Member Spotlight: Joyce J Wadler

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? I write because I need to write, if I write something I like, it makes me high; if I don’t write I get depressed. Someone else will have to figure out what’s good for the world.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Doing it first thing in the morning, before I’m out of bed. “The Artist’s Way” method: Writing uncritically, or as uncritically as I can, seeing what bubbles up. I’m doing humor and personal essays these days on Substack and I’ve gotten a lot of stories that way. A half shot of vodka also works very well for shooting down a critical inner voice, but you didn’t hear that from me.

What is your favorite time to write? When I have an idea I’m so excited about all I want to do is sit down and write it. That happens about five percent of the time.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? “If you’re excited, the reader is going to be excited. If you’re bored, the reader is going to be bored.” That was from a newspaper editor at Dorothy Schiff’s New York Post, a million years ago. I’ve forgotten the editor’s name, but not the advice.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? The freedom to publish without gatekeepers. To put a story up the minute I’m done with it, without waiting to hear back from an editor about whether or not it’s worthy.

Joyce Wadler’s The Satyr in Bungalow D is out now.