Member Spotlight: Rachel Zemach

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? For me, it has been a way of expressing myself when. people, my employers, and the world doesn’t listen otherwise. It is empowering, healing, and as. I’ve recently discovered, an incredible way to reach the brains and hearts of others, and make a change in the world.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I’ll answer this way since writer’s block is not an issue for me; to get my memoir kickstarted, I first took a class online taught by Jeff Brown: Soulshaping. That involved a free-write that helped me build internal motivation. Then I did NaNoWriMo. After that I was unstoppable and built up until I was writing 8-10 hours daily.

What is your favorite time to write? Mornings, before I get too exhausted, and cluttered mentally from the complexities of this confounding life.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? There are three rules to writing, but no-one knows they are. I learned to trust and be guided by my own opinions, while taking others thoughts into consideration, let my own decisions be the end-point.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? The Deaf community has been incredible in how they are rallying around this book, thanks to social media, and their strong endorsement of The Butterfly Cage have been stunning affirmations of why spending seven years full time on this book was the right thing to do. Despite mine being a small press, the impact has potential to be large, and it’s thrilling, humbling, and surprising, and all due to modern technology, social media and the generosity of passionate individuals

Rachel Zemach’s The Butterfly Cage is out now with Unruly Voices.