Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christopher Soriano-Palma. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Christopher, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

The first thing I wanted to do was become an actor, actually. I was a theater kid first, and a book nerd second. In hindsight, though, I was more suited for the written page than I was for the stage having written my first story back in elementary school, a short picture book about dragons, now lost forever.

I first considered pursuing writing a little more seriously in high school when I started reading more voraciously. I was introduced to the English classics, sure. But it was the Spanish Literature class that really captured me, having been introduced to authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Fuentes, Isabel Allende, Julio Cortazar, and so on. I liked learning about the Latin American authors, who I felt I could relate to more given my Mexican-American background. Then the teacher assigned a school project where I could choose to write a story using magical realism. That story is now also lost forever, but it was a pivotal moment. Nothing in my life was going to make more sense to me than writing after that. It became a passion for me to tell stories. And I wanted to do it professionally.

Christopher, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Christopher Soriano-Palma. I was born and raised in Watsonville, CA to Mexican-American immigrants. I am a writer currently living in Los Angeles, dividing my time between my hometown and LA.

I’ve been writing professionally since leaving high school, which is where I first discovered my love for writing. I studied English and Philosophy during my undergrad and then enrolled in an MFA program right after focusing on writing novels and short stories. After a year of teaching in my hometown, I chose to take a chance and move to Los Angeles to further my writing career.

A lot has happened since moving to LA. I briefly became the fiction editor for an online publication (now defunct). Then I became a contributor for another online magazine called Reclamation, which I still write for. Over time, other publications have picked up my work, from op-eds to personal essays, and the occasional poetry.

And then there’s screenwriting. I never considered screenwriting until moving to Los Angeles. But the screenwriting bug bit me hard and I ended up picking up the craft, and I’m impressed by how quickly I managed to do so. I have worked with other writers in editing and formatting their scripts. I have written a few features myself, and I plan to pursue an agent soon. Of course, I am in full support of the WGA writers’ strike and will not cross the picket line.

Most recently, I wrote a one-act play for a contest and, to my surprise, won a place in their showcase. Nothing I have written has ever been performed before, so it was surreal to see my writing brought to life for the first time. It was an incredible feeling akin to when I first discovered writing as a teenager. It was a powerful reminder of why I chose to write professionally. Because telling stories and expressing yourself feels really damn good.

Initially, I was a poet, then a novelist, then an essayist, and after a screenwriter. I guess I’m a playwright now too. But always a writer.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Nobody can take this away from you. Despite all the challenges that come with being a creative professionally, it will always be there for you at a personal level.

I briefly taught creative writing to high school and college students and the one thing I would mention near the end of the semester is that it is easy to say it is hard to be an artist while it is harder to understand how more difficult it can be to not be an artist. Art is at its core a form of expression. Imagine going to a 9-5 every day, waking up early for another day of work for a job that doesn’t give a damn about you, coming home exhausted, feeling frustrated by other personal issues, and choosing to go to bed early because you have to do it all over again the next day, and the day after, for weeks and months and years. Imagine having no outlet for that. How do you let it out? How do you tell the world what you are going through? How can you make others understand you if not with a work of art?

Art is how we communicate what cannot be communicated. It is therapeutic, cathartic, productive, and the healthiest form of communication all at once.

I have no regrets about pursuing writing professionally. The great irony about “safe” careers is that they ended up not being safe at all. I have never made a lot of money through my writing, and I’ve worked a lot of odd jobs to financially stay afloat. A lot of my peers stopped writing to pursue “safer” careers in the tech industry, only to be hit recently by the tech layoffs. There is no such thing as a safe career. There is no employer that will care about you under capitalism. They will let you go as soon as it benefits them. That is why the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are so important right now. It is the working-class revolution artists needed. And the writers and actors will win this fight.

Despite it all, your art and your creativity cannot be taken away. At a personal level, you will always be able to write a poem, draw a sketch, or sing a song. The arts are not necessarily a way to make a living. But they are a way to live. And I don’t regret living my life creatively.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I spoke with someone a while back. I was visiting my hometown and met up with one of my closest friends. They talked to me about wanting to move out themselves, but they admitted wanting to be careful about it and move out when they were ready.

I had a similar conversation with another person in Los Angeles. They were studying film in their hometown and were visiting LA to find out if they wanted to move down there, and when. They too wanted to be careful about their decision, mentioning that they were going to make a decision within a year or two.

Hearing them want to be careful made sense to me, especially during the era of strikes and financial instability. My experience was a little different, though. I chose to leave my hometown anyway. I was desperate to leave. That does not mean I didn’t think it through. I hesitated numerous times. But living in my hometown felt stagnant and unbearable. That forced me to take the plunge and leave for LA without a job lined up, no publishing credentials, and only $500 in my bank account. I slept on my brother’s couch. I barely managed to land a job. I had to work a second one until the COVID-19 lockdowns occurred, leaving me furloughed. Then I had to work during the peak of the pandemic, risking my life against a virus that some believed didn’t even exist.

Running out of money, I called it quits and returned to my hometown to live with my parents again and work full-time. I was financially secure for the first time in my life. I should have been happy, right? But I wasn’t. I wanted to try again. I wanted to keep going with my writing career. Against my parents’ disbelief, I told them I was moving back to Los Angeles. I was going to keep trying until I made it happen for myself.

And I have made it happen for myself. Slowly, year by year, I managed to publish more writing. I met more creatives to collaborate with. But more than anything, no matter where I was, I never stopped writing. Ever. I have several pieces of writing under my resume, including feature screenplays, personal essays, poems, and stories. That would have never happened had I not taken the plunge. I doubted myself a lot, all the time, for a very long time. But check it out: I’m doing it anyway. That’s pretty good for having had only $500 when I left four years ago.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://christophersorianowrites.wordpress.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ChSoriPalma/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chsoripalma/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChSoriPalma
• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@chsoripalma
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chsoripalma
• Substack: https://chsoripalma.substack.com/
• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12227006/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
• Medium: https://chsoripalma.medium.com/