Interview with Elysia Nates

Emma Dhesi  00:00

Elysia Nates is from South Australia and writes contemporary fiction. She is the single parent to a nine year old daughter. And she loves animals reading, writing, obviously, and anything to do with Molly Ringwald. So listen to our chat today and find out how she started writing her book her experiences with publishing. And if you are also in Australia, you find this particularly interesting when it comes to paperback books. If you’re a Patreon subscriber, you can hear at least he and I chat more about what happens after you’ve published your novel. Because it turns out writing the book is just the beginning. Let’s listen to what Elysia has to share with you today. Welcome to the turning readers into writers Podcast, where we teach beginner writers how to find the time and the confidence to write their first novel. I’m your host, Emma Desi. And I’m very excited that you’re here. Thank you for joining me today. Because if you’ve been longing to write your novel for forever, then this is the place to be. Think of this as your weekly dose of encouragement of handholding and general cheerleading, as you figure out how you’re going to write your first novel. Trust me, as a mom of three young kids, I know how tricky it can be to tuck some time aside for yourself on a regular basis. And even when you do find that spare five minutes, you can feel so overwhelmed that no rating gets done. Trust me, I have been there. But this podcast is going to help you in practical ways. Because once a week, I’ll be delivering an episode that gives you steps to building a writing routine, encouragement to build your confidence and cheerleading until you reach the end. Okay, let’s start. Well, Elysia, thank you so much for joining me on the show today. I’m thrilled to have you here.

Elysia Nates  02:05

Thank you. I’m very thrilled to be here. 

Emma Dhesi  02:07

I wonder if we could just start with you telling us a little bit about yourself. And what prompted you to start writing.

Elysia Nates  02:14

Now, I’m a 39 year olds, South Australian. And I started writing stories in primary school, you know, just the normal school projects, but I enjoyed it a little bit too much. And then when I was 14, I started thinking seriously about the idea of writing a book. And I actually sat down in my dressing table and wrote four characters names and the way I perceived them in my head and wrote a little synopsis first story. And then over the course of 25 years, I kept coming back and forth to it. And then it just became my book.

Emma Dhesi  02:50

Wow, I didn’t realize that. So you’ve been I should been working on this for 25 years, it was a real passion project then

Elysia Nates  02:58

It is very much so. And it’s not as if I was writing constantly for 25 years, they’d be you know, sometimes there’d be a year where I didn’t get an opportunity to write but I write little things in my phone or write notes on a piece of paper. And I always came back to it.

Emma Dhesi  03:14

Uh huh. I think I actually talked to somebody recently who was similar. But you’ve beaten her record, she’d been working on hers for 10 years. So I think you’re fixating at that. I think that’s quite normal, isn’t it. And a lot of people will sort of start writing perhaps as a teenager. And then life takes over and we go away, and we do the other stuff. And we come back to it go away and come back. That’s certainly sort of what happened to me. I remember being 16 and writing my first attempt at a well, you know, a young adult Ruby. script. I still remember the title. It was that crazy April, but I don’t remember anything about what happened. We should have a good class. And so, um, wow. So you’ve been writing that for a long time. And so tell us a little bit about it. Because it’s, it’s, maybe it hasn’t always been, it’s got quite a fairly dark theme to it. For somebody who started writing at a young age.

Elysia Nates  04:13

It did buy the theme of all because I had ovarian cancer at the time. So I was going through some pretty atypical adolescent things. So that’s sort of shaped the story.

Emma Dhesi  04:25

I see that at such a young age.

Elysia Nates  04:28

Yes. So it opened my eyes to things that you know, people that age No, we don’t have to think about about you know, your own death and things like that. So, it does seem quite dark but the the book is not meant to be dark. It’s it’s meant to be about the way we cope, that the cancer could almost be a metaphor is whatever you cope with in your life. If it’s a divorce, if it’s an anxiety or anything, it’s just about the way you cope with things and the central character copes with her thing which happens to be cancer by pretending her life is movie.

