Q&A with Millie Florence

You published your debut book, Honey Butter, at age thirteen. What was the process of writing and publishing it like for you? Were there any resources or help you got at the start?

I may not have finished Honey Butter without NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which is every November. It’s the challenge to write the entire first draft of a novel in thirty days. Their official website provides you with tools to track your word count goal, advice, and inspirational pep talks to keep you motivated. The program was definitely what pushed me to write the first draft of Honey Butter. 

I’ve been obsessed with writing and storytelling for as long as I can remember, but always struggled to finish anything longer than a short story. My goal in writing Honey Butter was to write something a step up from a short story. Something simple and short and sweet, but something I could write with excellence. Something I could be proud of. Although all my projects before this had been epic fantasy and sci-fi novels, for this I purposefully kept myself to a limit of 30k words and a contemporary story set in an ordinary suburban neighborhood. 

I have a video on my YouTube channel about the process of writing Honey Butter, which I highly recommend. I explain everything more eloquently and in depth there, with some advice for young writers who are experiencing the same struggles I did! 

Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with both positive and negative reviews? 

So far, yes, I have read my book reviews, but that’s mostly because there aren’t very many of them. Due to having a smaller number of reviews, there also aren’t many hateful ones. I anticipate receiving a lot more reviews once my traditionally published books are released, because those companies have a built-in audience that I don’t, and it has been on my mind lately, how I should approach reviews once I start getting large numbers of them. 

Abbie Emmons, an author and YouTuber I follow, mentioned getting in a very bad mental place with reviews when her first novel came out. She read every single review for a while, and whether she had a good day or a bad day depended on the reviews she got. Obviously, that’s not healthy. 

I think it’s a balance. You need to be able to take feedback and hear what your readers are saying, but you can’t let it consume your life. It comes down to having confidence in your story. You have to be able to see through both flattery and hate to recognize your story for what is truly is. 

How was your journey from going through traditional publishing after self publishing your other projects? Which method do you prefer?   

It’s been a really interesting experience, and I love both! I love the control of self-publishing and the fact that I get to be intimately a part of how the book is produced. Still, traditional publishing has a wonderful collaborative nature to it, and it’s amazing to work with such talented and hard-working individuals. The process and experience with traditional publishing can also really change depending on what company you work with. 

In the future, I’ll choose a route depending on what I think each book needs. 

What aspect of your books do you treasure the most? Were there any scenes that felt particularly easier or harder to write? 

My favorite part of writing is when the characters come to life. If you develop characters well, they’ll sort of start talking and acting on their own, or, to put it in less whimsical terms, you know exactly what they would do or say in any situation. Thus, all you have to do is create the right situations, put your characters in them, sit back, and type as fast as you can. It’s like building a marble run and then experiencing the satisfaction of watching your marble zoom through it exactly as you intended. Those are my favorite scenes to write, with characters bouncing off each other and their environment until they land exactly where they need to be to further the plot. 

Of course, sometimes it’s not that easy. Sometimes you’ve miscalculated the placement of a few pieces in your marble run, and when you put the marble in it falls out off the track, or goes in a different direction entirely. That’s when adjustments need to be made.

How long do you take to draft your books, and what does your author process look like? How many hours a day do you usually write? 

I always write my first draft as quickly as possible, which takes one to three months, depending on the length of the draft. I have to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak, and take advantage of that initial burst of inspiration. The drafts after that vary, they can less or more time than the first draft, it all depends on what changes I decide to make. I alternate between receiving feedback from beta readers and author friends, and implementing the changes until I feel that the story is the best it can possibly be! It usually takes me four or five drafts to get there. 

When I’m writing a first draft I spend anywhere from one to five hours a day writing. That’s the most intensive part of the process. Once I get to later drafts progress it a bit more difficult to measure. I’ll often go days or weeks without writing in drafts two and three, but I never stop brainstorming and thinking through the best way to improve the storyline. That way, when I do sit down to write, I don’t spend too much time staring at my blinking cursor. Half the battle is sorting out what I’m going to write. After that, it comes pretty easily to me. 

How did you navigate the publishing process and “break into it”? Did it feel exciting or intimidating?  

I always knew I wanted to publish my books someday, so I would say it felt a lot more exciting than intimidating. There was definitely a lot to learn, but I loved every minute of the learning process. I started out by researching publishing in-depth and eventually settled on using Ingramspark for my self-publishing distributor. Later, when I wanted to explore traditional publishing, I did a lot of research on how to query and the different pieces that went into that avenue. 

What is the most difficult part of being a writer for you?  

Getting distracted. Our modern world is full of distractions, and writing, by nature, requires you to be bored enough to come up with your own imaginative entertainment. When social media is always at my fingertips, that can be very difficult. Those distractions have always been a struggle for me, but I learn and grow every day! 

Has middle grade always been your favorite genre, and do you plan to write something else in the future?   

I follow my inspiration, and so far all the story ideas I’ve come up with have been middle-grade! If I get an idea in the future that better lends itself to YA, then yes, I’ll write a YA book, but otherwise, I don’t have any plans to. I do have plans to write more picture books in the future! Picture books are a very special medium to me–they’re like an art gallery and a short story rolled into one. I can’t draw, but I love working with people who can, and I love the challenge that comes with telling a story in such a short format. 

If you could be anything but an author, what would it be? 

A stage actor. 

I’ve been acting in community theater since I was very young, and I absolutely love it. The collaboration with the cast and crew and the opportunity to bring a character to life is a very special experience. I love working with fellow creative people, and I love putting on a show. There’s something beautiful about hearing your audience’s reaction in real-time, and for a few hours, in one room, a group of strangers are all fully immersed in a story together.

Since you’re also an avid reader, what books inspired aspects of your own projects? Do you read the same genres you write?  

Yes! I’m a big fan of middle-grade, and I always will be. Two books that were influential to me at a young age were Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I listened to those two audiobooks over and over and over again when I was little, and they definitely instilled in me a sense of wonder for everyday life, and the importance of imagination and hope. 

One of my favorite quotes about storytelling is “The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, and familiar things new.” Anne of Green Gables and A Little Princess are in the category of making familiar things new. 

In the category of making new things familiar, I also grew up reading Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia. 

On the topic of books, who are your favorite authors and what aspect of their writing do you admire the most?  

My favorite book of all time is The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. It checks all the boxes of everything I love in a middle-grade novel and executes them to near perfection. Mystery and adventure, lively characters, subtly quirky narration, impossible odds, and yet everlasting hope. It’s an adventure that is fun and fantastic, while simultaneously holding great depth and wisdom that leaves a lingering warmth in your chest when you finish. It’s the sort of book I want to write!

If you could tell your younger self anything writing-related—whether it be publishing advice, marketing tips, anything, what would it be? 

Quite honestly, I would say “Don’t worry so much.” 

I’m very passionate and motivated when it comes to my writing, but there is a dark side to that when doubts start to creep in. What if I don’t make it? What if my writing isn’t good? What if it is good but it doesn’t matter because it gets lost on the internet and no one ever reads it? What if I do everything right, but I just wasn’t lucky enough? What if I’m still here in fifteen years? 

But worrying about those questions doesn’t answer them. Doubting if a dream will come true doesn’t make it any more likely to do so. Worrying doesn’t make a difference in the outcome, but it does make a difference in our mood, and not in a good way. What does make a difference in the outcome is excitement and creativity and passion for the stories we write, and you’ll live a happier life along the way. 

Connect with Millie on Instagram: @millieflorenceauthor.

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