Member Spotlight: Mir Benitz

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Writing sits at the nexus of all things human. It is simultaneously playful and profoundly philosophical, emotional and rational, mechanical and artistic. Writing is communication of an idea from one mind to another, but it is also (always) a negotiation between reader and writer. Will you accept this version of reality? Do you share this fantasy? Is my reasoning sound enough to let you turn the page and read on? For me, this exchange constitutes the very stuff of life.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? In my experience, the thing we call “writer’s block” is highly idiosyncratic, and so we end up with a hundred different remedies that sometimes work and sometimes don’t. Even the same writer can’t always use the same trick to get out of a rut. The real trick is getting to the root of what is causing the block. Is it boredom? That is often the case for me, and all I need to do is jump over to a different project to get the juices flowing again. Is it fear? That is, I’m sorry to say, another frequent culprit. Sometimes I’m afraid of being judged. Sometimes I’m afraid of hurting someone’s feelings. Sometimes I’m afraid of proving to myself that I’m no good at writing. Those are harder puzzles to solve, but naming the fear and questioning it is often a good starting point.

What is your favorite time to write? I am not one of those writers who has a predictable schedule from day to day. It really helps to have long stretches of uninterrupted time to focus—I don’t much care what time of day that happens to be.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? One of the things that sticks with me is actually acting advice, but it has influenced my writing. It was delivered during a theater class in college, and one of the actors was onstage peeling potatoes during the scene. The director stopped the scene and reminded them that the task of peeling potatoes was not just an arbitrary touch of realism. It was a choice. She talked about what the potatoes meant to that character—how many potatoes she had peeled in her life, the way she felt about being the one to feed her family day in and day out. “Honor the potato,” the director concluded. That stuck with me. When I write, I strive to make intentional choices about what makes it on the page and then honor that potato.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? We are living in a world in transition—so many things we thought were permanent are slipping away and wild new realities are taking their place. Our stories and essays document the shift from before to after. To me, that’s exciting, even if it is fairly sobering. Perhaps it is not unique, however. Every generation is a bridge between past and future. Still, I can’t help but feel that we are living through extraordinary times.

Mir Benitz’s Fire Power is out now with Little, Brown and Company.