Meet Tara Neilson

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tara Neilson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tara, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I grew up in a remote part of Alaska where all travel is on the water. Instead of a car my family of seven had a 13-foot Boston Whaler, an open “skiff” (a motorboat the size of a Volkswagen bug).

We traveled across dangerous waters in all kinds of weather, in all seasons. I remember sitting hunched over on the bare bench seat at six years old in the dead of winter in freezing windchill and saltwater spray convincing my self that if my stomach was warm, I was warm.

I used this technique 10 years later when I was given the job of taking my siblings to school in a 16 foot wooden skiff my dad had made himself. We had to go around a notoriously dangerous stretch of water to get to school and then back home, sometimes getting caught in sudden winter squalls.

Even though I was often scared and physically uncomfortable, or miserable, I learned that not only can you survive almost anything, but you can find things to enjoy in even the toughest situations if you put your mind to it.

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?

I’ve always been a writer as far back as I can remember. I used to write “Little Puppy Books” when I was 8 years old for my family’s entertainment.

For years I worked behind the scenes as a professional proofreader, and professional editor, but then had my own book published: RAISED IN RUINS, my memoir about growing up in the Ruins of a remote Alaskan cannery with only my family. In the process I discovered that I’m someone who actually likes to be in the background, helping other people make their writing dreams come true. Which has led to me becoming a ghostwriter. It’s by far the most enjoyment I’ve gotten as a writer. I love doing research and helping people bring their stories to life.

This year the first book I ghostwrote will be published. It adds so much to Alaskan history (remote canneries) and tells an engaging story about a woman trying to have her own creative career at a time in history when women weren’t expected to
have careers. The client, award winning artist Dot Bardarson, loved the experience and the finished result so much that she’s encouraged me to mention the book, which isn’t necessarily common in ghostwriting. The book is titled BOARDWALK FOOTSTEPS and will be published by Cirque Press.

I’m currently ghostwriting another book that covers 9
decades of life. It’s like doing a huge jigsaw puzzle putting all the pieces in place…but doing it with creativity and artistic flair. And the research for each decade is fascinating! I love learning new things.

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. Love of learning. I used to get a visceral thrill out of doing homework in school workbooks in any class, even math! Now I try to recreate those workbooks with how I assemble information for my latest writing project. I get a spiral bound sketchbook, print off the answers to interview questions I email my clients, and then clip and arrange or rearrange them in the sketchbook/workbook under various headings.

2. Persistence. It took me years of doing odd jobs, everything from being a wilderness nanny to being a cook on a bear hunting boat, to support my love of writing, which didn’t pay enough to support me in the early years. But I never lost sight of my goal to support myself by my writing and now I do.

3. Trusting my subconscious. I’ve learned that it’s my best friend when I come up against an obstacle I can’t figure out myself. Often, if I just let a problem go–whether it’s in a manuscript or in my daily life–and sleep on it, the answer comes to me.

The best way to improve on these qualities is to put them into practice. The more you do that, the more you come to trust yourself and understand what you can do (which is often more than you ever suspected).

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I see ghostwriting as a collaborative experience. People who have interesting and in some way inspiring stories to tell, but don’t know how to put them into words or put them into a polished form that will snag the interest of a publisher are exactly the people I want to write for. They can contact me at [email protected].

Contact Info:

• Twitter: @neilson_tara

Image Credits

Dot Bardarson