Emma Dhesi  05:03

I can relate to that. So tell us a little bit more about it.

Elysia Nates  05:11

So the central character is Mackenzie. And she has terminal cancer, and has been given a guideline of about 12 months to live. And the story basically just follows her and her sister Evie. And the two male characters are Oakley and Luke. And it’s just about their circle. And how even though Mackenzie is the one with cancer, the book shows that her whole circle was affected. And it’s not just McKenzie that’s coping with her impending death. It’s her whole friends. And they’re also not living as they should be, because of what’s going to happen. But it’s meant to read uplifting. And I always had this idea in my head that I wanted people to read it as if they were watching a movie. And the piece of feedback that I’ve had so far, people say they can visualize it as if they’re watching a movie, which is just all I wanted to say. 

Emma Dhesi  06:05

Oh, that’s perfect. Oh, that’s great to have that feedback and know that that you’ve achieved what you wanted. Yes. So I don’t know if you can remember all the way back then. But I’m thinking about who might have been your influences when you first started writing? And then maybe. 

Elysia Nates  06:20

I can remember. Okay, cool. I read a book called mill, called loving April by Melvin Burgess. And I’ve never read anything because that authors again, but I read that novel, and I was obsessed with it. I forced my sister to read it, I kept going on about it said you have to read it. And she read it. And she didn’t like it. And I got into a fight with her. I said you didn’t read it properly. And I insisted that she read it again. And I ended up reading it maybe 30 times that year, I was obsessed with it. And just the fact that someone could just completely make something up that someone can get obsessed with. I thought that’s what I want to do. I thought it was amazing.

Emma Dhesi  07:02

And do you still feel that passionately about the stories that you read? Now, who might be your inspiration now?

Elysia Nates  07:08

Sally Rooney, I’m a big fan of like normal people. I started reading that after I put my daughter to bed. And then come 1am I still wanted to keep reading. So I finished that book in one night, I couldn’t put it down. And then the next day was Saturday, and I went shopping. And I was thinking about Connell and Marianne, I couldn’t get them out of my head as if I just finished speaking to them. So Saturday night, the night after I finished putting my daughter to bed, I read it again. And again, just the fact that someone can completely make something up that people get obsessed with. That’s amazing that you can give someone an avenue to completely get lost in and forget about their own life and think that you’ve actually met Marianne and Connell. You know, that’s, that’s what I want to do. I’ve always wanted to create something like that for someone, even if it’s just one person.

Emma Dhesi  07:54

Mm hmm. I love that passion that you thought, I wonder if that intensity of kind of falling into another world and being consumed by another world? Do you think that is something that you’ve always had? Or do you think that might that was a kind of a response to, to what you went through with the cancer, the idea of perhaps not wanting to be in my own life wanting to have this other life? And that was a sort of escape routes? And but it’s still something that you you turn to now.

Elysia Nates  08:26

Yeah, I think, um, you know, back then I was very, almost robotic. And it wasn’t really, because it was quite heavy. I didn’t really process it as if it was happening to me, I was just concerned that mum was upset. And that dad was having to work a lot. And then my sisters were sad. So I just focused on them. And I think that’s sort of where I’ve got the whole coping mechanism is if you pretend it’s happening to someone else, or if you’re watching it on a movie. So I did become very passionate about thinking about things from other people’s perspectives then.

Emma Dhesi  09:02

Well, that’s a really good trait to have a thing because a writer isn’t is when you’re developing characters and trying to differentiate one character from the other. I think both of us, especially in the beginning, and I am guilty of this as well making notes as to like ourselves until we get more practice that, that they’re developing them. Wow. Okay, so now tell us when your book was published.

