Hi, it's us, we're the writers, it's us.
Where we introduce ourselves and laugh a lot.
Good morning wordicorns and scribblers,
Welcome to our (
and ) new endeavor!In this very rare post, you’ll get a podcast style introduction to our newsletter and growing creative community, A Million Ways to Be A Writer. Though we are less giggly and far more eloquent when we write, you’ll still be getting us.
We hope this soundbyte is enticing enough you want to hit that subscribe button because we are really looking forward to getting to know you better!
The transcription which almost exactly matches the audio…almost:
ELLE: Good morning, wordicorns and scribblers! We are A Million Ways to Be A Writer!
VALERIE: And we are so excited to be launching this new newsletter and inviting you all to join us! I'm Valerie Geary, mystery author and avid hiker. And I'm here with Elle Mitchell, who writes dark, suspense fiction, crip fiction. She is one of the most creative people that I know. And I'm—
ELLE: Oh, you're so sweet.
VALERIE: And I’m so excited to be embarking on this new endeavor with her. So…Elizabeth… Elle… Damn it. (laughing)
ELLE: You know, yes. So you'll hear us probably say both names. My real name is Elizabeth and real people in life will call me Elizabeth. You can call me Elizabeth too. My writer name is Elle. That's where you'll find me.
Valerie: Which one did I introduce you as? I don't even remember.
ELLE: Elle!
VALERIE: Oh good. (more laughing) Why don't you tell us how A Million Ways to Be A Writer got started? Where did this all come from?
ELLE: Valerie and I were on a writing retreat and we were talking about how we wanted to expand our community. But most importantly, we both had the idea of wanting to share our knowledge with new writers and existing writers, people that were very far into their journey. But we've had very strange publishing journeys, you and me.
VALERIE: Yes, we have. We both come from very different origins and have gone down very different paths. I grew up very much wanting to be a writer since I can remember. I started reading when I was young and just was always very enamored by the idea of becoming an author with a capital “A”. Like the literary award winners, the people you who were big, whose books were in bookstores, you know, going to events, that kind of thing, and I was very much pursuing the traditional publishing path from the time that I started writing. I think you came from a very different background story.
ELLE: Yeah. I wanted to be about 5,000 things when I was a kid and this was never one of them. I was a makeup artist and creative in about 500 ways and I was kind of forced into a more sedentary lifestyle because of a bunch of disabilities and that kind of led to writing because I had been very heavily involved in the storytelling of movies and plays so I just said, yeah, let's write a book.
And I hadn't actually thought about publishing it to begin with. It just kind of felt like a good thing to do. And so I self-published. So I was in a very, very different space to start with and to end with. We're still kind of in different spaces. Also not though.
VALERIE: Yeah. So I have two traditionally published books and then I switched gears and tried self-publishing and that's currently where I'm at in this kind of hybrid publishing mode. Kind of going back and forth trying to decide if I want to return to the traditional publishing scene or continue carrying on with the self publishing track. And I think while we have so many things that are different we also have things that are the same.
We are both very creative people who really want to share the knowledge that we have but also want to expand the community and reach out to other creative people and just kind of build this idea, like our newsletter's called, that there are a million different ways to be a writer. We're not all one thing. There are a hundred million different paths to writing and to publishing.
ELLE: Our unique perspectives, kind of make us oddballs, but also probably a lot like whoever's listening to this right now. So hi, also other oddball. You probably, at least at one time in your life, have been like us where you felt totally not like the other people. Because you hear—well I shouldn't say for sure you do—but I have heard many stories of I want to be a writer. I wrote some things. I won some awards. Then I got published. Hooray for me.
But most of us don't really have that simple of a story. We come across a lot of obstacles, whether that's physical, mental, that comes with jobs, that comes with relationships. A lot of things crop up, and so I think that you and I kind of have some differences that other people I think can relate to, whether that is the mental or the physical aspect, because we're gonna be talking a little bit about that.
And speaking of what we're gonna be talking about, let's, I guess, move into what to expect from this because unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you feel about this particular thing, you won't be hearing us like a podcast most of the time. You're gonna be getting more articles. I personally am pretty sad about it because you know, if you know anything about me, I suppose I should say, you know that I love to talk and I love to ramble. So hopefully we'll do more of these, but anyhow…
VALERIE: That’s for our future selves
ELLE: Yes!
VALERIE: For the 2024 season of A Million Ways to Be a Writer, we are going to be focusing a lot on articles and a lot on fostering the kind of creative community that we are looking for, a supportive one, one that encourages you to find your own way through the writing and publishing paths, through your own creative journey. We want to be promoting sustainable creativity as well as healthy ways to take care of your mind and your body as you are going through the creative process, as you are exploring your stories.
