Author Interviews (Pt. 4): Meg Mayor
This isn’t my first time interviewing Meg, they were actually a panelist on one of my indie author panels! They have beta read for me (a project that I actually haven’t talked about in a while lol and a project no one else knows about).
Poetry + Fantasy
when your flame's put out, you turn on a light: a poetry collection is a collection of autobiographical poems that Mayor wrote over the course of 3 years and published to tell a semi-cohesive story about their life, starting when they were a junior in high school to a freshman in college! It covers poetry about romantic and platonic relationships, mental health struggles, and more.
Unmasked is a low fantasy YA novel about a teenage girl named Claire who finds out from the government she has the ability to develop special abilities, or superpowers. She's enrolled in a new, elite school that cultivates teens to manifest their newfound powers, but she becomes exceptionally powerful and a target of an unknown individual at school.
Both books are available on Amazon!
A Bit About Meg Mayor…
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and English double major, Mayor leads the double life of a college student and published author. They are super sweet and ready to support any and all upcoming authors and writers!
You can connect with them on Instagram (@meg,the.author & @meg.the.bookworm).
What has been the biggest struggle that you have faced with this project?
Not currently working on a project, but my biggest struggle is revising. I loathe revising; I struggle to go back and read my own writing because I criticize and pick it apart way too much. That's why I always end up with so many first drafts stuck sitting in my Google Drive. I've published several times, but I probably have five times more first drafts in my Drive. I have yet to find a way to overcome this pain, but it is a work in progress and it's something I work on in creative writing classes, where I have a professor holding me accountable (and maybe that's what I need - someone to hold me accountable).
In what ways has this project changed you?
Working on my poetry collection changed me as a writer because I've never published a creative nonfiction work - but that's what the poetry was, as it was autobiographical! It allowed me to expand my horizons beyond being a fiction writer, and in fact, I just recently submitted a creative nonfiction short story for a magazine for a publishing opportunity. It's changed how I look at genre.
What is your number one piece of advice for other writers?
Don't force yourself to finish a piece you don't like. Sometimes you start out with a really good idea and it just flops. That doesn't mean it wasn't good, it just means you don't want to take it anywhere. LEAVE IT ALONE. I've actually gone back to quite a few works by just abandoning them and coming back when I have a way to develop them better, or I have an ending I really like, or I just steal bits and pieces for a new work -- you have no idea how many characters I have overlapping from other works! I think a lot of us writers put a lot of pressure to finish WIPs but there is no punishment for abandoning something, even if you don't go back to it.
How do you prioritize your mental health when writing?
I take lots of breaks, and I mean a lot. I only write for fun during Nanowrimo (November) and Camp Nanowrimo (April, but not the July camp). Since I'm an English major, I take a lot of writing or writing intensive classes, so I have set times I do write. I don't write outside of these unless I'm feeling extremely inspired, and that works for me! Writing has never had the end goal for me of trying to make money and be a successful author; as someone who has published, I think that's a success in and of itself, and I love writing just to write! So if I don't want to write, I don't force myself to. My creative writing classes force me enough!
What media (film, t.v., literature, etc.) has inspired you? In this project and/or in others?
I take inspiration from a lot of things, but mostly music, actually! A lot of my writing (novels, poetry, short stories) are inspired by the lyrics I hear when I'm listening to music. Whether it's the title or a specific line or even just the mood of the song, I love incorporating that into whatever I'm writing in any way. I'm a very auditory-inspired person, so that's what helps me as a writer, rather than literature and film. Anyways, I always fear if I take too much inspiration from a current work of fiction, my own will be too similar. With music, it's easier to avoid that when it's SO open-ended. I listen to a lot of Movements as well as Linkin Park any inspiration I draw from media!
What is your favorite part about the writing process and why?
I really do enjoy drafting, because after I learned how to not be a perfectionist over my writing and started getting words down on the pages, it felt so freeing and wonderful to write. Also, I love when everything comes together and you get to hold the final project in your hands! I started publishing when I was in 6th grade, and that had always been my goal (and when I was that young, nobody but my grandma bought copies of my books! Though she gave them to EVERYONE so shoutout to my grandma). I love seeing the final project come together. I know that's not exactly a part of the writing process, but having all that hard work pay off after laboring over getting words on the page and editing and revising, it's all worth it. I can tell you, I definitely HATE revising. It's my least part of the writing process!
Final Words:
Thank you so much to Meg Mayor for allowing me to interview them and I am so excited for whatever they have coming next!
