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

Bryan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember, and a filmmaker as well. When the economy bottomed out in the mid-2000s, it seemed like I was doomed and would never be a freelancer again. So I took a steady paycheck, applying my skills to the world of local government and really enjoyed having health care for the first time. But, as 2023 began, I realized that I was working two full time jobs. My novel-writing and other freelance writing work was paying off and I had to pick one. Thankfully, my wife was able to secure health insurance through her job and still keep her steady paycheck and I was able to jump right back into being a full-time creative.

I can’t tell you how much of a risk that felt like, especially in today’s grind-you-to-the-bone economy. Gig workers are drastically underpaid and undervalued, writers are getting replaced with the unethical applications of AI left and right, and fewer people seem to read novels today than ever. There’s nothing easy about the work, but now I get to pick the work I like and do it to the best of my abilities rather than burn myself out at both ends.

The risk could still fail and I could still end up in a year or two or three, but so far, almost a full year out, it’s been worth taking and I couldn’t be happier about it.

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

I first stepped into the world of storytelling when, at 19, I started building a spaceship in my mom’s backyard and shot a movie inside of it. At the time, I was fresh out of high school, writing constantly, bitten by the bug of visual storytelling, and was working on every film set I could for extra money in addition to my job at the movie theater. I worked on many movies over the years and continued to write scripts, but expanded my abilities to do journalism work (writing for sites like The Huffington Post, SYFY, Starwars.com, /Film, and many more) and novels. Now, I’ve published many novels, including a few in the BattleTech/MechWarrior universe. I’ve been able to do writing in other universes ranging from Robotech and Shadowrun to Doctor Who and Star Wars.

I really love telling stories, whether it’s with the written word or with visuals and there is nothing I won’t do in order to improve my craft. In addition to honing my craft by working consistently in my chosen fields, I teach creative writing and screenwriting now, for the University of Utah and Writer’s Digest’s online university. It helps me build community, and I learn more about my craft as I teach.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is getting to grow your soul as a job. I get to ply my art and tell stories for money. I don’t think money should be the sole motivator, but when I realized I was going to be telling stories like this anyway, I didn’t want to have to do it on the side. I wanted this to be my primary focus and I worked as hard as I could to get there.

There is seriously nothing more magical than getting to the end of writing a novel or screenplay and having all the threads of story you’ve laid down start coming together. That rush of insight and exhilaration is unlike anything I’ve experienced, and it’s a high I chase every day.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Getting big on social media is a lot like planting trees. The best time to plant one is twenty years ago, the next best time is today. I jumped onto social media as soon as it became a thing and really embraced finding an audience organically. My following jumped into lightspeed, though, when I started writing long threaded essays about Rian Johnson’s masterpiece “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” For whatever reason, me talking about that movie has done more to build my social media than almost anything.

The trick, for me, is to just be as authentic as I can and talk about things that I truly love. I avoid all the negativity I can (unless it’s in one of my occasional forays into complaining about the current political landscape), and just act like myself. Social media shouldn’t be anonymous or an act. It should just be the you you present yourself as at any other sort of party.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.swankmotron.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swankmotron
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BryanYoungFiction
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swankmotron/
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/swankmotron
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKoVhxmKCeZo6SH_OsQIqxA
• Other: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/swankmotron.bsky.social