Space Exploration: JJ Peña
Astronauts perform some strange superstitions before they shoot off into orbit to explore the vast expanses of space. NASA commanders play cards with the tech crew the night before a launch, continuing until the commander loses a hand. Russian cosmonauts pee on the right rear tire of their transfer bus on the way to a launch. These are strange quirks, but they are crucial for these space-explorers to feel comfortable before and during a mission.
Writers also have rituals that must be performed in order to shake off bad vibes and get into a zone where they feel comfortable putting words on a page. When we read a great book, we only see the final product, and not the obsessive care put into the work environment that allowed for its creation. In SPACE EXPLORATION, our goal is to demystify writers’ environments and explore the ways in which they’ve been created and curated, and how they affect the mental spaces of the authors who inhabit them.
We asked writers to tell us about their necessary spaces; the physical spaces as well as the desired headspace to write. We asked about their rituals— special meals that have to be eaten pre-writing sesh, only writing in purple ink, lucky pieces of clothing that may have once inspired a particularly powerful passage. We asked them to engage our senses and tell us which aspects of process must be deliberate and what is arbitrary. These are the spaces they shared with us.
Our fifth feature was written by JJ Peña.
: my writing space is easy to picture—all you have to do is imagine a toddler taking out all of their toys & making mayhem for six straight days. which is an accurate description of my room, if you asked my friends, & that’s where most of my writing occurs. i don’t write at a desk or sit upright most of the time, which i know is bad for my wrists and back. i’m usually on my belly, in bed, narrowly escaping the mess i’ve created around me. i like to tell people, who dare comment about my room’s disarray, to write i must exist in chaos, where i can use everything & anything around me for inspiration: that’s how the greats did it, & so should i!
: i don’t really believe that. it’s a lie i simply tell. to tell the truth, i’m just really lazy when it comes to cleaning because i have the ability to create even bigger messes when i tidy up, & somehow i can’t keep a room clean for more than two hours. sometimes, to escape my room, i make a fort, tie all my sheets up around me, so i’m hidden in a small cocoon, stuck only with words & my imagination.
(disclaimer: my room is messy, not dirty. there is a difference!)
: perhaps my only writing ritual—when i’m not being productive & the inter-web is holding my attention hostage, i pack up my things & head to my car, drive to a place called scenic drive (an outlook that overlooks the entire city), & write there, without internet & poor cell service. usually, i stay drafting until the city turns into a flickering milky way, or until the blue light from my computer hurts my eyes. i like crafting stories in my car because it’s easy to get into a contemplative headspace—i find i can think more effortlessly in my car. the only problem i have here is when all the love-birds show up after work and force me to leave—often causing a smooching spectacle, exiting cars with crumbled clothes & messy hair.
fun fact: i wrote these pieces in my car, while listening to music & eating raising canes.
:i also like writing games. before i start any piece, i like to put my music on shuffle, pick 8-10 song titles, & then force myself to use them in my work. often, the words have no relationship, are a mixture of spanish & english, & are words i don’t use everyday—& that’s the beauty of the exercise. if you like puzzles & figuring out inventive ways to use words, this game is great to try. i find that i get more gratification out of writing, especially when i use a word successful in a story.
fun fact: i did this exercise for my selena piece. can you guess which words are from song titles?
(if you can, kudos. i don’t remember.)
JJ Peña is a queer, burrito-blooded writer, living & existing in El Paso, Tx. He's the winner of Blue Earth Review's Flash Creative Nonfiction Contest (2019) & his work appears in, or is forthcoming from, Passages North, Split Lip, Into the void, Cherry Tree, & elsewhere. He has an MFA from the University of Texas at El Paso.