Elysia Nates  09:28

Um, so I published it on KDP last month, and then we had dumb shipping issues getting it here in Australia, unless you paid like 40 or $60. So I’m in the progress. Yeah, but it’s really hard to import books here. And I think the bulk of my people who will want to buy it or so yeah, so I had to go to Ingram Spark, which is what I’m in the process of doing now, because they have a distribution firm in Melbourne. 

Emma Dhesi  09:56

So let’s let’s go back to KDP for a moment, so For those listeners who aren’t yet at the publishing stage KDP is the platform that you use to publish on amazon books. Have you opted only to do a paperback? Or are you also doing ebooks as well?

Elysia Nates  10:15

At this stage, I’ve only done paperback. I haven’t familiarized myself with the formatting for ebooks. And that some I’m very old school, I’ve never actually read an E book. But I have to acknowledge the fact that that’s the world we live in. So I do need to go down that road, but I’m putting it off as long as I can.

Emma Dhesi  10:32

So interesting to hear because and somebody that I follow online, Joanna pen, she used to live in Australia, she’s back in the UK. No, but that was what prompted her to actually get a Kindle back in what was it? 2009 2010 because I didn’t realize this that books are so expensive and difficult to get hold of in Australia. And she was saying that that just kind of changed everything for her and, but not you you’re you like the touch and the feel of the of the paperback? 

Elysia Nates  11:02

Yeah, I’m a bit stubborn. If I like the paperbacks, everyone else has to get the paperback sort of first and then I’ll okay the and eventually into the book. Not yet.

Emma Dhesi  11:12

Not yet. So, then, so because of the difficulties of getting the book from Amazon, over to Australia, and you’ve, you’ve said that you’re going with Ingram Spark, so I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about who Ingram spark I and and your experiences with them so far.

Elysia Nates  11:31

So Ingram Spark, I believe, are also an American company, but they have a warehouse here. Whereas Amazon, the Amazon, Australia is completely separate to the rest of the world, which I didn’t know. So Ingram, sparks formatting, and processes are all very, very different to KTP. And it’s been very frustrating because I’m not very tech savvy. Whereas KDP was pretty straightforward. But I am struggling a bit with Ingram Spark. So I’ve had to email the poor girls at the Help Desk many, many times and really bothered them. And I promised them all a copy of my book. And they’re all very lovely, very accommodating. They humor me when I insult myself. So I don’t have anything bad to say about them. I just I do find it a little bit more difficult. But that’s probably me. 

Emma Dhesi  12:22

Well, I’m sure no, no, I mean, I’ve only unpublished ebook, and I found that to be the simplest and the least daunting, which is why I’ve resisted doing paperback so far, because we’re one of the things is trying to work out the spine, the cover for the spine, and that involves maths, and I’m not very good at numbers. I’ve had to do the same. So I haven’t gone to spike yet. And what do they format their books very differently to Amazon as well. So say the book cover that you’ve gotten the spine cover that you’ve got? Do you have to have new ones made up for Ingram Spark.

Elysia Nates  13:07

So the interior I was able to just transfer over that was no drama, but the cover? Yes, the templates completely different. On KDP, I just opened up their template generator and uploaded my image onto it, there was no dramas, but with engram, it doesn’t, you open the PDF, and it doesn’t actually let you edit it unless you’ve got certain programs. And I couldn’t get the right program to do it. So I ended up messaging my friend crying, saying it’s never going to be republished and Australians can never read my book, because I can’t figure it out. But she finally figured it out for me. But I think the spine still doesn’t quite match up, I think a little bit of the front cover is going to curve over onto the spine that I’ve resigned myself to the fact that that’s probably it might look good. I’m just ready for it to be done. Thought last month, I’ve done it all with the KDP. And now I feel like I start again. So it was it was quite disheartening.

