Meet Shanti Hershenson

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shanti Hershenson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shanti below.

Shanti, so glad you were able to set aside some time for us today. We’ve always admired not just your journey and success, but also the seemingly high levels of self-discipline that you seem to have mastered and so maybe we can start by chatting about how you developed it or where it comes from?
Since I was around twelve years old, I have been writing the same amount daily. That number is 1000 words. At first, getting the words on paper was a challenge, as I often found myself losing stamina and growing tired quickly. However, as I progressed, this slowly developed as a habit that became a staple in my daily routine. Now, it feels strange to go a day without writing and truthfully, I rarely do. I’m sixteen years old, now, and I’ve gone around a year without missing a day of 1ooo–or more–words.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I began writing professionally when I was in the sixth grade. It began as an outlet to get through the pandemic, continuing as I began to write my first novel – Biome Lock, a science-fiction dystopian novel about teenagers surviving 30 years following an alien invasion. The novel grew so long – 250,000 words and almost 900 pages – that it needed to be split into a trilogy. The first book was published in August 2021, the second in June 2022, and the rest of the series is nearing publication. In the time that I was editing Biome Lock, I penned three 100-page novellas and published those, determined to expand my brand and platform. I also wrote and published a novel told in poetry, You Won’t Know Her Name, which to this day, is my most talked about book. So, even though Biome Lock is considered my debut novel, it was not my first published work. From there, I haven’t stopped. I’ve written 29–almost 30–books and have published 16 – soon to be 17 as of April 2024. One of my novels, Neverdying, which was released in June of 2022, went viral on TikTok, quickly becoming my most-sold book. With each book I release, I reach a new set of readers and expand my audience – because ultimately, my goal is to connect with more people and give readers stories to fall in love with.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Consistency Keeping up a consistent schedule with writing, marketing, and publishing will keep your fanbase interested and, as mentioned earlier, train your brain to have substantial habits in all parts of life. To begin, all you need to do is create a goal and stick to it. It can be a daily goal, a weekly goal, or a monthly goal (or longer)–the only requirement is that you keep up with this. There are countless other ways to build this quality as well. Figuring out what works best for yourself, and tailoring your practices based on your personal needs, always is the way to go.

2. Self-efficacy
It may seem a bit childish, but when I began writing, I had no experience with haters, negative reviews, and critics, and therefore, felt as though the sky was the limit. Even if you’ve had experiences with those who don’t believe in you, growing your confidence by placing yourself in positive situations and circles, helping you grow your self-efficacy, is the best way to develop this quality.

3. Enjoyment of the craft
This quality speaks for itself. If you do not enjoy the craft, the writing process, or anything and everything under that umbrella, then obviously, your journey will be a much greater challenge. When I was starting out, even though I had no idea what I was doing or whether or not I would be successful, I enjoyed my work. I enjoyed writing whether or not someone was there to read my work. As such, I was equipped with the necessary motivation to continue.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
There are several types of people that I would like to collaborate with. First of all, I love collaborating with teachers and others in educational positions to guest speak to their students and teach lessons. I’ve spoken to several middle school classes and I quite enjoy teaching classes to younger students who are beginning to discover their passions, and I find that it can be quite inspiring for them. I also love collaborating with illustrators and cover designers, producing beautiful content to promote my books and spread my brand.

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