We were lucky to catch up with Paulette Perhach recently and have shared our conversation below.
Paulette, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
On the day that changed me from someone who wanted to be a writer to someone working to be a writer, I was a twenty-six-year-old Peace Corps volunteer in the capital of Paraguay, on a swamp-hot bus packed mostly with office workers on their way home. The bus squealed to a stop, and the driver opened the door. Since so many of the stories, both hilarious and traumatizing, that I told my family and friends back home started with someone getting on the bus, I’d developed a reflex to watch that door, waiting for whoever or whatever was next.
A young woman, maybe twenty, hopped on and stood at the front, smiling. She greeted us hello in Guaraní, not with the usual booming voice of the infomercial-ready salesmen holding racks of nail clippers, DVDs, and/or empanadas, and not with the silent eyes of the children who walked the aisle barefoot, holding out their hands or placing candies with notes in our laps explaining why their families needed our change, but instead with a voice that the grind of the engine nearly swallowed.
“I’m going to give you something,” she said, and we passengers, ignoring her, continued to ignore her. “If you like it, you can give me something for it, and if not, I’ll take it back.”
She handed out what she had, on blue-speckled stock paper, a kind I hadn’t seen since I left my country a year before. On it she’d printed a poem. Her poem. She was a real live writer.
When she had collected her money, she turned to get off the bus but then faced us again, waving and smiling, with a red clown nose she’d popped on. Then she bopped out into the streets, past kids holding packs of gum up to open car
windows, past dogs scrounging in trash cans, into the heat and the red dust.
“You wuss,” I said to myself as I watched her bounce away, a dirty window between us. “Just be a writer already.”
Seeing that poet taught me that being a writer is not about being special. It’s not about being published; it’s not about being famous. Writers are writing everywhere, at every scale.
That marked the day I really began the work.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Writing for me has always been intertwined with experiencing life at a deeper level. I’m curious — wanting to explore, travel, taste. This led me into journalism, creative writing, and teaching.
I didn’t know it until I was 38, but I also had an ADHD brain. So along with these positive traits, I struggled with disorganization, distraction, and a general feeling like I was always messing up.
What I’ve designed over my life, including a coaching program and software for writers, helps writers focus, finish, and publish. My software, The Writer’s Mission Control Center, is like a writer’s assistant. My coaching program, The Finishing School for Writers, creates a framework that helps writers get their booties in their seat.
I am to make the writing life easier and more fun at every turn.
As for my writing life, I’m most proud that my book, Welcome to the Writer’s Life, was selected as a Poets & Writers Best Book for Writers. I’ve also had two essays go viral to millions of readers — the best kind of award.
As I try to create a deep and fulfilling writing life, the community I’ve built that’s flourishing around it bouys me always.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Creativity is how we touch the source. It’s not something we own. We can bow at the altar and keep bowing. And surprise, time and again, something comes seemingly from you that surprises you. It’s such a joy.
I love the moment of connection art creates, whether it’s receiving another person’s work or having my work received. My ego is a golden retriever on its back, waiting always for belly rubs. That’s there, for sure. But one part about growing my community that I didn’t expect has been how much it’s taught me the joy in celebrating others, in simply sharing in this love. We writers are a family.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I had to unlearn the idea that writers can’t earn money. I now have friends who are doing very well on their book advances. I’m open to that, but also not putting pressure on my work to support me.
We creatives make fantastic entrepreneurs; we just have to get out of our own way and believe in our worth. I still struggle with asking for enough to support myself, but I’ve gotten so much better. Business can be a wonderful creative practice, with the flow of value balanced between the two parties. There’s a lot of predatory business out there, but that’s not all business. I know I change my clients’ lives. They complete my program more alive than they came in.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pauletteperhach.com
- Instagram: @paulettejperhach
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauletteperhach/
- Twitter: @pauletteperhach
