Meet Marla White

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Marla White. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Marla, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
I feel very fortunate that being creative has always been part of my life and comes from the need to tell stories to entertain myself and other people. As a child, I used to insert myself into my favorite TV show as a new character and then act out the episode. When it came time to pick a major for college, I thought I wanted to be a park ranger until I found out what it entails. That’s when I realized what I really liked was a TV series about park rangers. Which led me to pursue a career in TV instead.

Working in development on various TV movies and series, I started writing scripts of my own. Unfortunately, I discovered that unlike “Field of Dreams,” if you write it they won’t necessarily read it. After the craze of self-publishing took hold, I had a light-bulb moment and started writing novels instead. Worst case scenario, I could publish it myself, right?

But it wasn’t until the company I worked for had a meeting with the great Janet Evanovich, who said she gets up at five every morning to write that I realized THAT’S how you keep the creative juices going. You can’t wait for the day you find the time or your muse talks to you. At least for me, I find if I write every day, story ideas continue to flow. Just because I write it, they still don’t necessarily buy the books and read them, but I love the stories and characters too much to stop now.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
As an author, I’ve managed to take the “cozy” out of cozy mystery. If you’re not familiar with the term, a cozy mystery is usually one where an amateur detective, usually a woman, solves a murder. The stories are set in small towns, and typically there’s no violence, sex, or swearing. The main characters are young or old, usually sweet, earnest and own a bakery, cafe, or bookstore.

My first novella, “The Starlight Mint Surprise Murder,” is set in a fictional version of Idyllwild. Small town – check. My main character used to be a cop but now owns a B&B, making her technically an amateur – check. Beyond that, all bets are off. Mel O’Rourke is a woman, but she swears when needed, is a terrible cook despite half of her business being “breakfast”, and is deeply flawed with an issue she needs to deal with before it controls her life. And yet, the thing everyone who reads it agrees on is that the dialogue and situations make you laugh. The second book to come out through the Wild Rose Press, “Cause for Elimination” bucks those same traditions. My main character, Emily, is a horse trainer so there goes the idea of being sweet, and she has some very dark demons in her past and yet again, the edgy humor makes even non-horse people keep turning the pages.

My next book from Wild Rose, “Framed for Murder,” comes out on June 17th. It’s the follow-up to “Starlight” and has even more personal challenges for Mel O’Rourke when an enemy from her old life comes to her inn looking for help. Besides solving a murder, Mel has to wrangle with the idea of who is she if she can’t be a cop? Just what is her brand? That’s a question I felt close to as I tried to figure out what my own “brand” is as both an author and writing coach. The answers to both questions for Mel are found with humor and heart.

It finally dawned on me that a slightly warped sense of humor IS my brand. It carries over into coaching writers to make their scripts stand out from the rest using a combination of math, art, and making it fun even when I’m pointing out the problems with your script. That’s why a lot of my clients work with me on multiple projects and continue to do well with their scripts.

Keep an eye out for my book launch on June 17th, meet me in person, and join in the fun! Plus free cookies, so how can you go wrong?

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Be curious, and keep learning. Learn new things about whatever you’re pursuing, whether it’s writing or accounting. But also learn new things about life, about nature, about whatever gets you excited. I once had a boss who, in the process of hiring staff writers, would say if he learned something new from meeting them, he’d be a lot more inclined to hire them. At first, I didn’t get it because all I was looking for was great writers, but it’s true. Someone with knowledge and passion makes being trapped in a room for hours at a time a lot easier AND they’re just more interesting. Don’t try to be the smartest person in the room, be the most interesting.

Force yourself to step out of your comfort zone, even just inches at a time. I’m not the first person to say this, but the things I regret the most are the things I didn’t do, not the ones I did. I wish I’d had the courage to be a writer way way back when I moved to L.A. I made some feeble attempts and did okay in a couple of contests, but I let myself be convinced it was impossible.

I’m not sure this is a quality or skill, but I’d encourage anyone, no matter what stage of their journey they’re on, to be a mentor. I had one boss who championed my career, not just as an exec but as a writer and it made a HUGE difference in my life. If only she’d been around when I got serious about writing for TV, the sky might have been the limit. Since then, I’ve mentored writers, and not just the ones who pay for my expertise, and get a ridiculous amount of joy from seeing them succeed. Plus, back to that whole “keep learning” thing, I’ve learned a lot from them as well.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
I’m fairly confident I’m not alone in admitting imposter syndrome is my biggest challenge.

I’ve gotten predominantly good reviews on the previous books, but there are moments where I’m certain the next one coming out is no good. I actually have two books coming out this year, “Framed for Murder” as well as a fantasy-adjacent book, “The Angel in the Window”. The process for both was very different, and I loved them both when I was writing them, but it is a struggle every day not to let one careless word from a member of my “team” as it were strip all that confidence away.

There’s a particular non-profit that I mentor writers through and every time the group gets together I question what the heck am I doing here. What could I possibly have to offer? They keep asking me to come back, so there must be some reason, right? Working with the writers, I totally know my value but compared to the other mentors? I swear I break out in a cold sweat just talking to them.

But I don’t think the way to get over it is to have friends constantly reassure you that you are great at what you do. Or do that Stuart Smalley thing and look in the mirror, telling yourself “I’m smart enough, I’m good enough, and doggone it people like me”. Google it if you have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s hilarious. I haven’t figured it all out yet, but I think dealing with feeling like an imposter involves letting yourself feel sad or down or whatever for a little while, just don’t camp out there. I was ready to not ask for ARC reviews at all for “Framed” because it would get trashed, but then I had to re-read it to grab an excerpt and after stepping away from it for months, I have to admit I like it! If I can get comfortable feeling like a fish out of water among the other mentors and stop worrying about being worthy, I’ll probably enjoy the whole process a lot more.

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