Your first book landed an agent and an editor, and hopefully some fans. Who are you writing the second one for? Them, or yourself?
Most of the time, I find that I’m writing for my teen self: the books I would have loved, but more importantly, the books I needed. Of course, plenty has changed since I was a teen—I remember thinking texting would never catch on and resisted it until I was a senior in high school—so I keep the modern teen audience in mind, too.
I’m also often writing to counteract negative portrayals of girls in YA (particularly the ones I read as a teen), mainly when it comes to sexuality, desire, and ambition. I don’t think it’s selfish to write for ourselves first. We should enjoy and take pride in the work we’re creating—how can I expect someone else to love something I’ve written if I don’t love it first?
Is there a new balance of time management to address once you’re a professional author?
After a lot of planning, I took a leap into FT writing in the fall of 2018. I’d been working FT from home prior to that, which unfortunately meant it felt like I was always working. When I had time to write, I’d stress myself out so much because I didn’t know when I’d have that writing time again. I sold two more books to Simon Pulse in mid-2018, and I was hungry for time not just to write them—but to truly enjoy writing them.
One thing I didn’t realize, though, was that a decent chunk of time spent author-ing isn’t actually spent writing. You’re also responding to emails, promoting your books, interacting with other authors, reading their work, standing in line at the post office, etc.
I try to plan out my weeks so I’m writing every morning for about four hours. Afternoons are for promo, freelance editing, errands, or whatever else needs to get done. It’s still a work in progress, but I think I’m getting better at the time management element.
What did you do differently the second time around, with the perspective of a published author?
I’m a lot calmer now than I was the first time around. All of this still feels new and exciting, but the first half of my debut year, I had a hard time not constantly comparing myself to others. You see something great happen for someone, and you’re thrilled for them, but you still wonder: “Why not me? Why not my book?” It’s impossible to avoid—even if you’re getting a couple of those great somethings. And I truly am happy with my debut experience.
Then, halfway through the year, I felt a shift and gained some much-needed perspective. Part of it was sparked by this excellent blog post from Susan Dennard. It hit me that the only way I’d have a chance at achieving any of my author bucket list goals was by writing the next book. And then writing the one after that, and so forth. That’s really the only thing we can control in this industry. So I’ve made a concerted effort to channel that into my writing, and to put out both positivity and honesty on my social media whenever I can. Because at the end of the day, I feel so incredibly lucky that I get to do this again.
