Ask the Author: Billie Best
Answered Questions (6)
Billie Best
I have been a writer all my life, but I don't think I was always a good writer. Now when I look back on some things I wrote decades ago, I wince. A writer evolves, styles change, creative influences change, we become more skillful with practice. The more you write, the more you hone your skill. Just keep at it. Write every day. Write until your brain is so trained to write that you feel a craving for it.
Billie Best
I think the key to writer's block is to just keep writing. Change the subject, write a letter or a journal entry or an essay. Don't keep banging up against the block, shift your attention to something else and let it flow. Even writing a description of what you did yesterday, or how much you love your dog, or a review of your favorite movie, anything, can help you get your fingers in sync with your brain while you give your block a chance to dissolve.
Billie Best
I hope to read as many books as I can written by women about women's lives, fiction and nonfiction. Stories of women/by women help me understand myself and my life, and appreciate the role of gender in our lives.
Billie Best
Like many people I am in social isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. Lately, it's all I can think about, so it's what I'm writing about on my blog. Hopefully, this situation will pass and I'll be inspired to start my next book.
Billie Best
I've been writing since I was a teenager, mostly to process my emotions and sort out my life. During the years when I had a full time office job and a husband it was difficult to develop a writing practice because other things always seemed more important. Now I live alone and writing is my life. I write every day and I publish a blog post every Wednesday at billiebest.com.
Billie Best
My memoir is about my midlife passage from my 40s to my 60s when everything in my life changed. I was coming into my power as a woman, with decades of experience and a track record of success, discovering my passion for a new career and driving myself toward my goals. Then my husband got sick and just before he died, he revealed his years long affair with another woman. The cognitive dissonance of those events crushed me. Telling my story was a way to sort out my conflicting experiences and re-integrate all the different parts of myself into a new woman. I was broken and now I’m whole again. Resilience is my superpower. What happened to me happens to many women. My book is a way of helping them build their resilience.
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