Krysten Lindsay Hager on Putting Anxiety on the Page for Teens

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.

Today’s guest is Kyrsten Lindsay Hager, who writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values.  Her debut novel, True Colors, won the Readers Favorite award for best preteen book and the Dayton Book Expo Bestseller Award for children/teens.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

For In Over Her Head: Lights, Camera, Anxiety, I wanted to have a character in her teen years who was suddenly in the position where she could have everything she thought she wanted so she could see what it was really like. In this case, Cecily’s goal was to be an actress and she was also dreaming about dating her favorite singer/songwriter because she connected so deeply with his lyrics. I put her in a place where she got to do both those things (music video audition), and let her see if it (the career, the fame, the high profile relationship) was all it was cracked up to be. To be honest, my own pop star crushes from my teen years motivated me as well.

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

I expected Cecily to have some anxiety about acting and modeling and being thrown into this new world of fame, but as I began writing, the singer/songwriter character, Andrew Holiday, began having his own issues with anxiety. I didn’t plan for that to be part of the storyline, but I kept picturing him having anxiety before doing radio interviews and feeling the pressure from the record companies. It came out of nowhere, so having him open up to Cecily about that became a real bonding point for the two of them. That whole plot point deepened their relationship and made you root for them as a couple.

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper? 

I wanted to have Cecily experience a dream career moment. I gave her a magazine photo shoot opportunity that she got from Andrew’s recommendation. I knew I was going to basically throw her into the deep end of the pool with that and she’d have to see if she really wanted this lifestyle. However, when I was writing it, I was listening to a song called, “Flesh and Bone,” by Marina and it inspired me to change that scene from just being about Cecily to showing how the established models deal with insecurities, too. The two models, Neneh and Scarlet, witness Cecily having an anxiety attack and I had them share their own stories of insecurities to show we all have our moments of self-doubt.

After I wrote that scene, I had two other changes. One was that I had Cecily’s grandma feeling overwhelmed in this new exciting world, but then I had the photographer ask her to model as well. I loved the idea of a woman starting a new adventure in the years she thought she would be retiring.

I also wanted to show that we all have our own strengths and talents that we bring to the table. I decided to have Cecily feeling insecure about working with established models, but then she brings her acting ability to the photo shoot and really stands out. She walks in feeling like she isn’t as good as the others and then overhears stylists saying she doesn’t deserve to be there, yet she relies on her talent and shows what she brings to the table. My original idea was to see if this was the life Cecily wanted, but in the end the scene changed to show how we all deal with self-doubt and think everyone else has it together but us. 

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

I do get story ideas often because I’m very curious about things. I think that’s why I enjoyed being a journalist because there was something new to learn about all of the time. I read lots of articles and books and watch documentaries and biographies on TV. If I find a person or topic that seems interesting then I want to know everything about it and I look up and read tons on the subject, so that’s how I fill my creative well. 

I’m very visual, so I keep a lot of photos that inspire story ideas. I have a drawer full of pictures I’ve taken from magazines and I also keep Pinterest boards full of photos.

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

If I can imagine dialogue between the characters, then I stop and jot that down because organic dialogue is so important to a story. I try to stay focused on one thing at a time, but if that spark comes along, I do follow the shiny object.

 I have 5 cats and one Dalmatian puppy (seriously, check my Instagram feed) and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting?

I’d have to say my mother would be mine as she’s my sounding board for ideas. She’s also one of the few people who will drop everything to sit and listen to me go on and on about imaginary people. She’s read all of my work, so she has great input, but most often she just lets me ramble until I’m ready to get back in there and write. She actually inspired what I’m working on now because I wrote a story about a breakup and she kept saying she liked the guy my character breaks up with and I kept laughing saying, “She’s moved on, why can’t you?” And then I realized if my mom was so attached to the guy, then there must have been a reason. So I started working on a story about what he does next.

I also have a little Virginia Woolf plastic doll on my desk that my husband bought me and I admit I have had a conversation or two with her. If she could talk, she’d probably ask me to clean off my desk as she’s nearly been crushed by a pile of notebooks a few times.

L.C. Barlow on Moving From Self-Publishing to A Traditional Career

Today's guest is L.C. Barlow, a writer and professor working primarily in the field of speculative fiction. Her fiction has reached over sixty-five thousand readers and garnered praise, including a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Awards, a winner of the Indie Reader Discovery Awards, a winner of the eLit Awards, and IndieReader’s Best Books of 2014. She joined me today to talk about moving from a self-publishing career to a traditional career, and the value of having a large reader base in order to make the change.

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How Old Is Too Old to Begin A Writing Career?

by Leslie Wibberley

Judging by the numerous comments I’ve read on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram one might assume if you haven’t found an agent or made a sale by the time your thirty, you might as well give up.