Emma Dhesi  14:03

It’s a great point that you raised. I think it Sam, there are pros and cons to both traditional and independent publishing. And you know, we kind of know the pros and cons of, of traditional publishing. But with indie Yes, it’s really easy to do, you can write your book, get it edited and put it up straight away. Another benefit is you can edit your book at a future date, you don’t have to go back to the publisher or anything. But another part of that job of being an indie writer is being the publisher as well. And so with that comes its own set of skills, and I’ve chickened out, as I say and haven’t yet ventured down that particular skill set. So that’s a good point you raise for people now want to move on a little bit towards the sort of the day to day business of being a waiter. So I am I can see in the background, your your daughter is there, and I knew that you’re a single parent So you have your hands full. And so how do you manage to fit your writing time in around any day job, parenting responsibilities and just having social life as well?

Elysia Nates  15:12

Well, you know, in an ideal world, I would very much love to be a full time writer, but we all have bills to pay. And as he said, I am a single parent. So I do work, I work in aged care, I work 60 hours a fortnight support part time, but it is still quite taxing. And then I have my child and you know, the normal housework to do and grocery shopping. And we have a dog and guinea pigs and rabbits. So generally, it’s 10 o’clock at night. And I find I’m not the most disciplined person, when it comes to my writing, I’m not someone that says, I’ve got this half an hour block, I have to write, there’ll be some days where I genuinely do not feel like writing and I don’t force myself. But usually, I would rather get everything done. And then instead of sitting down to watch a movie, or instead of scrolling Facebook, I would much rather right. So if you want to do it, you find time to do it, even if it’s 10 o’clock at night.

Emma Dhesi  16:07

Mm hmm. Absolutely. And do you find that your that your what you must do, because you’ve written your book, because for me, I’m in bed by 10 o’clock at night. So it’s a treat that you’re just starting? So can you get it? You know, say would you do 10 to 11? And that’s enough, and were you able to keep going?

Elysia Nates  16:26

Well, I don’t get a lot of sleep. So I generally right from about 10 to 1130. And now I get up about six days, I don’t really get a lot of sleep. But I’m dysfunctional in that way. I’m quite nervous, anxious person. So I don’t need a lot of sleep.

Emma Dhesi  16:44

And so for each of your writing sessions, it sounds like you’re perhaps quite instinctive writer. But I wonder do you have? Do you know that you want to write this particular scene or chapter or that you want to edit a particular chapter? Do you plan ahead where you’re going to do? Or do you just sit down with your laptop or your pen and paper and see what happens

Elysia Nates  17:05

Well, it takes me a long time to get new material out. Because generally, every single time I start writing, I read from the beginning again. So every time I start writing a new chapter, I read from the beginning, and I edit that as I go, and then I write a new chapter. So it takes me a long time to get there. But generally, I know what I want to write that night, because I’ve written little notes in my phone, and that during the week, or I’ve heard a song on the radio that made me think of something I want to put in. So it all builds up in here. And then I just use that time at night to get it out on the laptop.

Emma Dhesi  17:39

Okay, so it’s quite a nice mixture. Not exactly of plotting as such, but certainly planning ahead and giving yourself some some pointers about what you want to write next. But I’m intrigued though about, you know, say you get to, I don’t know, halfway through the manuscript, few quarters the way through the manuscript. You still right from the very beginning, at sorry, do you still read from the very beginning and go all the way through?

Elysia Nates  18:03

Yeah. 

Emma Dhesi  18:04

Wow, I’m impressed. I’m such a slow reader. I don’t think I could be up all night. I think if I was to do that.

Elysia Nates  18:10

I usually am only 10,000 words into my second book. So at the moment, it’s not really that text thing, but with my first book, towards the end, I would only read like the last the previous five chapters. Right, usually, right, right, right back to the beginning up until about three quarters of the way through that I just kept going to the last five chapters. 

Emma Dhesi  18:34

And so that gives you enough of a feel for where you’ve been, and get back into the swing of things and then the tune as well. For good.

Elysia Nates  18:42

I think it’s inevitable, the more you write the story develops a bit. And it might make the characters change a little bit. So I like to go back and make sure that there’s a continuity with the storyline and events that are going to happen. There was seedlings of that within the character there. And so it’s all a bit more natural. 

