We recently connected with Kaitlynne Rainne and have shared our conversation below.

Kaitlynne , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I’ve always been a writer. Since I was 7 years old I’ve been writing and in primary school, I was always writing and sharing stories, but it really wasn’t until the pandemic that I considered furthering my education in writing. See, I did my undergrad in fashion design – a completely different storytelling medium, but storytelling nonetheless. But when I reconnected with my passion for writing in 2020, that’s when I knew that this was something that could go somewhere. So, I finished out my undergrad and applied for Grad School for writing and got in! And just recently (June 1, 2024) I graduated with my MFA in Writing.

Honestly, I don’t think there was anything I could have done to speed up my learning process. Writing is almost like a muscle memory thing. You have to keep doing it every day, or at the very least, as often as you can to keep your technique sharp and to hone your craft, which is what I did. I wrote every chance I got even before I got into my MFA program. Then I joined Student Media and worked with SCAD’s student newspaper, District, and that helped me sharpen my skills even more. In terms of skills, the technique is one of the biggest things I believe is essential to a writer; in addition to a library of literary pieces to read, discuss, and use as a teacher. My program gave me that. My professors were amazing. They taught us proper techniques and helped us find our voice on the page. Additionally, I’ve always looked at it as: You can’t give a writer a voice, they have to come with that, but once that’s apparent, teaching the technique to harness the power of that voice truly will be a piece of cake. You just need to be open-minded and willing to go through the various stages of revision and editing that it will take to get those final drafts and manuscripts.

Kaitlynne , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Kaitlynne Rainne and I can go through the list of words to describe what I do: writer, editor, journalist, creative professional but the one that fully captures who I am is a storyteller.

I recently graduated from SCAD with my MFA in Writing and I plan on expanding my journalism career as a News Producer in the next few weeks which is really exciting! But as mentioned in my previous response, I’ve been writing my whole life, but specifically what drew me to journalism was the chance to do more. It was Fall of 2020 and I was trying to find ways to write more on the side. I was a fashion design major and while I enjoyed exploring that side of my creativity, I wanted to get back to words. So I signed up and became a contributing writer for SCAD District. Within five months I was a copy editor for them and fast forward nine months later, I was Editor in Chief, a position I held for 2 years before I stepped down. Well, really my contract was up and I couldn’t renew it again haha but I’m so grateful that for that last quarter, before I graduated in June 2024, I got to stay on as Chief Copy Editor.

In terms of what I am most proud of, I think one achievement has to be my thesis. As an MFA student, I chose to do the first part of narrative nonfiction- a memoir- for my thesis and wrote and defended it all within 8 weeks. SCAD operates on a 10-week quarter system so in actuality, I wrote the first part of the memoir in about 5 and a half weeks and had a few days to a week in between which I solely spent on editing and working on feedback and by week 7 of the quarter, I had it completed and sent to my committee to review. By week 8, my thesis was successfully defended and I passed. The other achievement I’m proud of is graduating from my MFA program as an Outstanding Achievement Awardee. The award is super selective and you go through an intensive interview process to be selected after having been nominated. So when I got that news, I was excited and humbled to see all my hard work – across my time at SCAD – recognized and honored on graduation day.

If there’s one thing I want people to know about me, it’s that I care so much about voice – uplifting voices and sharing stories. As writers, we tend to be very solitary creatives since that’s just the nature of our craft, but when I can share people’s stories and work on getting a story or a voice — or just a person who’s doing something really cool/meaningful — and connect their story with audiences, that means the world to me. This is why I love that I’m stepping more into the journalism industry because I’ll get to do that every day and make a difference in a community through storytelling.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I want people to feel like they have a seat at the table. Growing up a reader and a writer meant I often found myself lost in the pages of books. I spent hours reading as a little girl, wanting to, one day, do the very thing the authors I read did – give people a seat at the table. Books like The Wizard of Oz, Nancy Drew, Alice in Wonderland, and various YA teen fantasy novels – yes, Twilight included – became portals to worlds where I felt like I belonged. In these books, I had a seat at the table. As a storyteller today, I understand the importance of making my readers and audiences feel that way. Whether through the fictional stories I write, the personal essays I share or the copywriting I do, I know the magnitude my words hold. I don’t take that lightly. In fact, I’m humbled every time someone takes a moment to read what I’ve written. Any writer knows that we are the key to connection in this world and the impact we can have on others.

I was in a Zoom lecture for a writing class and Professor Rabb said, “Don’t be afraid of your voice.” That simple line became the crux of my creative philosophy. So when I got accepted into the MFA program, I threw myself into every assignment. I think it’s been during these past two years that I’ve truly come into myself as a creative. As a storyteller. I embraced the rough edges of my life and my passion for words and ran with every assignment I wrote. I pushed myself with every genre I was introduced to, took feedback, and reworked pieces as needed. Generally, writing is a pretty solitary craft but reading my work to my peers, workshopping with them, and then having them say, “I get that” or “You captured that feeling well” meant everything. I felt like I was finally giving people a seat at the table.

And ultimately, that’s all I want to keep doing. I want to give people real words, real stories (even if it’s fiction) — I want them to look at it and say, “I see myself.” Or know that they aren’t alone in this world and that someone out there gets it, hears them, and sees them. And isn’t afraid of that voice.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

It’s okay to need rest. Rest is good. I think as creatives, we’re always looking for the next big thing, the next project or chasing inspiration that we sometimes forget that it’s okay to rest. To simply sit and create for yourself rather than the world.

I learned that during the pandemic. I think it was a pivotal point for many people, but it taught me to sit down. I was super burnt out when it first hit. I was so tired from going from project to project on back-to-back 10-week quarters that my mental health started being affected. Until one day, I had a little come to Jesus moment and decided that I needed to pull back and focus on myself. Rest and focus on myself, creating for me and it led me to reconnect with my why and purpose. It also led me back to writing and was the moment and time that set me on this course so, I am grateful to have learned that. I wouldn’t be where I am without that period of my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kaitlynnerainne.com/
• Instagram: @kaitlynnerainne
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlynne-rainne-haylock/

Image Credits

Feature Image credit: Fred DiLorenzo