Why I Write Wednesday: IUWC Intern Betty Fall

For Betty, writing is a way to connect with others. Writing is vulnerability in its most concentrated form, and because of that, it is something beautiful. Ever since middle school, when her friend shared a Google Docs file with a collaborative world between them and others their age, she has been a staunch believer in the power of storytelling. When she read House of Leaves, the book that would change her view on the limitations of the written word, she never once looked back.

Now, Betty is a Junior at IU attempting to become a storyteller in all media, not just books. From scriptwriting to poetry to analytical essays to literature, Betty hopes to share how she views the world with as wide of an audience as possible. She never lost sight of what really matters to her as a writer, though – connections with people. Working as both a genre editor to IU’s literary journal, An Inkslinger’s Observance, and a peer tutor at IU’s Writing Tutorial Services, Betty strives to help others develop their stories into their best versions. She knows first-hand how difficult writing can be, both creatively and emotionally, and wants to help others with that. 

As for her own writing, Betty is currently juggling around several story ideas, including a horror short story, a science fiction novel, and quite a few pipe dream secret projects. With her majors in English and Media, Betty hopes to create stories that instill that same passion for storytelling in people that others have done for her. She also wants to keep absorbing and dissecting others’ works, both so that she can improve upon her own and so that she can better understand the work, the writer, and the contexts that molded both. Because of her own love for what the written word can say about the human condition, Betty plans to write, and write, and not stop writing until she can’t write anymore.