Emma Dhesi  19:01

Hmm. So then, if you’re, if you’re kind of editing as you go along, you must have a very sort of clean draft at the end then. And you still go back and then do another fool edit.

Elysia Nates  19:15

Yes. And then even when I published it, I still found mistakes.

Emma Dhesi  19:20

It’s it’s feels inevitable. I’ve been going through back through both of my published books, and have been finding Yeah, more errors and how you think how did these escape they’ve escaped me. They’ve escaped re editor, they’ve escaped the beta readers and still, there’s one or two that slipped past it.

Elysia Nates  19:41

It’s infuriating. But then someone pointed out there’s literally mistakes and Stephen King novels so.

Emma Dhesi  19:48

Got to take comfort from that and being an indie I think that’s the advantage is you can immediately go back and fix it. And so the next person gets it gets the corrected one. And now we are for anybody listening. In the future, we are we’re in where are we we’re at the end of October 2020, was we’re recording this, which means the majority of the world is still in a degree of lockdown. We’ve just been through nine months of quite heavy lockdown. I think in Australia, you’ve had you kind of quite turbulent year, I think you’ve had a lot of fires this year as well. So, and there’s been lots going on, how have you found and been kind of postponed for a great period of time? Have you found it beneficial? as it helps your writing? Or has it hindered you? How have you found it?

Elysia Nates  20:39

And will I’m in South Australia, so we had maybe just a couple of months of lockdown. But for the last few weeks, not so much because we don’t have active cases anymore. It’s very different in Melbourne. But for me, I didn’t really struggle during the lockdown period because I’m quite introverted. I don’t really like going out very much. So listen out to tea with my family, that sort of stuff. I did miss but you know, we still we drove to each other’s houses and just kept our distance mum would be at the front door, and we’d be on the one that so we still maintained that emotional connection. And then, yeah, didn’t really fit the rest of my life because I don’t go out every month anyway.

Emma Dhesi  21:20

But you did you have to homeschool?

Elysia Nates  21:25

Um, no. So, route, my daughter, Ruby, her school broke up a week early. So there was just one week that she was at home and I was working from home at that time. And she’s, you know, she’s a breeze to look after with really good mate. So she just let me work. And the next few days, I didn’t actually have to educate her, which is a good thing. Because you know, I don’t understand that. That stuff. It’s worked out well.

Emma Dhesi  21:51

Of that did work out well. So you’ve had quite a good lockdown, then? I am. Yeah, I find it. I like you. I’m happy to be at home and having the excuse not to leave the house for three days. I was very happy with that. But I certainly found having the kids home and doing the homeschooling just bumped things around, but the routine around and so it took a little while to re recalibrate and find a new normal as the as the describe it. So tell us what are you working on next, you mentioned that you have a new project.

 

Elysia Nates  22:25

I do so in my service parking lot. Also, in my writing career, in my head, I’ve always had five books that I want to write. And I let my daughter pick the second book, because I have them all written down. Which book should I write next. So she picked the one that I’m working on, which is called benched. And that’s basically because I’m always about human connections. I like the way people interact with each other and important experiences and coping mechanisms and all that sort of ways at the core of what I write about. So bench is about a lost female teenager, and I lost my old teenager and the one thing that connects them, which is the basketball bench.

Emma Dhesi  23:06

Ahh case, it’s got the sports theme. So..

Elysia Nates  23:13

Relationships and human connection or coping mechanisms, again, the benches just sort of a little bit of a metaphor.

Emma Dhesi  23:21

 I like that. And is that mmmm… is the new book is that are e-book as well?

Elysia Nates  23:27

Yes. 

Emma Dhesi  23:29

Cool. So who are your why eh? Who do you admire whose work you admire in that in that genre?

Elysia Nates  23:37

I’m not really like Anna Todd.

Emma Dhesi  23:41

Is she?

