Stephen Harrison

Stephen Harrison is an accomplished writer and tech lawyer. His fiction and nonfiction pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, and Slate magazine. For the past five years, he has penned the column “Source Notes” about Wikipedia and the world of facts on the internet. He is based in Dallas, Texas.

Instagram: @StephenBHarrison

Threads: @StephenBHarrison

What do you worry about? 

I worry that we are living in an age of distraction. Instead of sitting with our thoughts and generating new ideas, we're tempted by the ability to scroll through mindless content that keeps us endlessly entertained. I'm making a conscious effort to be intentional about high-dopamine activities, like watching videos on my phone. For instance, I try not to look at my phone for the first two hours of the morning so I can focus on reading and writing. But I'm not always successful, and I worry that most of us are struggling with the allure of internet distraction.

Is there another profession you would like to try? 

I've always regretted that I never took a college course in psychology, a subject I now find fascinating. If I weren't a lawyer and novelist, I think I would have pursued psychology. There's something admirable about helping people navigate their past experiences, many of them painful, and helping them imagine a better future.

Is your go to comfort food sweet or savory? Does food inspire your writing? 

I try to make the writing process as enjoyable as possible, even though it can be a bit grueling to post up for hours. My go-to move is heading to my local coffee shop and ordering an Americano with a chocolate-filled croissant. That chocolatey goodness feels like an advanced reward for the hard work of writing, and the caffeine ensures I don’t get too sleepy from the sugar.

What's the difference (at least for you!) between being a writer and an author? How do you shift gears between the two? 

When I’m drafting a novel, I need to be in “writer mode”—creative and a bit messy with my process. I use different tools, like a smart keyboard, and sometimes even go old-school with pen and paper. As I move into the next drafts, I shift to “author mode,” thinking more about the reader’s experience, the organization of scenes, and the line-by-line energy. What’s interesting is that I sometimes slip back into “writer mode” in later drafts, oscillating between the two. I think that’s because my brain prefers the act of writing, even if it’s rewriting, to the more deliberate process of editing.

Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write? 

It’s nearly impossible for me to listen to music while I write because I find myself syncing my rhythm to the music or accidentally typing lyrics instead of my intended words. However, I do sometimes pair a character with a musical theme. For example, in The Editors, Alex, a teenage internet encyclopedia editor, is full of passion. Before writing his chapters, I’d listen to Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite because I found the intense orchestral music helped me get into Alex's mindset.