Meet Natalie Colburn

We were lucky to catch up with Natalie Colburn recently and have shared our conversation below.

Natalie, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

This is such an interesting question. I think there is so much importance to it because no matter who we are, what age we are, or what we look like, we’ve likely all felt isolated from the rest of the room at some point in our lives. Everyone else seems so big and great and powerful and definitely not us.

For me, especially in the world of creative writing and poetry, I’ve had my fair share of feeling inadequate compared to everyone else. When I first began my writing Instagram account in the summer of 2023, I immediately felt out of my league. While there was no physical room that all of us on the internet were gathered in, I was younger than the other successful accounts I was seeing. I knew I was not as experienced as the ones who had thousands of followers and books worthy of winning awards. Thinking back, I have no idea how I managed to keep making posts and writing my story with my confidence in my own ability plummeting. It became a game of comparison with everyone else, one I could never stand to win.

Yet, I kept at it. A story pulled at me, one that had been in the back of my mind for a while. It refused to let go. So, I kept writing. Even while I grimaced and cringed at every word I typed; I kept typing. There were days where I didn’t. Days that I spent looking at other accounts and trying to figure out how I could be like them. And despite all my efforts, it never worked. I was still… me.

While I was writing in this Young Adult Fantasy world, I took up another form of art. Poetry. At the time of starting my writing account, I was not going through the “happiest” time of my life. A lot of personal stuff was happening and writing proved to be my escape. Especially writing poetry and putting together stanzas and lines that spoke the emotions I was feeling. Slowly, a set of poems began to form into a story, one that I realized I could publish. I decided to jump on it, realizing that all these other successful authors already had published books! No wonder they could garner followings and reviews that I had been lacking. If I could get this poetry book published, I would have something to go off of.

So, I made it happen! There wasn’t a huge buildup to my poetry book, Me Through Us. For maybe a month or two, I worked on marketing it and gathered an ARC team and did all of the publishing things. When it finally released in October of 2023… I thought I’d made it. I was feeling confident that I would be able to sell hundreds of copies like all the other authors on the platform. For the first week, I thought I was doing pretty well. Then, sales started to flicker out. Nobody else was buying my book. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was something wrong with me. Afterall, all these other authors are doing it. They’re self-published authors consistently selling copies of their books. All of the confidence I’d put together during this publication fell apart.

I’ll admit, for a while, I lost motivation for my writing. My Young Adult story got thrown to the side. Clearly, my writing (even though my only published work at this point is a poetry book), isn’t good enough. And then I get a message.

It’s from an Instagram writer friend and as soon as I begin to read the message, it hits me. The message was all about my poetry book, which she had purchased a copy of. She went on to explain that she’d been going through some of the same things and the poems gave her hope. Reminded her that every season has it place and that she’s not the only one facing the same challenges. She said, “I can’t wait to read more of YOUR writing.” My writing.

And that’s when I realized I’d been doing it all wrong. I’d been sitting at my computer, thinking about what everyone else has to say and if they’re words or they’re stories are better or more important than mine. And I realized that that’s not how it works. Everyone has a story. Everyone has their OWN story. My story will reach people that others won’t, and others will speak to people I will never get close to. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I realized that I could be confident in myself and my writing because it is mine. Even if I can’t see it, there’s a reason why I am writing what I am. And it’s not because somebody else wrote it. And it can’t be because I’m playing the comparison game with everyone else’s story. Because we each have our own to tell, to write. And that’s why, I can say with confidence, that I am a writer. And I am exactly the writer that I need to be to reach the people I’m supposed to reach.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

If you haven’t already heard, my name is Natalie Colburn and I’m an author! My favorite stories to write are anything fantasy or dystopian and of course, a little romance. As of right now, I’ve only published my poetry book, Me Through Us. However, my debut novel, A Call For Blood is releasing August 22nd, 2024. It’s been such an exciting journey to see how far everything, including myself, has come in only a year.

When I’m not writing, I’m most likely with my friends or my Australian Shephard, Marshall. I absolutely love to play board games, listen to Taylor Swift, and swing dance. My favorite food group is potatoes (yes, it counts). The number of stories constantly running through my mind is always ridiculous and the notes app in my phone is overflowing with random snippets and ideas.

My main hope is that my words can give readers a place to dream and inspiration that they too can accomplish what they put their mind to. My stories are meant to provide hope in a world that sometimes can seem so hopeless.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. In my opinion, the most important thing to have whenever you’re doing anything is passion. If you truly want to succeed in what you’re doing, you have to love it. And while maybe there are parts of your project or work or art that you wish you didn’t have to do, but even if it’s only the process or the difficulties or the exciting parts, or even the result, there has to be love for what you’re doing. With that in mind, there will still be some days where we don’t quite feel up to the task or the love for our project isn’t enough to spur us through the slow parts.

2. This is where I think having some sense of self-motivation is vital. There are going to be times where you have to force yourself to do something you don’t want to, no matter how much passion you have for what you’re doing. I think to the world of writing. I always think it would awesome if something could just pluck the ideas from my brain and spin them perfectly into what I want the stories to be. But sadly, it doesn’t work that way. There are times where I get frustrated or lost or stuck and I want to give up. I have to remind myself to keep going. Building on this talent of self-motivation is critical but alongside it goes the importance of knowing when to slow down or when to take breaks. Learn yourself. Know what your human limitations are and realize how to work with them. But know that being able to drive yourself to complete something, no matter if you want to or not, is something incredibly powerful.

3. I want to also touch on specifically, the world of writing and, in my case, self-publishing. The internet is awesome. Yes, while not everything you see can be believed, a lot of it is some really good information. Stepping into the world of writing and publishing, self or traditional, is hard. There’s going to be ups and downs and things that you don’ know. My biggest piece of advice to anyone trying to get serious about writing… find a community. I love the people I’ve met through Instagram and the encouragement I receive on a daily basis. Sometimes it requires taking the first step and reaching out to another writer, but those connections are the most valuable thing you can have.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

Ironically enough, when I first created my author account on Instagram and started writing both my novel and poetry, my parents had no clue. Not because I was scared of their reaction, just that it seemed like an unimportant thing to share. Plus, at that time I hadn’t published anything and it seemed like something I was doing simply for fun, nothing would come out of it.

But I remember the day my mom found my Instagram account. I had just announced my eBook preorder for my poetry book and she sent me a screenshot and asked, “what is this I’m seeing?” And now, not because my parents ever made me feel like they’d be unsupportive, but because it’s one thing for strangers to read your writing. But your family and friends? Your parents? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Hesitantly, I confirmed that, yes, nataliecolburnwrites is me. Immediately, she was super supportive of me and posted all of my things on her Facebook and is still, to this day, my biggest fan. She is always encouraging me to talk to people and tell them that I wrote a book. My dad is right beside her, “oohing” and “ahhing” when my newest proof copy comes in.

I think that without my parents being the supportive people they are, I wouldn’t be where I’m at. The moment they realized I was pursuing writing and trying to publish books, they were right beside me and that, by itself, is one the most impactful thing they’ve done in my life as a writer. Well, other than raise me, that is!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nataliecolburnwrit.wixsite.com/nataliecolburnwrites
• Instagram: nataliecolburnwrites
• Other: Goodreads:
  https://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard?ref=nav_profile_authordash

  Amazon Author Page:
  https://www.amazon.com/stores/Natalie-Colburn/author/B0CJ67QB9P?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true