Elysia Nates  23:43

Asked the series

Emma Dhesi  23:45

Which theory sorry?

Elysia Nates  23:46

After series 

Emma Dhesi  23:48

After series, and that she an Australian writer at all or??

Elysia Nates  23:52

Not, she’s American-Russian.

Emma Dhesi  23:54

Okay, but she’s that’s the kind of guessing it’s a series. So is that what you’d quite like to do as well have a series about the same characters? Or do you prefer to do a standalone book?

Elysia Nates  24:06

Definitely makes sense. I have no desire to write series. 

Emma Dhesi  24:10

Yeah, no need me neither. It’s funny how it grabs some people as being a is wanting, you know, really to get to know those characters in those worlds and tell more stories about them. And I find I get a little bit, I’m ready to move on to new people by the end of the end of the book. 

Elysia Nates  24:26

And particularly like with my first book, because I’ve been working on it basically my entire adult life. I found it very hard to let them go. But I needed to I felt like I’d spent a long time with them. And they were ready to go into the world and I was ready to create new characters and there was nothing else that I could do with them. So I would never want to write a sequel or anything like that. I like creating new stories and new characters.

Emma Dhesi  24:52

And so weird inspiration for this one come from.

Elysia Nates  24:57

My daughter plays basketball and it was really I saw her sitting on the bench one day. And I always thought that it is sitting on the bench, you know, you might feel awkward or not part of the team, but she was so into it, she was sitting on the bench cheering for her teammates and everything. And it just just got me thinking that she still belongs on the bench. And that’s what the synopsis is, is to belong.

Emma Dhesi  25:20

That’s nice. That’s lovely. And, and so I’m just thinking, where can listeners find out more about you and about your books online.

Elysia Nates  25:34

So my online presence at the moment is pretty non existent, which is why I’m trying to go down the avenues meeting lovely people like yourself and sort of trying to ascertain what I’m actually meant to do. Because you know, it’s one thing to write the book and finish the book, and then publish the book. And then beyond that, I don’t really not. So I’ve started following different people on Instagram and join some writers groups. This is like the first time that I’ve ever publicly spoken about my book. So because I’m so just happy enough, a couple of my friends read it. I always just thought as long as I don’t lose money, and I want a couple of people to hopefully enjoy it, then I feel like I’ve achieved my dream. So I really do feel like I’ve achieved my dream. So anything else, like talking to people like you, this is just a bonus.

Emma Dhesi  26:20

It’s funny isn’t it?

Elysia Nates  26:23

A work in progress.

Emma Dhesi  26:25

And but we can find your book on Amazon at the moment. Is that right? 

Elysia Nates  26:29

Yes. 

Emma Dhesi  26:29

Okay.

Elysia Nates  26:30

Unless you’re in Australia, then. Yes, do I think Prince Bach?

Emma Dhesi  26:34

Well, I’ll put a link to the to Amazon UK anyway. And people can go from there and find it on on their local. Well, Elysia has been lovely chatting with you. Thanks so much for your time. And good luck with the new book.

Elysia Nates  26:51

Thank you very much. It’s been lovely to me. I love your accent by the way. 

Emma Dhesi  26:54

Thank you! Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you find that helpful and inspirational. Now, don’t forget to come on over to facebook and join my group, turning readers into writers. It is especially for you if you are a beginner writer who is looking to write their first novel. If you join the group, you will also find a free cheat sheet there called three secret hacks to write with consistency. So go to emmadhesi.com/turning readers into writers hit join. I can’t wait to see you in there. All right. Thank you. Bye bye.

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Emma Dhesi

Emma writes women’s fiction. She began writing seriously while a stay at home mum with 3 pre-school children.

By changing her mindset, being consistent and developing confidence, Emma has gone from having a collection of handwritten notes to a fully written, edited and published novel.

Having experienced first-hand how writing changes lives, Emma now helps beginner writers find the time and confidence to write their first novel.