Member Spotlight: Jolie Tunnell

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? The impulse to create is so very human. I tried a great many arts and crafts before understanding that words are my medium (and nothing else). I work with only 26 letters, and yet. . . such possibilities! History, or “his story”, is the preservation of the interior human landscape across centuries. Everyone has a story, and writing it down keeps our truth from erasure. Even, or especially, in fiction, we tell the truth of our deeper emotional realities. Writing is intended for reading: words are how we share power through education or entertainment. In a world where whose story gets told determines whose humanity gets recognized, writing becomes both preservation and revolution. A word is never just a word.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? 1. Go for a walk. Create the energy flow. 2. Clean something. Anything. Create a sense of accomplishment. 3. Sit down and write about #1 and #2. Then, explain today’s writing task, circling tighter and deeper until the task emerges on its own. Lead it into completion.

What is your favorite time to write? I prepare myself (walk/garden/family) and my environment (home/desk/admin) in the morning, and write in the afternoon/evening.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? One size does not fit all. Writers are as unique as their fingerprints, so feel free to discover your own craft and career path. You don’t need anyone’s permission to succeed, so learn everything you can from them without needing to mimic them. If you keep writing, the process itself will guide you along your truest and most fulfilling career path.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? The idea that some of my words may foster global and personal self-awareness, empathy, and compassion. History does not have to repeat itself. We can grow. We can learn. We can create joy. And there’s more than enough for everybody.

Jolie Tunnell’s Shadows in Chinatown is out now with Tule Publishing.