- What advice would you give to beginner writers or artists of all mediums?
Read. Read as much as you can, especially in your preferred genre(s). If you don’t read, you’ll have no idea how to write a book, no idea how to connect with readers through your writing, and no idea what makes a story work or not work. Also, turn off your phone whenever you’re creating. You will get exponentially more work done. (I have to do this because of my ADHD). Finally, do not be afraid to be yourself and put yourself out there. Create what only you can create. A life without self-expression, individuality, and passion is a life half-lived. You have unique gifts with immense capacity to make a positive difference in other people’s lives — once you recognize what an insane blessing that is, you stop being afraid to be authentically yourself.
2. How do you start a creative business? How do you break into book editing or commercializing your art?
The biggest thing is building your reliability and establishing trust and respect with others. Promising big, and delivering even bigger. Your word is everything, especially when helping people improve something as raw and personal as the book they wrote. The internet is your biggest resource when it comes to finding clients and customers. Register with The Editorial Freelancers Association–this will connect you to clients all over the world, with a myriad of genres and a wide variety of skills needed. But honestly, before you even do that–start small. Do you personally know anyone who has written a book? Does your neighborhood have an email chain where you can advertise? What about your church, temple, or mosque? Your local grocery store? When it comes to promoting art, you want to define your target audience, post content on social media (Instagram and TikTok are by far the biggest platforms that will get you the most visibility), and put money into targeted ads, even if it’s only $100 at first.
3. What is your writing process like?
With novels, I make a 30-page chapter-by-chapter outline. I want to know exactly what is going to happen in the story and when it is going to happen before I write the first page. Then, I give myself quotas and deadlines. I need to write 15 pages a day, every day, until I get to 300 or 400. After that, I revise, revise, revise. I pass through the book for developmental edits and take meticulous notes on what needs to change in terms of character development, themes, timeline of events, pacing, descriptions, dialogue, and narrative arcs. After I’ve completed all of those changes, I go through and line edit–rephrasing anything that I think sounds inauthentic, clunky, confusing, or boring. After that, I copyedit and proofread for any grammatical errors. Then, after all of that, I hire my mom (who is also a book editor) to give me extensive feedback on the book, and I complete more edits based on what she says. This entire process takes 1.5 to 3 years.
With poetry collections, I’m a little bit more flexible. I’m more likely to write this late at night (which is when I’m most emotional and have the most epiphanies and spiritual growth) as opposed to novels, which I usually write during the day. Before beginning a new collection, I type out a 15-page document outlining major themes I want to focus on, messages I want to communicate, motifs I want to return to, and experiences and emotions I want to capture. Then, I set out writing. I usually write 150 pages, then cut it down to 80 or 90 pages because I’m repulsed by my own melodrama. What comes next is incredibly obsessive. I pull many all-nighters (over the course of a year, not consecutively lmao) editing every single poem line by line, focusing on cutting, adding, word choice, chronology, line breaks, metaphor, simile, and motif. I go through the book countless times. Then, just when I think I cannot look at it for another second, I hire my friend (who is a poetry editor) to edit the manuscript and give me feedback. The whole process takes 1 to 2 years.
4. Do you work on one book at a time, or multiple at once?
I am always working on multiple things at once. My mind runs a million miles a minute, so I need several projects in order to not go completely batshit crazy. My typical process is to work on one novel and one poetry collection at a time, and once I’ve reached a place I’m satisfied with in both (typically around 1 and a half years), I start the next projects. I am also, throughout all of this, drawing and designing new artwork for my Redbubble platform, editing multiple people’s books, reading books for fun, marketing myself and creating content for my Instagram, going to the gym every morning, making time to regularly call long-distance loved ones and hang out with my family and friends in the L.A. area, going to therapy so I can heal from various traumas and learn skills for how to be a better person, babysitting & mentoring the sweetest little girl one afternoon a week, and going to two dance classes a week, so I’m the type of person clinically insane enough to never retire.
5. What’s the best life advice you could give?
Don’t treat people the way you want to be treated; treat them the way THEY want to be treated. This is the most important lesson I have ever learned: to not assume that everyone wants the same things I want and to truly get to know people, their likes and dislikes, and what makes them feel the most seen. For some people, that’s acts of service. For some people, that’s words of encouragement. For some people, that’s giving them lots of attention, lots of advice, and publicizing your love for them. For some people, that’s respecting their shyness and privacy by not pushing them to talk about their feelings or giving them unsolicited advice. I wish I had come out of the womb knowing this.
Save your money. Start saving as young as you can. Money is time, money is freedom, money is health, money is peace, money is everything. I actually did come out of the womb knowing this one, and it’s made my life exponentially better.
Read. Even if it’s only one book a month. Any genre you want. Doesn’t matter if it’s classic literature or fairy smut, as long as you love it. I promise you’ll be happier.
Make it a point to listen to and learn from people who are 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, even 60 years older than you. Young people (including myself) can often have an air of arrogance and perceive ourselves as invincible. But I promise you will not reach the peak of enlightenment and maturity at age 19 (or at age 26 🙂
The only way out is through. The only way out is through. You can’t heal what you won’t feel.
Author Luna Moore Latorre 