Member Spotlight: Addie Bealer

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? For me, writing is the purest form of expression. It can encompass deep breaths, small sighs, weighted looks, enormous hugs, cutting remarks, and high praise. It allows for the expanse of desert, the depth of oceans, the stain of the tiniest drop of blood, and the achingly sweet taste of rare sweets. All with the setting down of a series of letters of the alphabet. Entire worlds, universes, a complicated character’s psyche . . . captured in simple black ink on creamy white paper. Gorgeous.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I rarely have writer’s block. I usually have more trouble finding time to write. The trick that has always worked for me, when I need to move a scene along, is to picture my story playing out like a movie in my head. I can watch the characters behave, observe how they react to the last thing I wrote for them, and let the rest write itself.

What is your favorite time to write? My favorite time to write happily coincides with chore time. If there’s laundry or vacuuming or cooking or grocery shopping to be done, I’m deep into a long writing sprint!

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Get the story out of your head and onto the page. Make it pretty later.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? I feel like brave young writers are fighting the establishment, and that give me (a not-so-young author) the courage to do the same. I’ve never been a big fan of rules around creativity, so it’s incredibly liberating to see more boundaries being pushed.

Addie Bealer’s Amblewilde is out now with Arm Rest Press.