Member Spotlight: Kathryn Hulick

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? I write about science for kids. I love to understand how and why things work, and through my writing I get to learn about so many different fascinating things–everything from outer space to dinosaurs to germs. But scientists often aren’t very good at explaining what they do, especially for a young audience. So I get to make their work accessible to anyone. Good science writing makes it possible for everyone to understand the world around them.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Deadlines! If I have to get something done in a limited amount of time, I do it. Writers’ block for me is really just procrastination. It’s hard to start writing, but once I manage to get myself started, the words will flow.

What is your favorite time to write? Mornings. I’m at my best soon after waking up. But as the mom of a young child, I’ll write whenever I can!

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Writing is a business. When I started thinking about my work this way, it made it much easier to take rejections and critiques, because I realized it wasn’t personal.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? I love how easy it is to find research material and also to reach out to sources. Now that zoom is widespread, most of my interviews with scientists feel like we’re in the same room. It’s so much better than the phone interviews I used to do!

Kathryn Hulick’s Strange But True: 10 of the World’s Greatest Mysteries Explained, illustrated by Gordy Wright, is out now with Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.