Meet S.e. Reed

We recently connected with S.e. Reed and have shared our conversation below.

S.E., thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

I can’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t have creativity swirling and whirling around inside me, right under the surface, ready to come out. As a child, I was the one who invented all the games to play. As a teenager, I was in drama, choir, yearbook, and played the piano and guitar. In college, I focused on my writing and was an electronic DJ, spinning records at raves. As an adult, I’ve been able to take all of those creative endeavors of my youth, and layer them into the plot lines of my novels. I’m not happy to sit back and wait for creative moments to come to me, I am always looking for the next opportunity to expand my portfolio.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’m very passionate about creative story-telling. I feel fortunate to categorize myself as an award winning multi-platform/multi-genre author. What exactly does that mean? Well, it means that I don’t keep my words boxed up in one space. I write contemporary, sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, children’s… Any story that comes to mind, I’m willing to sit down and write it. I try to let the words guide me, not the constraints of the genre. That’s also how I’ve come to be multi-platform. Since the first human used words to tell a story and the oral tradition of storytelling was born, we’ve used language to share ideas. Written word allowed us to spread those ideas to the masses and across time and distance. Being an author in modern times, we have the ability to print our words on paper, or use digital to share our stories, without limits. Media is consumed so many ways, I found it important to explore those outlets. So, I’m traditionally published in print, literary magazines, online journals, serialized web, and on Web3.

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?

I think time management is the biggest skill and super power I have as a writer. I say this because, writing isn’t my only job. I’m a spouse, parent, friend, and employee (yes, I have a day job). I have a lot of people who depend on me and plenty of things that keep me busy in my day-to-day life besides writing. However, since writing is a priority, I have found that setting a schedule keeps me focused and organized. I get up at 5am every day of the week, do research and notes for an hour before my day begins. Then at the end of the day, I write for about 2-3 hours before bed, and longer on the weekends. I also make sure to take breaks to keep from having burn out. So every other Sunday, I take a day offline to unwind and catch up with reading and TV.

Other qualities or things I’ve learned along the way that have helped me on my journey are learning to accept rejection gracefully and not being so precious with my work. In publishing, for every yes, there is a thousand nos. If you take them to heart, well you’ll just be heart broken! And being overly precious just leads to being creatively constipated. So, over the years, I’ve learned to just keep writing! Time is what is precious. So use it wisely. Why spend 2 hours agonizing over one scene, when I can write three or four in the same amount of time and go back to clean it up later with fresh eyes.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I absolutely love collaborative story telling. I recently started writing on ADIM, a web3 based platform, designed for collaborative writing projects. It has been a game changer for me as a writer to work with other authors in real time on the same projects. I’m always on the hunt for creatives to work with on new projects. The kind of folks I’m looking for vary, and much is dependent on the project. I want to surround myself with hard-working and dedicated writers. They don’t have to have all the answers, but I’m not likely to spend my precious time with someone not willing to put as much into it as I do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.writingwithreed.com
• Twitter: https://x.com/writingwithreed