We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Helen Tootsi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Helen, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?
All creation starts from an idea. Idea alone though isn’t enough. My first truly big project creatively was my first book. I’ve had an idea of writing about LA stories for a long time, but was having hard time figuring out where to place it. I was lucky and perfect opportunity knocked on my door by the way of referral to a published by my editor at the magazine I freelanced for. First step was to pitch the core idea of the book that had to fit within a certain format as I was about to write something that would become part of a successful series. Putting together the outline, drafting up the flow and themes of the book with some sample chapters followed. Once I had gotten the green light from the publishers, I had a deadline to meet. One of the hardest things for me personally in the beginning of this was the sheer size of the project. An entire book! I can’t write a book! I realised pretty soon though that books are made up of little stories, so I created myself a military grade schedule I kept to. I had a full time job at a lifestyle management company at that time, so I needed to fit writing into my days. For 3 consecutive months I woke up at 5am daily, wrote until it was time to go to the office, and once I got home, had some dinner, I sat back down at my laptop and kept writing. I often did that until midnight and the next day at 5am, it all started once more. Weekends I allowed myself some extra sleep hours to make sure I don’t burn out within a month. It is important to stay mindful of your own wellbeing as well, to preserve your energy reserves in a smart way. As long as I produced 5000-7000 solid words per week, I was on track. It’s relatively easy to actually keep to a schedule like that if you set your priorities straight. I pretty much disappeared for my friends during that time. Knowing there’s an end date helps a lot. Taking one page, one chapter at the time really keeps you focused. I successfully stuck to the deadlines and then the editing started which took double the time I was anticipating. As a novice author, I learned a lot about myself, my work ethic, and how things work in the publishing world. It was extremely valuable lesson working with editors and designer to tighten the text and create cohesive complete product. All in all, I would say it took me about a year to get from the initial idea all the way to a published book. Many night hours, pots of coffee and occasional frustration when the writers block tried to sneak it. Having a proper regiment is paramount. It is so important in order to achieve what you set out to do. It probably helped that I am stubborn as hell, so failure was not an option. Ever.
Helen, 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 multi-platform writer, mostly focusing on non-fiction articles, interviews and copywriting as well as fiction by the way of short stories and longer literary forms. I am trained as a television and film director and worked in that industry for many years. This has greatly influenced the style of my writing. I tend to create script like scenarios and my texts often paint an image of sorts. I think having a creative background of any kind can only be beneficial as a writer. It’s like borrowing inspiration from other forms, disciplines and methods. It was a close friend of mine, fellow author with an audiovisual background, who actually urged me to start writing for the public and not hide my words in the corners of desk drawers. I got started writing for a local magazine in Estonia, during my time in London, I became one of the contributing writers to a pop culture web based publication and became Head of Editorial in a small art related venture a close friend of my spearheaded. One thing led to another and something incredible happened: the offers of writing started to come to me. I seldom had to reach out and try. I was lucky. Incredibly so, actually. I know I can always take it further, yet do believe that everything happens when it is supposed to. I am really proud of my ability to write fluently in a language that is not native to me. The strong base of fast paced television production days has equipped me with strong work ethic and therefore allowed me to become reliable source. One of the things I really love aside from fiction writing is working with a new brand, creating their voice and personality from the day one. Giving a voice to something new is incredibly exciting in my opinion. I love collaborating as much as I like very individual projects. It’s a fine balance that keeps you fresh in this field.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Writing is something that has come easily for me and getting words on paper never feels like a chore. However, there was a time when I thought I would never write another word. Also, the same time made me feel incredibly stupid. I had about half of the content of my first book written out with notes and changes when during a work trip my laptop decided to give up. It quite literally burned out. I took it to the local Apple Store in the hopes that they could restore at least something as my overly trusting brain had not once thought of backing my material up. A complete rookie mistake that cost me a fortune. At the genius bar it turned out that it had properly fried, so there was nothing to be done. I lost the entire project aside from the sample chapters and the outlining of the book that I had emailed to my published a few months prior. It took me a week of mourning the lost work, but looking back, I see it as blessing in disguise. Instead of getting depressed about it, I realised that it’s just words and if I cannot reproduce them, it just means the book was never meant to come out the way initially planned. Thanks to the mishap on my part, the content of the book, the viewpoint, completely changed and I believe today it all worked out for the better. I would have never written the book that I did had I not lost the first version of it. I think what makes someone resilient, especially in the creative world, is to not see mishaps as failing, but opportunities to do something differently. Ability to not get paralyzed by the things that are not going your way will only get you further in life. There’s always two ways how you can look at something: glass half full or half empty. And it’s always half full, you just need to look closer to realise it.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I’ve always wanted to create something that brings joy. Whether through the projects I was working on as a director, or as a writer. I love dramas and materials with profound, yet often heavy subject matter, but I don’t feel like it’s up to me to produce those. I leave that to the people who find joy in that. I aspire to bring lightness to people’s everyday. There is too much darkness around us, so I have knowingly chosen a style in writing that is lighthearted, hopefully funny and lifts people up. Someone once asked me at a talk show what were the things I hoped my books bring to people. It is still the same thing: I want the reader to learn something new, even if it’s a minor fact, and I want them to laugh. In ideal world by creation flows like a movie and stops being just mere words on the paper. Whether or not it is doing that right now, we’d need to ask someone who has read my writing.
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Image Credits
Jerrod Pahl, Jürgen Pärnsalu, Karel Polt, Helen Tootsi