Skylar Rivers is the author of the Sky River Write blog, where she posts book reviews, writer interviews, and advice for teens. Despite her young age, she already has lots of writing experience, and I was glad to have her for an interview.
How long have you been writing and what got you started?
I started writing when I was six, and from there had productive spurts until I was twelve. My first “story”—if it can still be called a story—was, like many first stories, crazy. (For those curious, it was about two friends who get separated by a tornado. And for a six-year-old? It had impressive foreshadowing.)
Fast forward to when I was nine, and I got the ambition to plan a mega short story collection. (Did I finish it? No. Of course not. I was nine and wanted to write fifty short stories at once.) I honestly still write stories inspired by the stories I did manage to write during that phase—but man, were those short stories hilariously cringe-worthy. Writing, during the preteen years, became more active, but otherwise pretty off-and-on.
Years later, I heard about a writing contest (Crazy Writing Week). No, I though. This is for serious writers. I barely even have an idea to write about. But then God decided to (in a dream, no less) gift me a story idea. Crazy Writing Week was the next major milestone in my writing journey. And while that novelette that I finished four months later is still a cringy first draft, it remains close in my heart (close enough to earn a second draft, and eventually a third one.)
Even though I had heard about it during CWW, I was hesitant to join the Young Writers’ Workshop (partially due to the fact that, like CWW, it sounded like it was for the serious of the serious). It was only when I started wrapping up that previously mentioned novelette, about the time that editing it sounded nice, that I decided to join. That was May 2023.
Since then, I’ve grown serious in my writing and have kept it up.
Seems like you’ve done a lot of exploring throughout your writing journey. What genres have you settled into writing and what do you love about them?
I’ll experiment here and there, but my home turf is fantasy. Take a look at any number of my stories, and chances are you’ll find a fantasy element in it.
What I love about fantasy is that you get to make the rules. The sky’s barely even the limit (I mean, the possibilities extend to faraway galaxies and alternate dimensions). Fantasy opens up new possibilities, new realms to explore with the plot.
I have dabbled in other various genres—fairytale retellings, dystopian, sci-fi, poetry, and some romance to name a few—but usually only in an odd short story here and there.
When you start a new story, where do you begin the creative process?
Plot. I almost always start with plot. The majority of my stories (at least right now) start pretty slowly, with a few ideas trickling in here and there (or none at all, and I jump right into a story).
Are you more of a plotter, pantser, plantser, or does it depend on what story you’re writing?
It does vary from story to story. I’m mainly a plotter—thank you, IEW for opening my eyes—but I started off, like most every writer, a pantser.
Wasn’t great for my productivity and finishing projects then, but times have changed.
Still, I’ve been finding nowadays that I need to pants (to pantser? What’s the verb form?) my stories more. Oh, the fun of switching extremes.
But as noted in my previous answer, I at least let ideas trickle in for the story (so at least I know what I’m doing). In one project, I made a full-blown outline. For another, I had a vague idea when I started and went with that. In yet another, it’s slowly been building up.
I have at least three ideas right now, on the back burner, collecting plot, inspiration, and fanart.
Sounds like you draw inspiration from a lot of different places. Are there any particular books that inspire you? Have any authors impacted your writing process?
Well, I can’t say that there have been many books that shaped my writing—if you were talking editing that’d be a different matter—but two resources I’ve found really helpful are:
Story Embers: This site has so, so many helpful resources. There are countless articles that give such deep, insightful advice over the small details in writing (how to develop great characters, common plot issues, tricky subjects, etc. They even have a section about poetry). Not to mention they have a podcast and a quiz to determine your writing weakness. I will say, though, that SE is better for writers who are farther along in their journey.
The Young Writer: The blog and paid program are amazing resources for younger writers (great for both the serious and the beginners). Not as much content as Story Embers, but there’s still really helpful stuff.
You mentioned editing books, do you have any recommendations in that area?
Again, I got two recommendations:
The Novel Editing Workbook: 105 Tricks & Tips for Revising Your Fiction Manuscript by Kris Spisak: A light, informative, all-around helpful book on editing. And it comes with info on those tricky phrases that get mixed up.
McGraw-Hill’s Proofreading Handbook, Second Edition by Laura Anderson: Huge warning right here and now: This is not a light book. If you want to dive deep into the differences between editing and proofreading, proofreaders’ marks, comparing copy, and typeface, this is the book for you. Not for the faint of heart.
Now, for some advice from your personal experience. How do you handle writer’s block?
It honestly depends on the type/cause of writers’ block. Every case is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
Some of the common reasons I might have writers’ block:
Overly strict outline
Lack of motivation
Loud blaring music
Alright, maybe that last one isn’t a struggle most writers have—but writing does come easier when your brain isn’t busy listening to lyrics at the same time.
The first one is primarily a plotter thing, and I’ve learned to loosen up a bit, but this used to be a big struggle for me (looking at you, short story/novelette that took me two months). I’m pretty much someone who swings to extremes, so during my outline phase I felt powerless. Like you have to stick to the script or else your story will dissolve into chaos (even with an outline, it still can). Over time I’ve grown to treat the outline more of a recommendation or inspiration for when I need to refresh on the original idea.
As for the second one (the more frequent one), there are several solutions for this. As mentioned above, currently my outline is more inspirational. Sometimes taking a peek at my original ideas for the story sparks inspiration. This may mean writing a dramatic prologue or the climax—just getting something down helps. It may mean taking a short break from my WIP to toy with a different idea for a bit, as long as I come back to my main project (abandoning a WIP strikes slowly—it starts as one day then a week of not writing).
Have you ever felt like your writing wasn't good enough? How did you deal with that?
Several times. For me, a lack of editing (or rushed editing) can cause doubts; other times I’m just going through an insecure time. Sometimes it just happens.
Writing is a hard task. Writing a novel (or other long project) is even harder. Writing it well—without any edits—is near impossible.
I’m prone to move from one task to the next. As soon as I finish a project, I want to share it with the world (or writing community). And then move on to the next project, and repeat the cycle. The one problem with this is I’ll still have gaping plot issues—not to mention word-issues and uncompelling characters.
I like to take a break from a project before rushing to share it. Taking the time to edit can boost your self-esteem before your audience lays eyes on it.
Even just working on a small scale—writing up a flash fiction and editing that—can help you boost your writing craft, without having to stress about fixing the hundred and one issues in your novel.
To say I’ve never felt insecure about my writing would be to tell a lie—I’m sure it happens to anyone who’s ever put pen(cil) to paper. My insecurity lies mainly in editing—but the best thing to do is figure out where your insecurities lie. After all, how can you figure out an answer if you never know the question?
What is one thing you wish you had known when you started out writing?
Don’t be so worried about making the prose perfect or following the “rules.” It’s easy to get caught up following every writing recommendation, but that’s all they are: recommendations. It’s okay to use dialogue tags. It’s okay to use adverbs. You can worry about all of those later.
Also, never share your story before it’s ready. If it’s worth sharing with people, it’s worth a few edits.
If you ever published a book, how would you celebrate?
Honestly, when that happens… It would be hard to believe. (Then again good news usually doesn’t hit me that hard, I guess.) But, in short, it would be unbelievable.
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