We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brooklyn McGuire a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brooklyn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

To be successful at something requires a lot of dedication, time, practice, and perseverance. You must be dedicated enough to put the effort in and see it through to the end. You must be willing to put the time in, no matter how long it takes. You must be willing to practice to get better, and you must have the perseverance to push through the struggles and the failures. Success comes after failure.

I was thirteen years old when I first started writing, and from that time, it was a dream of mine to publish a book. My first “book” was a three chapter story that had less than a thousand words and was complete garbage. At the time, it was the best I could do. I enjoyed the feeling of bringing these stories and ideas I had in my head to life though, so I kept on. Over time, I noticed my writing getting better. People started reading my stories and enjoying them.

When I was nineteen, I started writing my book, “Listen.” At the time, my only goal was to write a ‘book-length’ book, because everything I had written up until then didn’t feel like it would be long enough to be a legitimate published novel. It took me a year to finish, but by the time I was done, I had a word count of over 90,000. That was the longest book I’d ever written, and I had achieved my goal, but I still didn’t feel like it was good enough to publish.

I let my book sit for around two years before my mom finally convinced me to send it out to publishers and try to get it published. She said the worst that can happen is they say no. I thought, “Yeah, she’s right. It’s worth a try at least!”

The first answer I received was a no, so I sent my manuscript out to more publishers, and to my surprise, I finally received a yes!

Now, ten years after I started writing, my dream finally came true and “Listen” is my first ever published novel!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Brooklyn McGuire. I am 24 and I live in Arkansas. I am the author of the New Adult romance novel, “Listen.” It’s my first novel, having been published in September of 2023. It’s inspired by my passion for music and my own personal experiences having spent my teenage years in a band.

I have been writing for eleven years. I started out writing fan fiction stories about my favorite band on Wattpad. I found a love for writing and after several years, I stepped away from fan fiction and began writing original stories.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that successful people aren’t just lucky and born with talent – they put the work in. This comes from being a previous musician. In my early teens, I was a guitarist in a band and I wanted to be able to sing, but I struggled with it. I was always told singers are “born with a natural singing voice,” and “singers are born with talent.” One day, I found a video of Ed Sheeran playing a clip of his singing voice when he was fourteen. He said it was garbage and he sounded horrible. I was amazed that he hadn’t always been an incredible singer. He had improved his voice significantly in a number of years. He said himself that he wasn’t born with talent. He had to practice and work really hard. I also read his book, “A Visual Journey,” in which he further expressed that. He inspired me and gave me hope that I could improve my singing voice too, if I put in the effort.

That same lesson and mindset played into my writing as well. The more you practice, the better you’re going to get. If you have a goal, you just have to put the work in to achieve it.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding thing about being a writer and author is the joy I get in bringing my ideas to life and creating stories, characters, and worlds that I can share with others, and the pride and achievement I feel when someone likes what I’ve created.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/brooklynmcguireofficial
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorbrooklynmcguire
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChPq1d-JVIms915PrRQfc8g
• Other: linktr.ee/authorbrooklynmcguire