We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chelsea Elizabeth a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Chelsea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
For many writers, storytelling is something we’ve done since we were children. It starts with playing—anything from “cops and robbers” to dress up to illustrating our pets with crayons. We always had an interest in imagining things and recreating them. It’s creating something in your mind and projecting it for others to experience on a canvas, a page, through headphones…anything. For me, I started writing stories before I was even in school full-time. Granted, that first story was just about playing Power Rangers with my brothers, and it had more illustrated contents than actual sentences. But the drive to create was always there, from elementary school through college, and now beyond. There’s an innate craft to storytelling—that which I just described—and then there’s learned craft. I’d say 50% of my learning has come from reading. Not from reading craft books, but from reading good books, books that I enjoy and that are well-written. You can learn so much just by studying someone else’s craft. Some of my favorite authors are specialists at writing emotion onto the page. Me, not so much. But by reading and absorbing their art, I learn to hone a part of my craft that I’m weaker at.
The other 50% comes from didactic content: craft books, webinars, writing conferences or retreats, and peer feedback. The most important of these, at least for me, is peer feedback. You can learn a lot about craft from courses and whatnot, but you’re not really sure if you’ve put it into practice effectively until a peer gives you constructive critique. I’ve learned so much from my writing friends reading my work, and I think putting yourself out there early and getting that feedback from people who are around the same level as you is a really important way to grow—and not just for you, but for those giving you critique, too! It’s crucial to only share those early drafts with people who you trust to: 1) give you helpful and gentle feedback, 2) not mishandle your work (e.g. sharing it with others without your permission, plagiarizing, etc.). Honestly, finding this community is one of the toughest parts of being a writer, an otherwise isolating pursuit; but once you find that community, it’s invaluable.
I think having the willingness to put yourself out there is the biggest quality a creative can have in pursuing a career. Growing a thick skin comes later, but that’s the second most important thing.
Some of the my favorite resources I can recommend for craft for writing are: Save the Cat by Jessica Brody (a craft book), Parker Peevyhouse (an author whose craft webinars and worksheets are incredibly digestible for all levels of writers), Writing with the Soul (a workshop—and so much more!—by author Adrienne Young), and Instagram (for building your community of writing friends).
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been writing all my life, but I only started pursuing it as a career in the past 5 or so years. My dream goal is to be traditionally published, which means to have my books published by a publishing house. I’m currently chasing that dream with my serious works. Most of these stories are Adult Historical Fantasies but some are Young Adult Romances, too! Last fall (2022), I self-published a fun project on Kindle Vella, which is a serial fiction platform; that story is a New Adult Paranormal Romance. However, my real job is as a Doctor of Physical Therapy. You’re probably thinking something along the lines of “wow, that really has nothing to do with writing.” Well, I have a tendency to make everything about writing, so last year I combined writing and physical therapy into my blog Of the PT Persuasion, which breaks down how to write character injuries correctly. There is an appalling amount medical inaccuracies in books and media, so I made it my mission to improve medical content in the writing world. For all my writer friends suffering from writing-related overuse injuries, there’s a branch of my blog that’s specifically devoted to addressing and preventing these injuries (like carpal tunnel syndrome and low back pain). In conjunction with my blog, I also opened up consultation services so writers can consult me on medical questions specific to their manuscript.
As if that isn’t enough, I broke into the realm of audiobook narration these past few months. I’m narrating books and also voicing snippets for my writer friends to post with reels on Instagram. It has been a really fun and exciting process. I’m still a newbie at it, but it’s actually helping me learn a lot about writing from a different perspective—tone, pacing, word choice!
I guess I present my brand with a rather varied skillset—historical fantasies! medical accuracy! audiobook narration!—but what it all comes down to is that I love storytelling, and I want it to be done as well as possible for me and the writing community. The one thing you can always expect from my brand is authenticity. It’s me to my very core.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I think everyone should get familiar with this mantra: “I’m not special.” I was certain when I first started writing that my book would sell for a six-figure deal, and I’d be an instant New York Times bestseller. I’d seen authors do it before, so why not me? I’m that good.
But here’s the truth: even the authors who seem like they’re overnight wonders usually aren’t. Maybe they self-published for ten years before they got their big traditional publishing break. Maybe they have a folder on their computer of unfinished stories that just weren’t right at the time. Some of them might have tried to get five other books published before this one and suffered hundreds of query rejections. If you look deeper into every success story, there are countless “failures” propping it up.
It was a hard pill to swallow when the first book I queried wasn’t picked up by an agent. But I’ve never been one for accepting failure, and I guess that’s the only way to create your path in this industry. So, no, none of us are really inherently “special.” It takes a lot of work to get there.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Tagging along on my thoughts about being “special,” success comes with a lot of work and a lot of near misses. You can call it resilience or hard-headedness, but my outlook is this: getting traditionally published is my dream, and I won’t give up until I have my dream in my hands. You’re up against a saturated market with thousands of people querying their “I wrote a book during Covid” projects. You’re up against agents who are overwhelmed and underpaid. You’re up against timing: maybe the agent you queried with your book is having a bad day or maybe they just signed an author who has a book just similar enough to yours that they can’t take both. You’re up against strikes in the publishing industry and scandals amidst the big publishing houses—do you really want to throw in your lot with them or will they sensibly resolve their pitfalls?
There are a lot of obstacles writers face in publishing, and any one of them could be the one where they go “That’s it. I’ve had it. I’m done.” Perseverance is helpful. Having the resilience to get up every time publishing knocks you down and vow to do better and never stop…is crucial.
Contact Info:
- Website: bychelseaelizabeth.com
- Instagram: @bychelseaelizabeth
- Other: My blog and consultation service can be found at bychelseaelizabeth.com.
Image Credits
Trinity graphics by Briana H. Louis