I’m here to tell you that’s just not the way this business works.

Five years ago, when injuries and failed surgeries forced me to reduce my hours working as a physiotherapist, I rekindled a childhood love of writing. I began writing short stories and narrative non-fiction pieces, most of which served no purpose other than to help me hone my craft. And then…

I wrote a middle grade novel. I thought it was good. It was not.

FYI, it’s still sitting in a box under my desk to remind me how far I’ve come in these past five years.

I wrote more narrative non-fiction pieces. This time I dared to submit them. To my surprise and delight, a few were published in literary journals.

Emboldened by this success, I entered one in a national contest and I won 8th place. This helped me take even more risks, and I wrote more short stories. I submitted one and was stunned when it was accepted for publication.

I thought, “Wow, this is easy!”

FYI, it was not.

This success was followed by many rejections. Many, many rejections. But I didn’t give up, I just kept writing.

I wrote a young adult novel. I thought it was good. It was not.

But, this time, I received enough feedback to know I could make it better. So, I rewrote it and jumped into the querying trenches.

In the end, I sent out sixty-seven queries, received fifteen full requests, ten partial requests, one revise and resubmit which I ultimately turned down, four step asides after I received my offer, and a total of sixty-five rejections.

So. Many. Rejections.

I let this book rest, waiting for the responses to those requests to trickle in, but I didn’t stop writing, or learning, or honing my craft. And, I didn’t completely give up on that book. I told myself I just needed one agent to fall in love with my project. Surely, they were out there. I just had to find that proverbial needle in the haystack.

While I waited, I wrote more narrative non-fiction pieces, and a lot of short stories. I submitted to literary journals, anthologies, and contests. Sometimes I was successful, but more often I was not.

Despite many rejections, I didn’t stop submitting my short work. Winning contests and having pieces published was amazing, and helped to build my confidence, but I actually think it was garnering so many rejections that helped to desensitize me to all the literary agent rejections I would eventually receive.

I wrote another book, an adult story this time. I thought it was good. And this time, I really do think it might be.

And then, the fateful email. An agent I’d met and pitched at a conference, and who’d had my full for almost an entire year, wanted to call and chat. I’d been through this before, with the revise and resubmit request, so I forced myself to remain calm.

She called, told me she’d just finished reading my book, and she really loved the story, my voice, and my writing. “This seems positive,” I thought, still not daring to think this might actually be “the call.”

She said, “Your story is great, but what really pulled me in was your writing and your voice. It’s so, so hard to find a writer with that natural ability.” (I jotted this down on a scrap of paper because I really wanted to remember her words.)

My hands started to shake. While this conversation was definitely heading in a positive direction, I wasn’t quite willing to give into my excitement, not yet. With feigned nonchalance, I said, “I’m so glad to hear that.”

And then, the words every author seeking traditional publication waits to hear, “So, this is your official call offering representation.” I held the phone away from my ear, screamed, silently of course, and did a rather disjointed version of an Irish jig. My husband, who had followed me upstairs while I took the call, videoed the entire performance.

We talked for over forty minutes. I remember telling her I write in multiple genres and age groups, and I recall her saying she loved that. But I don’t remember much else. A voice in my head was yelling, “Oh. My. God. Oh. My. God,” too loudly for me to think.

I did have the where-with-all to tell the agent I still had four fulls and several partials out, and that I wanted to give those agents two weeks’ notice.

Ultimately the other agents stepped aside, but all were so complimentary and wished me great success.

I had the opportunity to meet with the offering agent in person, at the same conference we’d met at the year before. A perfect full circle. She was just as amazing as I remembered, and even more enthusiastic. It’s hard to put into words what it felt like to know someone believed in my writing and my story so completely. We signed the contract and I was finally able to say the words I dreamed of saying for so many years. “I have an agent.”

By the way, I was sixty years old at the time.

In the past five years, my words have been published in print seventeen times and online another sixteen, including two novellas which will be published this fall. The plan is to go out on submission to editors with my young adult project in September. 

Not bad for “an old lady.”

The takeaway?

Keep honing your craft and keep submitting. Hold back those demons of doubt and please, don’t be afraid of rejections. They merely prove that you are trying.

And remember, you’re only too old if you believe you are.  

Leslie Wibberley lives in a suburb of Vancouver, Canada with her amazing family and an overly enthusiastic dog. She writes across a wide range of genres, age groups, and narrative styles but has a passion for dark, speculative fiction. Her award-winning work is published in multiple literary journals and anthologies, including Chicken Soup for the Soul. You can reach her at lawibberley@gmail.com or at any of the following sites: Medium: https://medium.com/@lawibberley Twitter: https://twitter.com/feismo Instagram: https://lesliewibberley.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wibberleythewordsmith