Member Spotlight: Larry Donell Covin

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world?
The ability to structure one’s thoughts and convey them through the medium of writing—thereby immortalizing word and thought for posterity, grants the writer immortality, and allows one to teach in perpetuity.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block?
As a nonfiction writer I find the discipline of consistency and rhythm to be the most important. My rhythm and creativity comes as a result of repetition and redundancy, which may seem counterintuitive to many. One of the times my OCD is helpful.

What is your favorite time to write?
I prefer to write early in the morning, or early afternoon. I am not a late night writer if I have options.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers?
Being a voracious reader is probably the best advice I ever received. As I read, I not only read for the information; however, I observe the tendencies of good writers relative to the rules of writing. I study the writer even as I read the content.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age?
Technology has placed so much at our fingertips. I am old enough to recall having to wait until the library opened to research. I am able to research at anytime and from any location. That is the good and the bad news. Too many beach and park visits are transformed into research opportunities.

Larry Covin Donell’s Thirteen Turns: A Theology Resurrected From the Gallows of Jim Crow Christianity is out now with Wipf and Stock.