What It takes

After wishing for years and talking about it for months, I’ve officially joined YouTube, and more specifically Authortube with the Newbie Tag! Taking the time to look back at my writing journey, inspirations, and dreams for the future allowed me to reaffirm why I love life as a writer.

1.) How did you find out about Authortube?

After grad school, I missed the community I’d formed with other writers. Well before this time, I was already watching book review videos, and especially loved watching Christine Riccio. Somewhere in that time, I started watching more authors talking about their work, and specifically loved Kim Chance, Alexa Donne, and most recently Lindsay Puckett. 

As a writer, what I loved most was seeing an author’s journey much like my own, the endless days of writing before getting to the finished book. And it wasn’t until watching the book tour video for Again, But Better that I realized how personally connected I felt to that moment. I’d been watching all the way through Christine’s early days of writing to the title reveal, cover reveal, etc. Seeing her publication journey made me feel proud of her and served as a reminder that it was possible for me as well. 

2.) What genres do you write in?

For this question, I will focus on my fiction, though I do write poetry as well. My current WIP is a YA speculative novel. My next project will be a YA fantasy series. I find even when I’m working on realistic fiction in a short story, magic creeps onto the page.

3.) What is your preferred writing tense, point of view, and category of story?

For poetry, I prefer second person point of view, which addresses the narration to “You.” This compliments the stream-of-consciousness style that in most of my poems. 

For fiction, I prefer past tense, close third person point of view. While I have plans to write adult fiction in the future, my current passion remains Young Adult literature. 

4.) Are you a plotter, panster, or plantser?

Before the pandemic, I was consistently a plotter. However, the ethereal way time seemed to move during quarantine invited me back to the magic of writing, which is often those places of unknown.

I won’t say I was a panster, though, because I did have a basic roadmap of where I was going. I prefer to use the term discovery writing. I allowed myself to live with the characters, to write with a loose destination, but making room for pit stops along the way. 

5.) Are you a self-published, published, or yet-to-be published author?

I suppose I’m a little bit of all these things. My debut micro-collection of poetry, These Are the Women We Write About was published in 2018 by The Poetry Annals. Four of my poems were self-published in a collective this year. As the founder and editor-in-chief of Pages Penned in Pandemic, I knew I wanted to add my writing to this time capsule of 2020. This is currently available for purchase and all proceeds are donated to 826 National to support young writers. 

For my WIP, a YA speculative novel about dreams, I will be pursuing traditional publishing. The last time I was in the query trenches with this novel was 2018. I took a step back in February of 2019 to overhaul this manuscript. This is the book of my heart, and I can’t wait to finish line edits and prepare to head back into the query trenches with you by my side. 

6.) If you’re not yet published, what is your dream publishing house and / or literary agent?

From experience, I know how disappointing it can be to receive a rejection from a “dream agent.”

Approaching the query trenches this time around, I do not have a dream agent or dream publishing house. I am looking for someone who will love this book and champion this book and support my writing career. 

When compiling lists, I think we can get close to finding people we might work well with, but ultimately, the magic comes from having conversations, and seeing how well you might pair with an agent or editor.

I will say that I have so many people in my life who support my writing. However, there is one individual who understands the importance of this sometimes dark and often unusual book. If I could clone him as my agent or editor, that would be a dream come true. 

7.) What Authortube related videos can we expect to find on your channel?

For my channel, I will be creating a combination of the videos I love to watch on Authortube with videos I am always searching for. What does this mean? 

I love videos on writing craft as well as personal process videos. I also enjoy watching writing vlogs, and of course, bookish content always brightens my day. You can expect this content from my channel as well! 

As I’ve taken on different challenges and opportunities in my creative life, I found myself searching for videos to help guide me through. 

While there are fantastic videos on querying, traditional publishing, self-publishing, and indie author journeys, I craved more videos about literary magazines. How to organize submissions, how to submit to journals and find reputable magazines to entrust your work.

