Write Now with Dana Mele

Who are you?

Thanks for hosting me, Justin! My name is Dana Mele and I’m an author based in the upper Hudson Valley.

What do you write?

I started writing novels when I lost my job after my parental leave expired. Prior to that, I was a lawyer and I had a lot of experience with legal and academic writing. The fun thing about legal writing- one of my law professors told us this on the first day of class- is that it’s terrible, terrible writing. Yet, a strikingly large percentage of people who graduate from law school end up in publishing. So unlearning how to write like a lawyer and relearning how to write like a human being is a process. For me, I started with short fiction and worked my way up to novels. I’ve always loved horror and thrillers, and I do love writing—publishing is so tough, I think you have to.

Where do you write?

I write literally wherever I am. My last book I think I wrote at least 50% of on my phone. I’ve written chapters in the bath, in bed, on long car rides, on the beach—I actually prefer not to use my laptop at this point. I used to use the notes app and voice notes a lot more but now that Microsoft has a decent app I usually just use that across devices, or hand write and then type up my notes.

When do you write?

I write when I am able to. I don’t hold myself to strict word counts because I’ve found that when I do that, I often come up with bad writing. I know that works well for some writers who are able to refine that into something great, too! But for me, revising extraordinarily bad writing in an attempt to make it readable is like keeping a zombie of a loved one around because you think you can train it to act like a human. We’ve all seen that movie, though, it never works and the guy that tries is eaten alive. Better to bury it and start over.

Why do you write?

I write because when I was a child, books were everything to me. When I was happy, they made me even happier. I laughed until I cried at some of my favorites. When I was going through a really hard time, books were a lifeline. Horror, mystery, dystopian genres all helped me make sense of the world. I found characters that were like me even when I didn’t see many people like me in my own school. As I grew, writing became a part of that—the expression of joy and the ability to work troubling things out on the page. As an adult, I now write mostly for young people with all of those things in mind.

How do you overcome writer's block?

I think writer’s block is my brain’s way of telling me I’m pushing it too hard, so I do try to listen to that. If I’m on deadline and I get stuck, I’ll bounce ideas off of a writer friend until something sticks. But for me personally, nothing good comes from pushing my brain past its limit.