Member Spotlight: Kristin O’Donnell Tubb

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Stories are how we connect with each other. Our best friends become our best friends because we each share our story with the other. Our partners become our partners because we want our stories to merge. Even our spiritual life is largely based on deeply meaningful stories. Stories are how we make sense of our complicated world, and how we empathize with others. I’m particularly drawn to stories FOR kids and teens, and BY kids and teens. Young people need to know their voices are unique and powerful. Sharing your story and listening to others’ stories is how communities are found and built.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Writer’s block, for me, usually indicates that I’m trying to take a story in a direction that isn’t organic, to the characters or to the story I wish to tell. It can usually be cured by rereading and editing what I’ve written up to the place where I’m stuck. If that doesn’t work, I take a walk and tell myself the story, recording parts of it in a voice memo app. (It doesn’t have to be a walk – it can be on a drive, while cooking, while cleaning – any time that’s away from the screen but thinking about the plot snag.) I’ll sometimes turn to handwriting out the scene or talking out the challenge with a fellow author. Most of these solutions involve getting away from the keyboard but still focusing on the story.

What is your favorite time to write? Morning, between 7 and 11.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” Robert Frost If you’re not feeling joy or grief or gratitude or surprise while writing your piece, your reader cannot feel those things when reading it.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? I love being a part of a community that values art and creativity. I love crafting stories that build communities of readers who want to explore ideas and themes. I love how one person’s small idea can create a literal worldwide sensation.\

Kristin O’Donnell Tubb’s The Spiritualists is out now with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.