So as we've talked about, we have two different unique points of view here, and we're also going to be trying to bring in other people's points of view. We are going to be having a recurring article interview series called Two Cents Tuesdays, where we will be bringing in other writers who are doing other types of publishing and writing and storytelling and sharing and we're gonna be asking them some questions and just highlighting their successes and their failures and their journey.
What else are we gonna be doing?
ELLE: We're gonna share a lot of resources. We believe that for ourselves and for everyone else that the best way to learn is through other people as well as your own failures, but other people have a lot of important information. They have learned things that you can't because of their different situations and different lifestyles.
So we want to hear from them in ways that aren't just our questions. So we're gonna share some articles and yeah, also hello, I'm gonna be sharing memes. That's a thing I like to do, so just get on board with that. (more laughing)
We also want to have, we mentioned community earlier, and we really want to have some really good community. We're gonna be fostering that quite a bit with some networking, and we are encouraging you to step in and have some conversation with this. We're not just wanting to hear from people that are already established or people that are out there doing it. Maybe you are, so we want to hear from you as well, but you may be writing your very first sentence on your very first essay. Welcome to the fold. We want to hear from you. Whether that's in the comments, whether that's in the chat, however this happens, great. If you want to be a lurker, that's also fine. We're good with that. We understand that.
We just want you to find your own way and we're kind of hoping that we can help with that. What do you think?
VALERIE: I think that even though you and I have been doing this for a little while we are also both still learning a lot.
ELLE: Oh my gosh yes.
VALERIE: And so I think one of the important things that you readers—and listeners for this one special, one podcast time only—what you're gonna find here is a lot of Elle and I sharing what we're learning, our own successes, our own failures, because we are not experts in anything but our own stories and our own lives and our own way of doing things. And so we're definitely going to be sharing that with you, but also we're going to be doing experiments, we're going to be trying new things for our own businesses, for our own creative selves.
I realized the other day that I have only been self-publishing for three years, even though I've been writing for closer to fifteen. So it feels like such a small chunk of time compared to the time I've been writing. And so I definitely see this as a place for me to grow as well.
ELLE: I like that. I, well, obviously I haven't traditionally published. I've been self publishing for five years, but I'm still as much of a novice as I was then, only also not. It's kind of hard because since everyone's journey is so different, I'm obviously—it's like she said—we're an expert in our own lives. I know how to do it my way, but I don't know what works for you.
We can tell you what we're doing. We can share other people's opinions and we want to do that. That's why we're here. We're hoping that that helps you, but we're not telling you the right way because there's a reason this is called A Million Ways to Be a Writer. There are too many!
But we have some unique thoughts that we're hoping you might be interested in, which is why we're actually also gonna have—and I know, go ahead and groan—a paid section. I know, paying people… we don't like capitalism either, but also sometimes knowledge is worth it and ours is. We are going to have a small paid section where you’re going to get a couple different things. Some of it is gonna be a little more focused on…
VALERIE: …craft and we're going to be going a little more in depth and have a little more intensive type of study with our paid content. So you'll be getting longer articles, you'll be getting more in-depth resources, you'll be getting basically more support from us. So if you are just starting your journey, think of it as having two people who have some experience both with traditional publishing path and with self-publishing path, and with craft and storytelling in general, there to support you and encourage you and field questions.
So that's kind of where the paid content will be headed with the more in-depth articles and we're at some point we will also be having some additional content for our paid subscribers including a book club, some tool reviews or how the tools that we use to help make our writing and publishing lives easier. There may be some videos coming up but that's all kind of in the future. For now just expect a lot of good free content including the interviews from other writers, regular articles talking about creative living, and then for our paid subscribers more in-depth articles about craft and the ins and outs of publishing.
ELLE: Yeah, you can kind of think about it as the stuff you would get at a writers conference, all of those courses. There are multiple tracks and the paid sections is gonna be kind of what you would learn there.
VALERIE: We are really looking forward to this project! We have been really excited to launch it and I think we just are really excited to have a place of curiosity and community and creative people coming together, sharing their ups and downs, their heartbreaks and their victories together. Because writing and publishing, being a creative person can sometimes be lonely and sometimes it is just good to have a place to come where you can pour a hot cup of tea, just talk to your friends and feel good.
And so that's kind of where we want A Million Ways to Be A Writer to head. That's the direction we are looking to go in. Just a place for a wide range of topics for a wide range of people, whether you're a fiction writer, nonfiction writer, whether you're doing comedy or writing scripts, whether you're just starting the journey or whether you've been here a while just doing the hard work. We are so excited to have you!
ELLE: Absolutely couldn't have said it better myself. Just, welcome guys! Thanks so much!