Member Spotlight: ​Elisabeth Wheatley

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? I consider storytelling to be the art form upon which all other art forms are based. Perhaps I am biased in that regard, but all great art either tells a story or has a story. Writing (again, I admit to being biased) is the purest form of storytelling outside of oral tradition. With writing, there is an intimacy between author and reader that I don’t see matched in any other medium. It’s a beautiful and almost mystical thing.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I believe the majority of writer’s block is fear. Writers are afraid of being criticized or of writing something that will be “bad.” Ergo, the best cure for writer’s block is to write “bad” stuff. I find that writing “bad” first drafts, even when writing feels like pulling teeth with tweezers, carves out a general shape of the story that I can fix later. The best way to do a thing is to start by just DOING it and worry about doing it *well* at a later date.

What is your favorite time to write? Early mornings, when the world is still asleep and the sky is dark purple. The world is full of endless possibilities at that hour.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? “You can’t edit a blank page.”

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? It’s a fantastic time to be a creative! I am able to run my own business with absolutely no limits! I can collaborate with who I want, commission who I want, and create the stories that speak to me. I enjoy a level of freedom that would have been unheard for an author at most other times in history. We function primarily as an e-commerce business, going direct to readers and keeping total control of all aspects of our brand. We’re only able to do that because of the tools and online ecosystem that exists today. And that’s not even touching on the resources for research that are available to me! Experts on Anglo-Saxon farming, Viking warfare, and any other of my niche research topics are literally an email away. It is a fantastic time to be a writer and I’m incredibly grateful to be living in it.

Elisabeth Wheatley’s Oath of the Wolf is out now.