Member Spotlight: Carolyn Newton

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Writing has long fascinated me as powerful way to challenge assumptions and plumb emotions by deploying words with art and strategy. It’s the critical choices of words and their arrangement and context through which a talented writer can evoke emotions in a reader. It is semantic alchemy that I practice and study in the hopes that I can put marks on a page that touch another person’s heart.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Writer’s block usually means I am forcing a story down the wrong path. Sometimes it helps to step away and let the story marinate for a bit so I can address it again with fresh eyes. It also helps to get out and walk. Being active spurs the creative juices so that I can mull over how to pull the plot out of the ditch and get it back on the highway.

What is your favorite time to write? Whenever I can squirrel away and sink into my story. It’s usually late at night when the house is quiet.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Practice constantly and read lots of different kinds of books. Writing improves with experimentation and a willingness to seek feedback.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? I am a historian and it’s heartbreaking to exist in the chaos and greed of our world knowing that these same cruel patterns of injustice and cruelty have happened before. I write to tell stories that illuminate and entertain while also encouraging empathy and understanding. AI is certainly challenging the creative professions, and it’s more important than ever to celebrate the inspired and infinitely more complex work of humans.

Carolyn Newton’s Songs of the Dead Road is out now with Bloodhound Books.