Member Spotlights Member Spotlight: Steve Kemper December 8, 2022 Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab) on Facebook (opens in a new tab) on Linkedin (opens in a new tab) via email Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Writing requires intense engagement with the world and with my own mind. Reading can require the same engagement. Both seem important. What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Sit at my desk even longer. Another remedy I heard somewhere is “lower your standards.” You can always lift the prose later. What is your favorite time to write? 9am to 5 or 6pm, an old habit established out of necessity when my kids were in elementary school. What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? I read it somewhere: Amateurs hope. Professionals work. What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? That it’s still possible to make a living at it. Steve Kemper’s Our Man In Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor is out now with Mariner Books.
