Ramona Ausubel on Getting Unstuck

Kelton is on a record-breaking week — 5,563 words across three chapters — after ditching Scrivener for the freedom of a Google Doc. Krisserin finished two short stories and sent them to beta readers, though she's staying up until 1:30 AM to do it (thanks, Juliet Marillier). Then they're joined by a very special guest: Ramona Ausubel, Krisserin's former PEN Center USA Emerging Voices mentor and beloved teacher of writing. Ramona is the author of the National Book Foundation Science and Literature Prize-winning novel The Last Animal, a Barnes & Noble monthly pick, and winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Fiction. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, Electric Literature, and The Paris Review. She's taught at Tin House, Bread Loaf, and multiple MFA programs including the Institute of American Indian Arts and Bennington, and she's currently a professor at Colorado State University. Her new book — Unstuck: 101 Doorways Leading from the Blank Page to the Last Page — is a creative companion for writers at every stage of the process, and it's out now. In this conversation, Ramona talks about why getting stuck is a feature of writing, not a failure; how she thinks of the whole process as learning to stop and start again with grace; and why a life full of interruptions is actually the substance of the work. She shares practical techniques from the book — the "20-minute doorway," revising thread by thread, and the concept of "structured play" — and what it means to follow a small doorway when you can't see where you're going. Plus: pantsing vs. outlining (Ramona does both, in sequence), how she realized a character needed to die two drafts after the book sold, what it means to be a writer who takes herself both very seriously and completely unseriously, and why the treatment you give your work — not its subject — is what makes it yours. Follow Ramona Ausubel: • Website: ramonaausubel.com • Instagram: @ramonaausubel • Unstuck: 101 Doorways Leading from the Blank Page to the Last Page — available now wherever books are sold, or order at bookshop.org Books Recommended by Ramona: • All Souls by Christine Schutt • We the Animals by Justin Torres • The Houndling by Xenobe Purvis • Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell Write to us: [email protected] us:Instagram: @penpalspodTikTok: @penpalspodYouTube: @PenPalsPodSubStack: penpalspod.substack.comFollow Krisserin and Kelton:TikTok: @krisserin, @keltonwrites Instagram: @keltonkin, @keltonwritesKelton's Substack: ShangrilogsKrisserin's Substack: krisserin.substack.comMusic by Golden Hour Oasis Studios