Member Spotlight: Mark Avrum Stein

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world?
Early on, writing was important to me because I did not recognize the difference between esteem and self-esteem. That changed. What has not changed is my need to get outside of me that which I passionately feel, in order to better understand the world and me.  

As to why I think writing is important to the world, let me try to answer this way. After students in an Intro Drama class I taught read Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, I asked them what they thought Ionesco would say if asked if his play was Absurdist or Realistic. Not surprisingly, they said Absurdist. I said  I would not be surprised if he said Incredibly Realistic. Which is to say, writing is important to the world because it can take us to realities beyond the reach of our five senses.    

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block?
Taking comfort in the fact that it doesn’t matter what I put on the page…because once I’ve got enough on the page, I’ll have learned enough to begin revisions.

What is your favorite time to write?
Morning to midday. With note-making and any research in the afternoon– hopefully providing grist for writing the next morning.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers?
“Passion counts.” This from, of all people, a Hollywood  studio executive. Along the same lines, “Only write what you care about.” That one from, of all people, a television executive.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age?
What excites me most at my age in today’s age, is the dream that my current writing was written in the previous age.

Mark Stein’s The Presidential Fringe: Questing and Jesting for the Oval Office is out now with Potomac Books.