Last year when I founded Pages Penned in Pandemic, I wanted more videos walking through the process of starting a press and publishing work. 

All this to say, I will be walking you through the process of my next creative endeavor. After the events in Texas this week, I promised to support women by using my art to speak up. 

How will I be accomplishing this? My new collective, The Elpis Pages, will feature work about womanhood by self-identifying women. Upon publication, all proceeds will be donated to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund to support access to safe and legal abortions and reproductive rights. 

If you currently have writing that sounds like it might be a fit for this print publication, let me know in the comments below. 

As we near publication, I will take you through the process of starting a press or magazine, organizing submissions, cover design, marketing, and final publication. 

8.) When did you start writing?

I have a few stories from elementary school, all signed in crayon. But I suppose the moment I really started writing was in seventh grade during our poetry unit. 

It wasn’t until my senior year of high school, taking an experimental writing class, when I fell in love with fiction, and I’ve been writing ever since!

9.) What was the first story you ever wrote?

In that experimental writing class, I’d worked on poetry and satire and flash fiction. But my first story was called “Through.” 

For our final project, we were able to work on whatever we wanted. My best friend suggested I write a story about fairytales, or rather, fairytale characters. This was well before Once Upon a Time.

I loved that story. And I still love this story. I went into grad school with that manuscript and I have plans to return to that series after my current WIP. 

10.) What authors have inspired your writing most?

There are so many that it would be difficult to name them all. 

I’ll start with J.K. Rowling. After reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at the age of eight, I knew I wanted to write stories of my own. 

For this current WIP, my early inspiration came from Sylvia Plath, both The Bell Jar and Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams. I also owe much of the darkness and human authenticity in my book to Fell of Dark and Ten Miles One Way by Patrick Downes, Away We Go by Emil Ostrovoski, and We Are Okay by Nina LaCour. Others include the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, The Wicker King by Kayla Ancrum, The Riverman series by Aaron Starmer, Wild Awake by Hilary T Smith, The Giver by Lois Lowry, On Immunity by Eula Biss, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, and both The Song of Achilles and Circe by Madeline Miller. Greek mythology plays a large role in this WIP. 

11.) Do you schedule your writing sessions or simply get to writing whenever you can find the time?

While I am a very organized person, it has become increasingly difficult to schedule writing time. I always know I have thirty minutes or so to work on my writing during my lunch break, and most of my weekends are spent either writing content for my blog or working on line edits. 

However, as I take on this next creative endeavor with The Elpis Pages, I know how important it is going to be to schedule in this time to make sure I can write every day. And this doesn’t mean whole pages or cutting 2,000 + words, as thinning down my WIP is the current goal of line edits. Sometimes this means writing a poem, or a few lines of dialogue. 

I do have a full-time day job, which has become more demanding in the past few months. Though time can be fleeting, I know I need a moment of writing to maintain my mental health. 

12.) Do you type on a computer, typewriter, or write everything out by hand, or use a blend of both?

I would say 90% of my writing happens on my computer. But if I’m writing a poem or dialogue between characters (this often happens to me at the grocery store or on the road), I will use my phone. 

For poetry, I solely write in the Bear app. When working on chapter notes or scene ideas, I write these in the Notes app on my phone or if I’m driving, I will use Voice Memos. I do keep a written journal, which is more for brainstorming. No concrete writing really happens here. 

13.) What are you most looking forward to now that you’re part of Authortube?

First and foremost, I would say community. So much of writing is solitary, but my time in grad school, in writing group, and in collecting Pages Penned in Pandemic, these experiences have all taught me the value of staying connected, of finding a community to offer and receive support, and to feel understood. 

I am also looking forward to having a tangible record of this next year as I work on The Elpis Pages and prepare my WIP to reenter the query trenches. There are so many milestones and roadblocks on the way to my dreams, and I don’t want to forget what it takes to get there.

Don’t forget to like and subscribe on Youtube! And remember, no matter where the day takes you, dream big!