We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elaine Reed. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elaine below.

Elaine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

My creative career began in fits and starts. A project here, an idea there, the occassional collaboration. Creative ideas brought to life under a corporate moniker. It took a long time for my creative career, that was a true reflection of my vision, to become my reality. In many respects, I think I needed time to stack up experiences and to learn more craft while I had fewer eyes on me. I needed time to find my voice, and to learn that my voice changes with me, and that’s amazing.

Ultimately, a community of authors and writers ushered me into my creative career. I was in my early 40s and sitting on two completed novels with no clue what was next. I joined a local writing group that decided to publish an anthology to raise funds to hire speakers and experts to teach us various aspects of writing, editing, publishing, etc. I agreed to contribute a story and in doing so, gave myself a formative experience. Without those women encouraging me, and taking the leap with me, I might still only be sharing drafts with a select handful of people. When I realized that even though writing is a solitary action, I was not alone, publishing went from nerve-wracking to exhilarating. Having a community to lean on made all the difference. Sharing milestones and accomplishments with other creatives made everything more exciting.

If I could give advice to my younger self, it would be to establish a creative practice earlier, and be more consistent with it. Whether I was writing, drawing (badly) or doing other creative projects, that has always been where I have found my peace. If I had built a consistent creative habit, maybe I would have started my creative career sooner. Maybe I would have had more confidence to fail in the light. Ultimately, I think I arrived at my creative career when I was meant to, but I firmly believe that if someone feels the pull to art, they should answer it. Career or not, it makes life more vibrant.

Elaine, 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?

I am a Contemporary Romance and Women’s Fiction author. My novels are independently published, and I have had stories accepted into a variety of anthologies.

I have always enjoyed being creative, but the written word is my favorite outlet. I chose to publish independently because I wanted to know all the steps from idea to book on the shelf. Learning how to write a book is one thing, but getting the book out into the world is something else entirely. I felt that I should have a decent understanding of how it all worked before I handed the fruits of my labor to someone else. Once I started down this path, I found it suited me. I like getting into the details, and I especially like having the freedom to follow my inspiration.

Contributing work to anthologies is also fun because it’s a different type of writing — usually shorter than a full-length novel, and there are themes and guidelines. Working within those parameters forces me to flex my creative muscles in different ways. Plus, I get to work with a community toward a common goal.

Even with different story formats, audiences, and even goals, I like to give all my stories strong characters, compassion, and a little bit of humor.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is having a way to express myself. That may seem simple, but there have been many times in my life where I felt that I didn’t – or couldn’t – have a voice. Now I build entire worlds, and through them, I find myself, as well as other people. When readers tell me they identified with one of my characters, or something in my work, it confirms that I’m on the right path.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Pay them! Whether someone is a writer, a sculptor, a painter, etc. too often people expect creatives to give away their work. Maybe they don’t understand the effort that goes into it. Maybe creatives make it look too easy. Regardless, art is essential. FDR included money in The New Deal to fund artists of all kinds. The idea was to help lift artists – and other Americans – out of poverty, and to inspire. To create a vision of the world we could live in. I’m not sure when or why art got devalued along the way, but we need to change that. Art has value. You wouldn’t ask a plumber to work for free. Why do you ask an artist to?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.elaine-writes.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_elainewrites/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elainereedwrites

Image Credits

Headshot by Darren Callihan