Member Spotlight: Meredith Rutter Marple

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? It’s very hard for me to think well unless I’m writing the thoughts down. I can socialize fine and react to things “on the fly,” but when it comes to committing to a thought process or figuring out why I’m feeling what I’m feeling, give me words to work with on paper. Writing is an important medium for the world especially for people like me, people whose listening/auditory abilities don’t measure up to their reading/visual abilities. When I try an audiobook, my attentiveness is challenged by concerns or sightings that have nothing to do with what I’m listening to.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I have been fortunate not to experience the worst sort of writer’s block, one that persists day in and day out for some horrible length of time. My blocks are less solid, less unforgiving. I get up and walk around, maybe eat or drink something. More often I sleep on the problem – either overnight or taking a nap. If I stay in the chair, I close my eyes and allow my mind to “take flight” but with a directive to imagine being in a character’s mind, setting, or situation, or to imagine a different setting or situation. Mostly, though, I need a night’s or several nights’ sleep.

What is your favorite time to write? Mornings

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Keep the reader in suspense at some level on every page, even if it’s just an itty-bitty momentary thing like whether the fine point on the pencil lead will break.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? What excites me most about being a writer in today’s age is my own age. I’m filled with gratitude to have lived long enough to enjoy a version of work I never predicted for myself. Yet, when the time came to begin that work, it was an obvious job to take on. If I can pass along some wisdom, hard-won or not, that’s exciting.

Meredith Rutter Marple’s I Live You For Ever is out now with ‎Atmosphere Press.