Welcome to the SNOB - Second Novel Ominipresent Blues. Whether you’re under contract or trying to snag another deal, you’re a professional now, with the pressures of a published novelist compounded with the still-present nagging self-doubt of the noobie. How to deal?

Today’s guest for the SNOB is Lindsay Wong, the best-selling, award-winning author of the memoir The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug-Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family, which won the 2019 Hubert-Evans Prize for Nonfiction, and was a finalist for the 2018 Hilary Weston Prize for Nonfiction and was defended by Joe Zee on Canada Reads 2019.

She has a BFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and an MFA in literary nonfiction from Columbia University, and is now based in Vancouver, Canada. My Summer of Love and Misfortune is her first YA novel. Wong is an adjunct professor of creative writing at The University of British Columbia. 

Follow her on Twitter @LindsayMWong, Instagram @LindsayWong.M or visit her website https://lindsaywongwriter.com. Her email is lindsay.wong@ubc.ca

Is it hard to leave behind the first novel and focus on the second?

My debut was a darkly comedic memoir titled The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug-Raids, Demons And My Crazy Chinese Family (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018), and it’s a very different book than my YA debut, My Summer of Love And Misfortune (Simon Pulse), which is a fun, lighthearted summer beach read. I am incredibly lucky to be promoting both of my books, although I have to admit, I’m a little bit exhausted from reading and talking about my memoir.

I’m extremely grateful that people still want to read my debut, but I did 67 readings in 2019 alone, and I’m getting really bored of myself, haha. I’m more excited to talk about Iris Wang, the wild 17-year old protagonist of My Summer Of Love and Misfortune. She’s more impulsive and interesting than me, and she also has way more misadventures! I guess I’m excited to leave nonfiction behind. I keep telling everyone I’ll write another memoir when I’m 70 years old.

At what point do you start diverting your energies from promoting your debut and writing / polishing / editing your second?

I did not plan or manage my time well when writing my second book nor did I really expect to be an author. I thought only five people (including my agent) would read my debut memoir. As a teenager, I wanted to be a writer because I thought this type of adult professional stayed home in her pajamas and ate junk food all day, but it turns out, being an author is such an extroverted role with so much public speaking and networking.

While I was on tour for The Woo-Woo, I was trying to write My Summer of Love And Misfortune because it was due, so I would have to write a bit on airplanes, in the airport, or in hotel rooms. It was a very rushed, stressful experience, and I honestly don’t recommend it if you can help it! Writing while promoting your debut feels a lot like a whirlwind. Personally, I have to be in the right headspace to be grumpily writing vs. feeling social and friendly. I’m very grateful that editor Jennifer Ung gave me the opportunity to write a YA book, and I was so glad I was able to finally complete an entire manuscript.

Your first book landed an agent and an editor, and hopefully some fans. Who are you writing the second one for? Them, or yourself?

I joke that this is the second book that I’ve written for myself. In my dedication for My Summer of Love And Misfortune,  I write: This book is dedicated to the very best and worst disaster that I know: myself! And also to anyone who has ever felt that they never belonged to any particular people, purpose, or place. I see you and I salute you and I promise that you will be 85 percent okay (one day) in this scary, tumultuous and glittering world.

Essentially, the book is for me, but it’s also for all the Irises out there, young people who feel lost and don’t yet know who they are or what they’re supposed to do with their lives.

Is there a new balance of time management to address once you’re a professional author? 

Great question! I am still trying to figure out how to be an author between work, promotion, and writing-time. I’m not one of those writers who are excellent at time management or even very good at finding time to write every day. I do well on deadlines, but I do become stressed and grumpy and no one wants to be near me. Honestly, I’m envious of people who manage full-time jobs and then they go home to write or wake up really early and still manage to produce wonderful books.

During the pandemic, I have been making to-do lists, but often, I find myself only doing 1-2 things/day, whether it’s errands or folding laundry. I also really don’t know how people can manage to keep up to date with their emails. Invoices literally take me hours, haha. I am, however, slowly learning to say no a lot more, despite feeling guilty, and setting more boundaries. I don’t answer DMs on Twitter or Instagram anymore, unless I know the person IRL.

If anyone has the secret to time management and multitasking, especially when it comes to writing, please let me know!

What did you do different the second time around, with the perspective of a published author?

A ton of people don’t know that I’m a very shy, introverted person, and I suffer from stage fright at literary events A LOT. With my YA book, I mentally prepared myself to be able to participate in interviews and speak in front of a medium-sized crowd. Talking to strangers is terrifying for me, so my advice for socially anxious writers, do something relaxing before an event! Say no to large group-dinners that are scheduled before a reading and always, always preserve your energy and never take what readers say personally. Once, during a book signing, a lady waited in-line for twenty-five minutes just to tell me how much she hated my book and how much trauma I had personally given her. It was not fun! 

When the pandemic happened, all the literary festivals either got cancelled or went online, and I have to say, I was seriously made for virtual promotion. I can lie in bed and read my work, and I can even wear my pajamas sometimes. It’s actually very nice not to worry so much about interacting with other human beings or finding a matching outfit in my closet, haha.