Christy Shuler

Inspiration comes in so many forms. Sometimes it strikes when you least expect, in a way that you never would've guessed. For me, I have several tried and true methods of inspiration. Listening to music is a primary one. Sometimes it will come as a feeling I get, inspired by some great lyrics combined with an awesome melody. Other times, a song will convey a story that will get my wheels turning and I'll wonder how it ends or how it could've gone differently. Sometimes I'll allow myself to zone out in the car and just listen. That's usually when the ideas come. I am also an avid lover of dance. My favorite genres are contemporary and ballet. One of my short stories, The Water's Edge , was inspired by a contemporary dance performed on So You Think You Can Dance . Not only was the choreography beautiful, but I felt very personally connected to the theme. I can't reveal the routine, as my short story has a twist that would be ruined if I did so. However, it...

As we all know, rejection is a part of life. A LARGE part of life. Whether hunting for a new job, pitching a story or an agent, we're all bound to face it eventually. Personally, I sometimes wonder if the ever-present possibility of the short, impersonal rejection letter is what makes a writer, well, a writer. Let me explain. Back when I was in school, before any of the creative writing students had put ourselves and work out there for the world to see, we were told that we would need to develop a thick skin. We decided, as a social experiment to poke a little harmless fun at the process. Instead of ripping up our rejection letters and lighting them on fire, we preserved them, kept them in binders. Heck, some of us even framed them and stuck them on the fridge. We wore them like war badges. Once, I decided to pitch a story to Glamour magazine. I knew it was a long shot, I hadn't really seen anything like what I was pitching in the magazine before. But I felt like I s...

I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I've only recently discovered the emerging literary genre of new adult fiction. I'm more embarrassed to admit that I've accidentally written one. What is new adult, you ask? Let me go back a couple of years ago to a fiction writing class I'd had in college. We had each just begun outlining our novels and I had grappled with the idea of a protagonist in her later teens just on the cusp of adulthood. Could I do this? Since young adult fiction had been (and still is) so wildly popular to all ages, I knew just how many stories were out there about young girls in high school. But a girl entering college? No one was doing this. Would anyone want to read my story about a girl trying to "figure things out" in the adult world? Would younger audiences relate to her? I didn't think an older demographic would fit my story, but there didn't seem to be an in between. I'll have to change her age,  I thought to myself...