsessed with. These are all things I still have to tell myself, btw.