Marika Páez Wiesen: Writing in the Notes App
What did you use to do during recess?
When I was in third grade, I remember watching the Winter Olympics and longing to be able to do all the lovely figure skating I’d seen, so I recruited a boy from my class named Nikki who had the most fantastic shock of white blonde hair to be my partner. We’d practice twirls, jumps and lifts on the tanbark beneath the jungle gym. In fifth grade, breakdancing was all the rage. I formed a crew with my friends, and we’d carry big pieces of cardboard out to the blacktop to have breaking battles (much to the amusement of our suburban white teachers, I’m sure).
Did you think of yourself as a creative kid? What does creativity look like for you these days?
I did think of myself as creative! I still have my third-grade notebook where I wrote my response to the prompt: What do you want to be when you grow up? In looping cursive, I wrote: I want to be a singer, an actress, a writer, and a teacher. And I’ve done all four. I have a Bachelor of Music with a proficiency in voice and got to perform my dream role of Maria in West Side Story. I then spent two decades as an educator, publishing a book on the teaching of writing to second graders. And now I’m back to writing of a different kind!
How much time do you get to work on creative projects?
Honestly, I’m learning that the more time I have, the more time I waste. There’s a certain sense of focus and urgency that comes from sitting down and saying, This is the hour I have today. Let’s see how far we can get. Whereas if I have a whole morning, it can be so easy to keep putting it off and off and run completely out of time. I actually do quite a bit of “writing” while I run, talking to myself on my Notes app or adding to a google doc (like I’m doing right now!).
How did motherhood change your creative practice? How does art enrich your life? How does being a mother enrich your art?
I stopped writing entirely for years after my kids were born. It took me a long time to recognize that my creativity hadn’t disappeared, but was, instead, being poured into motherhood. I’ve always been creative in my work–as an educator you’re constantly reinventing what you do to solve problems and have a greater impact on your students. So, while working and mothering, I was practicing creativity, but it wasn’t coming out in a product that was “artistic.” In the early years, I thought being a mom was preventing me from writing. Then later, it became the catalyst to my writing, as I craved a place to work through all the emotions and junk that got stirred up by reliving my own childhood while witnessing my kids’.
Tell us about a day in your life, how do you fit in creative moments?
One of my intentions this year is to start seeing my creativity more globally, as a system I am tending to weekly and daily, just as I tend to my health or my family. I write at least a little bit nearly every day, but because of my commitment to publishing a newsletter every week, sometimes I see writing as a job or a task, rather than as being “creative.” I want to experiment with what might shake that feeling up a bit. I’ve started journaling more, first thing in the morning. I want to schedule a few artist dates, take more time to walk sans devices (but with a notebook because I’d die if I couldn’t write things down), do more drawing and painting (though I’m terrible at it). I’m the queen of joining museums, going one time, then letting my membership expire without going again, so maybe I’ll make it a few more times this year? Also, this may sound a bit woo, but I try to have a Reiki session a couple times a month. They get my energy and thinking going in totally new ways, and it’s an awesome reset for my whole system.
Who would you love to collaborate with? What’s a dream project for you?
I want to answer this question with a question: why does it feel so hard, so dangerous, for me to name what I really want? I have favorite authors, of course, but naming them here in this space and claiming my desire feels vulnerable. So now, of course, I’m very interested in that... New experiment percolating! Tune into my Substack and we’ll see what happens next… :)
What’s inspiring you outside of your own genre?
Honestly, right now it’s my kids. They’re constantly coming home with weird ideas, memes, and situations they’re encountering that bump up against my own memories of what it was to be that age and how that shaped who I am today. It’s a lot of good raw material!
If you had a million dollars to make the world a better place, how would you spend it?
Paying the best teachers to train other teachers to be teachers.
If there was a movie version of your life, who would you like to play you and what story do you want her to tell?
I think it would have to be Julia Roberts. (We both have very toothy smiles.) It would be the story of a young girl with big and beautiful dreams who gets knocked down a lot by life but ultimately creates a life more beautiful than the one she dreamt of as a child.
What would you bring to a favorites party?
Jellyfish, glaciers, s’mores, hummingbirds, Mexican folk art, accapella singing, mint tea, kettle corn, Greek yogurt, and the Hamilton soundtrack
Marika Páez Wiesen lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her barbecue-obsessed husband, her video-game-obsessed 13-year-old son, and her musical-theater-obsessed 11-year-old daughter. She is an educator, writer, and coach who helps women craft lives that feel easier and more satisfying. She runs the Substack newsletter Living the In-Between Times, and is writing a book of playful experiments for women who are ready to break up with all-or-nothing mindsets that tell us we never have enough, never do enough, and never are enough. (If you’re a fan of Oliver Burkeman, you’ll enjoy her posts on Meditations for Mortals!")
Nebula Notebook is a place to meet kindred spirits, get inspired, and learn how to find ease and joy in the creative process—even when life is bananas. 🍌🍌🍌
✏️ PS—The fastest way to grow as a writer is to book a manuscript critique or a creative coaching session with an expert. My clients get agents, sell books, and win awards. They also learn how to enjoy the creative process, so they can keep going when life gets hard. 👏
What a fun experience answering these insightful questions! Thank you so much for the opportunity.
This is such a great series, Heidi, hearing from other moms on how they navigate their creative life. You're creating an incredibly important resource!
“It took me a long time to recognize that my creativity hadn’t disappeared, but was, instead, being poured into motherhood.” - this is so insightful!