Writers’ Rough Drafts – Episode #43 With Stephanie Lee

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Stephanie Lee is a writer, nutritionist, video gamer, and digital nomad who has built her voice and platform around the fact that she will tell you exactly how it is—directly to your face. With a portfolio of clips from publications and websites like The New York Times, Lifehacker, GQ, Thrillist, Vice, New York Magazine, and Women’s Health, she definitely has the cred to back up her writing prowess. Before embarking on the more location-independent life of a digital nomad and freelance writer, she has played video games and written about it for IGN, studied nutrition and fitness—and written about it—for Bodybuilder.com, and currently works with Ramit Sethi’s Growth Lab, doing media strategy and … you guessed it … writing.

Stephanie’s website, FY!S (Fuck Yes! Saturday, or thefyslife.com) is a manifesto on the good, the awesome, and the fugly about the unconventional life of an aspiring or current digital nomad. Here, she strives to give the real stories and information, while still sharing the unicorns and gumdrops (cause hey, when you can work all over the world from your laptop, there are bound to be unicorns and gumdrops—just sometimes they poop, and or get hard and crack your teeth, hopefully not simultaneously!).

What You’ll Learn About Writing This Week:

• The importance of breaking down technical things into a language that readers can understand
• How writing about something you love can shift your perspective on it (like playing video games!)
• The addiction writers can develop to a positive feedback loop, and why that’s both bad and good
• How it isn’t enough to just have a good story idea, but you need to communicate it as well
• Why you should look under every bush and talk to every gnome before you move on to the next step
• The three key things to keep in mind when you’re pitching to editors (spoiler alert: they’re humans!) and how to build relationships with editors

Mentioned in This Episode (Links and Resources!):

• Fuck Yes! Saturday
• Stephanie’s website, StephanieLee.me
• GameFAQs.com
• Pantsers and plotters
• IGN

*Special invitation to Writers’ Rough Drafts listeners: A FREE live presentation with Stephanie on how to pitch to editors — happening on March 25th!  

You Can Find More of Stephanie and Her Writing On:

• Her website, StephanieLee.me
• Twitter, @superLEE7
• Instagram, @superLEE7

Tweetable Quotes From This Episode:

• On Writing: “It was one of those magic moments in your life when you just know—this is the thing I want to continue doing.” – @superLEE7 #WritersRoughDrafts
• “Early on, I got a taste of that positive feedback loop, where I’d write something, put it out into the world, and get that feedback that people were actually acknowledging my work. That’s what enabled me to keep going.” – @superLEE7 #WritersRoughDrafts
• “Writing is 10 percent the mechanical parts and 90 percent playing mind games with yourself, like procrastination and blank page syndrome.” – @superLEE7 #WritersRoughDrafts
• “Writing to me is like solving a puzzle, especially when editing a piece of writing.” – @superLEE7 #WritersRoughDrafts
• “It’s not necessarily just having a great story idea, it’s about being able to communicate that to an editor.” – @superLEE7 #WritersRoughDrafts
• On Having a Successful Pitch: “First, you gotta have a good idea that will appeal to the editor. Second, you gotta treat the editor like a person. And third, it takes a lot of relentless pitching.” – @superLEE7 #WritersRoughDrafts
• “Procrastination is SO normal and part of my writing process … and I know now, when I’m procrastinating, I know that I’m just prolonging the inevitable of thinking really hard about solving this puzzle in front of me.” – @superLEE7 #WritersRoughDrafts

Thanks to our Season 4 sponsor: Coworker.com