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Interview conducted by Shelbie Music

Shelbie Music: How did you get into writing? What did that journey look like for you?

Noah Pohl: So I started writing in middle school, it was kind of a creative outlet for me. I was always a big reader growing up and if I had an opportunity to use creativity in something, I would try to do that. I had some really encouraging teachers who helped kind of nurture that. It’s funny ’cause I originally was more into screenwriting than I was into fiction. And when I was growing up, I would buy published screenplays off Amazon and I would just read them and study them. And I later pivoted into fiction. It’s been a long journey, but I like the fact that I can kind of bounce between the two mediums.

SM: Do you have any advice for people who want to pursue writing?

NP: For sure. I would say make writing a priority, even if it’s just 15 minutes a day, try to carve out some time to do it. I wasn’t always like that, but I think I sort of realized like, you just have to show up and it’s a muscle. You know, the more you work at something, it grows. For me it’s important to keep a regular schedule as much as I can. So I try to show up consistently. I try to finish things and I try to get feedback from intelligent readers. That’s really important to me, ’cause I think you can’t really be precious with your work. I think there’s another piece of advice I once read that I really liked; I think this is Jordan Peele, the filmmaker. He said, “find the fun.” It’s a really simple piece of advice, but I really think creativity flows when you’re having fun with your writing.

SM: How did you come up with the idea of SHASTA GIRL? Moreover, how do you typically get ideas for your works? 

NP: So I somehow came across Mount Shasta online, and I was like weirdly intrigued by the place. I have a fascination with mountains in general, but this one seemed special. So I actually wrote the story just having read up a bit about the place. I eventually went and visited it with a friend after I’d written the story, and that was really cool. Coming back, I ended up rewriting it a few more times. In terms of how I typically get ideas, sometimes, like in this case, a place can really inform a story. Or I’ll read an article about something, or maybe someone will say something, and it triggers an idea. I think inspiration is really everywhere as people say but I think if an idea kind of sticks around and still makes me excited and interested, I’ll work on it. So yeah, this one was a case of where something just struck my curiosity and I followed it.

SM: How did you immerse yourself in this character in order to write a character with such a strong voice? Did you ever worry you may have “gone too far” with it? At times, it feels like the story is almost making fun of the narrative voice, but I believe it pulls back at the end. How did you navigate that tricky territory?

NP: I think it’s bizarre because I felt like this one sort of wrote itself through me, this character. There are maybe little details here and there that make it into the story from my real life, from people I know. But I think this character kinda walks a fine line. You know, she can be very self-critical, but also very forgiving of others. And she can be funny, but also a bit naive at times. But ultimately, I think she has a big heart and she’s also grieving the loss of a friend and she’s like trying to make sense of things and find meaning in something greater. And I think that’s a really relatable thing. I’m not really interested creatively in things that just make fun of something. I find that you need to find something deeper if you’re going in that direction. If maybe something goes too far in one direction, I rely a lot on people to give me feedback on things. I’m very fascinated by spirituality, crystals, and Mount Shasta in general. And, you know, there’s a way to approach these things where you can make fun of them, and a lot of people do. But I think when I sit down to try to write something, ultimately at the end of the day I always try to find the deeper humanity in something. So that’s how this character came through. And it was just one of those instances where it probably wrote itself in three days. I just heard the voice of the character very clearly. It made me laugh too while I was writing it. Some of what she says is very funny, and she definitely has a very particular voice about how she sees the world.

SM: What kind of research went into SHASTA GIRLl?

NP: A bunch of online research. There’s a lot of YouTube videos about it. There’s a lot of articles about it and how it’s a very unique, strange place. Like I mentioned earlier, I went and visited Mount Shasta with a friend after I initially wrote the story. Just hanging out there and getting a vibe for the place helped. We ended up hiking up to the point where there was still snow on the upper part of the mountain, and just being there was really fascinating. Because then I could draw on those memories and felt like I was actually writing authentically about the place when I went back to rewrite the story. In terms of the purple lupines, that came about because I was trying to find a new ending for the story one day, and there’s a place in New Hampshire that I love called Sugar Hill, that’s sort of famous for its lupines blooming every spring. And I must have come across some photos of it. And then I researched lupines and found out the fascinating information about what they’re like, and how they’re kind of like the rescuers of the plant kingdom. I just thought that kind of dovetailed nicely with the main character and her relationship with her best friend.

SM: How did you come to choose the format of journal entries?  

NP: I think there was a story in George Saunders book, Tenth of December, that was written that way. I came across it when I was first thinking about this story. And it made me go, “Oh, that might be a way to do this.” I like that format because it feels like someone is confiding in you and the character can feel free enough to really be honest about things when they’re writing in a journal entry format. I’d never done something like that. I’ve tried that format a few times since, and it’s an interesting way to approach the story. It allows you this glimpse into their mind in a way that you might not get if you’re outside of the character a bit more.

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Noah Pohl earned a BA in Literary Arts from Brown University. A finalist for the Nancy D. Hargrove Editors’ Prize in Fiction, his work has appeared in Litro Magazine, The Jabberwock Review, The South Dakota Review, Passages North, Post Road, and Eclectica Magazine. He lives and works in Southern California.