Member Spotlight: Sondra Raines Brooks

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Even fiction teaches us about life. There is no better way to learn about the world and ourselves than through reading. Memoir is my favorite genre to read AND write. I love learning of others’ hopes, disappointments, mistakes, and life-corrections along the way. I love discovering shared experiences.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I do not get writer’s block. When writing memoir, I already know the plot! But it is important to not only reveal the occurrences, but you also have to know and reveal how you FELT about what happened without telling the reader how to feel. This proves to be much more difficult and time consuming than we’d generally think.

What is your favorite time to write? First thing in the morning. And never, never, never without coffee.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Frequently employ the “So what?” test to your subject matter. What was an intriguing topic or event years ago may no longer be, if it ever was. “I had a difficult relationship with my mother.” So what? What makes yours different? “I had a lousy first marriage.” So what? What makes yours different? “My mother has been married eight times.” Hey, now THAT might be interesting.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? Competition for a traditional publishing contract is fierce. But the options available to us otherwise are downright exciting. Start a blog, try Substack, self-publish, go hybrid. There’s a world of opportunity out there.

Sondra R. Brooks’s Not Good Enough Girl: A Memoir of an Inconvenient Daughter is out now with She Writes Press.