thanks for the take @a-shakespearean-in-paris!! <3
Q: What is your coffee order?
Usually just a cappuccino? I don’t usually like sweet things in my coffee, except for at Christmastime when I order exclusively peppermint mochas lol.
Q: What is the coolest thing you’ve ever done?
Tbh the coolest thing I’ve ever done is probably be a fake socialite for like a portion of my late twenties and early thirties. My husband’s great uncle, who passed away last year, was quite wealthy and a huge, well-respected philanthropist for the LGBT community and gay rights. He lived in Palm Springs, and any time he had a gala or a fabulous event to go to, he would invite my husband and I to be in his entourage. We got to go to the GLAAD Awards about five times, including VIP events and cocktail parties with like, Leonardo DiCaprio, the Getty family, and Michael Jackson’s daughter. It was decadent and ridiculous but a fun role to play for a little while in my life.
Q: Who has been your biggest mentor?
My biggest mentors have been my professors from graduate school, both of whom are fantastic writers that taught me how to respect the work, stay grounded, and focus on making writing an important, central part of my life, no matter what comes. They taught me and my colleagues a very “purist” approach, which I appreciate to this day, revolving around the concept of inevitability: writing for love, writing for vision, writing in secrecy, ignoring the world as I grew and developed, and viewing The Industry as but a secondary factor that, when focused on with too much intensity too early in a writer’s career, can and will spoil their outlook and creative struggle forever.
Q: What has been your most memorable writing project?
I have several? My MFA thesis is memorable, because it was weird, and I was doing things back then in this very raw way that I can see and feel coming back to me now, eight years later, as a more mature writer and person. My Solavellan longfic The Dead Season also stands out as hugely memorable, as it took two years of my writing life to complete, and I believe it single-handedly improved my writing skills in ways I am only just now beginning to appreciate.
Q: What does your writing path look like, from the earliest days until now?
I have no idea lol. I have been writing since I could read. I started when I was very young, filling notebooks with horror stories and christmas stories and bad poetry and world building ideas. It was literally just notebook after notebook after notebook. I started typing my writing on a computer probably in fifth or sixth grade, and using it more consistently when I was in eighth or ninth grade. I wrote some fanfiction for boybands when I was in middle school, but that was short-lived. I continued to invent worlds and write shitty poetry all through high school lol, and then my senior year I started writing short stories. I went to college, majored in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. Taking workshops honed my short story writing and gave me lots of practice, and then I won a little prize money out of it which helped me pay for my graduate school applications. All I ever really wanted to do was be a writer. I took a year off after college and worked as a bank teller back home in Wisconsin, and then I got real lucky and got into a very good MFA program which moved me out to California when I was about 23. I wrote and wrote and wrote. I met my husband, who was one of my colleagues at the workshop table. We moved in together. I finished my thesis, he finished his. Then we went to Montana for a little while, and we got engaged. I published some stories, mostly in small places, a couple big ones, too. Then we got married, had a baby, and I came to fandom out of boredom and frustration with the mainstream, and I’ve been toiling away here every since.
Q: What is your favorite part about writing?
I agree with @a-shakespearean-in-paris that for me, the best thing about writing is discovery. Discovery of language, ideas, characters I love.
Q: What does a typical day look like for you?
Uh, wake up. Feed child. Snuggle with child. Derp around on tumblr. Drink coffee. My husband and I switch off mornings and teach on opposite days of the week. If I have to teach that day, I’ll lesson plan, go teach, maybe have office hours for my students, come home, hang out with my fam, put the child to bed, and then I get my nights. Mondays and Fridays the kid is in preschool and I don’t teach, so on those days I try to be as productive as possible with my own writing and also art (if I don’t have to comment on too many student papers lol). I write when I can. I don’t have a set schedule. My grown-up life has taught me the importance of speed and the kill instinct as a writer. Like when you have the chance to write, fucking just do it. Don’t hem and haw. And when you feel the need to finish something, don’t stop.
Q: What does your writing process look like?
Lol. Who knows. I consider music to be a big part of my writing process. I always use playlists that I keep on repeat whenever I’m not writing. I also do a lot of my drafting in the notes on my phone, a lot of the time in bed at night, right before I fall asleep. When I sit down to write, I usually have something in mind. I know what I need to do. At this point, once I start, I can go for a long time and write a lot of words in a very short timespan. It’s just getting to that point where I’m sitting down. But once I’m there, I can kind of just go.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve gotten?
Stay in the room. I got this advice from one of my professors in graduate school. It literally just means: Once you’ve made the decision to write, don’t leave the room. Stay in the room. Because if you leave the room, you’ll lose your momentum. He always said the biggest challenge for any writer is staying in the room, ie: forcing yourself to do the work. Thinking of writing as work and as something that is not always pleasant but must be done anyway was very important to me. It taught me not to be so precious about my work and to just do the thing and let drafts be drafts. I also learned from him that the best thing you can do when finishing your writing day is to write one more paragraph. So when you think you’re done, write one more paragraph. It’s usually there that the best discoveries are made.
Q: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned?
Don’t focus on publishing. Writing is not a well-paying gig. Even those who get grand book deals are rarely living large. Unless you’re Stephen King or equivalent, you’re still having to teach and apply for grants and do other shit to get by. I’ve learned that the only true satisfaction that comes from writing is pleasing others, pleasing readers. Having readers at all. You can toil away on a story for months, publish it in a lit journal, and never hear about it again. It’s pure vanity. I’ve learned from fandom writing that there is nothing more gratifying than the response from and interaction with readers. Actually touching peoples’ lives with my characters, inspiring and affecting them in some way. That’s what writing is all about. It’s an exploration of the self, but it is not self-serving. It can bring real joy to people, and that’s the thing I want.
Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to start writing?
Just write. There’s no reason not to. In fandom, there is a lot of concern over not being good enough, I think, because of this culture of constantly sharing everything we make, and notes, and kudos, etc. But if you want to write, you have to just write. You can’t say, “Oh, well, I’ll never be as good as so and so, so what’s the point?” Writing is a journey of many choices. The first choice has to be: I will now write. Don’t compare yourself to others. Find a niche that works for you. If you like to work alone and avoid showing your work, that’s okay. That’s how most writers start out. You don’t need a “beta” or a workshop team, particularly not when you’re just beginning. Share your work when you feel comfortable. It’s not important to always be sharing. It’s important to always be writing. And try not to get ahead of yourself. You must write for your own reasons and not to impress others. That is a toxic mindset that will only bring you down. And write. And write. Skip the over-planning. Skip the worksheets and the organizational worldbuilding software. Just write. It’s the only way to find out what you actually have to say.
tags for @thevikingwoman @bearly-tolerable @idrelle-miocovani @pikapeppa @littleblue-eyedbird @ocean-in-my-rebel-soul @buttsonthebeach @ellstersmash and anyone else who’d like to do this!! <3
blakekathryn
kaledo-art
jbbartram-illu
izzy806
janainaart
baratheonpilled
