Member Spotlight: Greg Kenneth Belliveau

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? We are neck deep in the age of storytelling, and that is becoming more and more obvious as we move from the Digital World to the AI World… and as we transition, one of the greatest art forms since the beginning of human existence is in jeopardy of extinction: human generated writing. As a writer of stories – words placed side-by-side on a page, I am partaking in a generational craft that includes a magnificent cloud of witnesses who have come before me. Never… NEVER… has it been more important to carry this torch of human-generated, written stories and continue to develop it as a human and pass that craft on to other humans. When the first human wrote the first words that became the first written story on a cave wall and then a papyrus leaf – it was not for profit or for an economic gain. It was to express. We lose this, we lose humanity. This is why writing matters.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I have always said, writers block is really a technical issue (at least for me). What I mean by this is simply: in the art of storytelling (structure, characterization, landscape/setting, plot, etc…) there are learned crafts. When we don’t know how to do something, we stop writing. And this drives us back to learning more craft. There are other times when the craft is known, but the question you are asking is not answered. Writing is always about asking questions and trying to respond. What does this character want in this scene? What is stopping that character from achieving the goal? Who is this character? Where is this character? Why is this characters doing this in this scene…? Writer’s block comes (again to me) when I have not answered the question. It’s technical. I need to go back to the notebooks and try to answer that question. When I am able to do that (that organic process, that dialogue between the writer, the notebook, and the page), I find myself relaxing more and allowing the magic of the process to work on me.

What is your favorite time to write? I am committed to writing every day when I am in a project – no matter when, where, or what part of the process. I find this (for me) the most effective process. Even though I may not be writing, I may be thinking about the characters/scenes – allowing my imagination to percolate on the question/answer process – and this seems to really work for me.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? I was told many years ago that writing is a continuous process of learning the craft of writing; practicing the craft of writing; getting that artifact out into the world. Know thyself! Learn how to bloom in the particular soil you find yourself in.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? I think we have a great opportunity to show the craft and skills of humans generating, writing, producing, and reading stories. I think it has never been more important to participate in that form of art and pass those techniques and learned craft to other humans. Long live the apprentice/master relationship!

Greg Belliveau’s Blood Clan is out now with ‎Rogue Phoenix Press.