Meet S.j. Carson

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful S.j. Carson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with S.J. below.

Hi S.J., we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

I didn’t always have the confidence and self-esteem that I have now. When I was a teenager and young adult, I didn’t feel very good about myself. I constantly compared myself to others, performing a kind of self-audit and always coming up short. I wasn’t smart enough, pretty enough, popular enough, etc.

It wasn’t until around the age of thirty that I stopped caring so much about what others thought of me. When I entered law school seven years later than my peers, I discovered the wisdom behind these words by Mary Schmich, whose essay was turned into the 1999 hit song “Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen)”: “Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.” In law school, everyone was so consumed by learning the material that they didn’t have the mental capacity to worry about what I was doing. And vice versa.

Also, there’s a line of Spencer Reece’s poem “Hymn” that really resonates with me: “There was no more time to hate ourselves.”

That’s what happened to me–I was in my thirties, training as a lawyer, writing novels by night, and I simply had no more time to hate myself. Once I came to that realization, though, I didn’t automatically attain self-love. But I did free up quite a lot of space in my brain that was once devoted to self-hatred and criticism. Once that space opened and I could focus on other things, I felt unstoppable.

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 began my writing career as a poet. After earning my MFA in creative writing with a focus on poetry, I published a collection of poems about my childhood in a small waterfront town on Long Island. In my mid-to-late twenties, however, I started to focus more on short fiction and novels.

My first novel, Aveline, a young-adult dystopian adventure story, debuted on October 9, 2024 from The Wild Rose Press. Aveline Fleur is a thirteen-year-old girl who must battle a repressive government run by her own family in order to save her best friend Bruno and his mom from brainwashing. One of the images I’ve shared for this interview is a poster I designed that’s similar to the propaganda billboards in Alterra, the country where Aveline and Bruno live. Alterra’s government is masterful at spinning the truth to hide its sinister intentions from the people it purports to protect and serve.

I am currently working on a second novel, a sci-fi romance, geared toward an adult audience. I like to describe it as Brave New World meets Gattaca, with a dash of Bridgerton.

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) An aptitude for complexity. To be a novelist, you can’t merely be a good writer. You have to have a compelling story to tell; write it clearly; and be a master of dialogue, character development, and plot/sub-plot. This will come with a lot of consistent practice and feedback from your peers. My advice is to join a local writers’ group if you can.

2) Patience and tolerance of imperfection. A first draft of a novel is going to be messy. There’s going to be a lot of sloppy writing and long stretches of backstory as you discover who your characters are, what their world is like, and what conflicts they will face. You’ve got to develop the patience to go back and revise, implement constructive criticism, and polish your writing as many times as necessary.

3) A thick skin. Writers constantly face rejection, whether from agents, publishers, fellow writers, or even from themselves (e.g., rejecting one’s own character development ideas). To succeed in this business, you need to be able to take criticism (even if it’s harsh) that will make your manuscript better, and to continue to put your creative work out there. Over time, you’ll see that you won’t be crushed by each and every rejection. Instead, it will motivate you to become a better writer.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

White Oleander by Janet Fitch. It’s a coming-of-age story told from the perspective of young Astrid Magnussen, who bounces around between foster homes in California after her mother is sent to prison for murder. I have read this novel more times than I can count. It is a masterclass in how to write lyrical, sparkling prose. I’m also in awe of how Fitch shows Astrid’s journey from a frightened preteen to a fierce, independent young woman who learns to mend her own wounds and emerges even stronger because of them. This is the type of character arc that appears in my novel, Aveline, and I have White Oleander to thank for it.

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Image Credits

S.J. Carson
Valeria Andraka
Kristian Norris

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