![]() I think because I’m familiar with the law, that meant I knew exactly how much I didn’t understand.Ĭhung: Tell me about your first drafts. I remember when I got my first book contract, I was like, I know what these words mean, but I don’t know what they mean in this context. Guillory: Oh, absolutely not! That’s the thing: Publishing is an entirely different language you have to learn. My background in law, I think, made me more organized and detail-oriented in terms of my approach to the publishing side-I remember being very analytical when I was trying to figure that out.Ĭhung: So, unlike me, you probably knew how to read your first book contract. Early on, it was relatively easy for me to learn to separate the writing and publishing parts of the job. ![]() Guillory: In some ways, it made me think about it as a business earlier than I might have otherwise. I also track my word count every day, because it helps me to be able to look at the spreadsheet and see it add up-like, Oh, it’s been two weeks, and look at how much I’ve gotten done, even though it felt so slow and impossible at the time.Ĭhung: Do you think working as a lawyer had any impact on how you approached having a creative career? Even if I only write a few hundred words, working on the draft every day keeps it alive in my brain it helps me get new ideas and problem-solve and figure out how to fix things. If I don’t write every day, the next day it just feels a lot harder. I don’t think you have to write every day if your life does not support that or it doesn’t work for you-but for me, it worked. I’d bring my laptop to the Starbucks across the street from my job and write for 30 minutes at lunchtime, write for an hour at night after I got home from work, and write for longer stretches on the weekends. I knew I was not going to be one of those writers who got up early to write. It helps to know what kind of a writer you are. I’ve always loved reading, and I had some writer friends and had some tentative conversations with them and they were very encouraging, and I had a novel idea-so I just kind of dove in. I was a lawyer and realized that I needed a creative outlet in my life-I’d been out of school for a while and I missed the experience of learning something new. I started writing relatively late, when I was in my 30s. Jasmine Guillory: A lot of people decide they want to be writers when they’re little, but that wasn’t me. Nicole Chung: Jasmine, can you start by sharing a little about how you first started writing, and how you made time for it in the margins of a full-time working life? ![]() “Listen to different types of writing advice, try it one way and then try it another way, and see what works for you.” “I think the time before you’re published is the best time for you to experiment,” she told me. At the same time, it’s clear that she is doing what she chose to do, and what she loves: writing books that are a source of joy to her and her many readers. She writes full-time now, and speaks honestly about the way inspiration can flag and then flare the stress of deadlines and messy first drafts and the cycles of brainstorming and hard work, frustration and epiphanies that make up a writing life. I thought I’d be juggling both jobs for a long time,” she said. “I had writer friends and I knew how hard it was to make a living at this. Guillory wrote her first couple of books in her scant free time, while working 60+ hours a week as a lawyer. She is, in other words, one of the busiest and hardest-working authors I know-and I can think of no one who gives better advice or offers more generous encouragement to their fellow writers. She is the New York Times best-selling author of eight books-including her debut, The Wedding Date the Reese’s Book Club pick The Proposal and her latest, the effervescent Drunk on Love, out tomorrow-and can frequently be seen recommending books on the Today Show. ![]() This is one of many reasons why I wanted to chat with Guillory for my newsletter. ![]() Others shared more personal stories and struggles, and I followed along as she responded to each one with her typical care and candor. This month, one week before her publication day-a time when many writers would be hard-pressed managing a million promotional tasks and trying not to crumble under the weight of pre-pub anxiety-the romance novelist Jasmine Guillory asked her Instagram followers: “Have a question for me? Need a pep talk?” One person turned to her for career advice, another for writing motivation, a third for insights into the publishing process. Kwon, Lydia Kiesling, and Bryan Washington. Previously in my author conversation series: Alejandro Varela, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Megha Majumdar, Ada Limón, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Crystal Hana Kim and R. ![]()
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