This interview with J.M. Frey is part of my Author Spotlight series, designed to compile authors’ experiences into a hub of inspiration and camaraderie for authors who need it. Visit the series homepage to learn more and see other entries.
What can you tell us about your current work in progress?
I'm just about to drop book one in what I'm tentatively calling the Measure of Worth series. Like every other series I've written, it was meant to be a one-off—just the first novel, Nine-Tenths—but conversations with friends and a desire to tell more of the story than the space of the narrative would allow has ballooned it into three. Nine-Tenths drops on Wattpad January 13, 2024, and while that one is serializing I'll be working on the prequel, Soon Parted. I'm releasing it exclusively on Wattpad first, because one of my other novels, Time and Tide, will be published with W by Wattpad books in November 2024, so I want the readership find the books as easily as possible.
The Measure of Worth series takes place in an alternate universe, with a slightly alternate history...and dragons. While the dragons do have people shapes, it's not a shifter romance so much as it's a contemporary romantasy about the consequences of those dragons being allowed to hoard the most precious resource on Earth, to the detriment of everyone else living on the planet—humanity. These dragons are emperors and monarchs, grasping and greedy things striving for more resources, more land, more people. The story focusses on Colin Levesque, a barista in the British colony of Canada, who lives under the Marquess of Niagara but knows nothing about him. Frankly, in the midst of a quarter-life crisis, still reeling from his father's recent death, and with no idea what to do with his new bachelor's degree, Colin has bigger worries than not being very awesome at spotting local celebrities. Which comes back to bite him when his coffee-shop crush turns into an accidental meet-ugly kitchen fire. And he finds out that his cute regular technically owns him. Possession may be nine-tenths of the law, but becoming his boyfriend’s property does not make this whole identity crisis thing easier. Especially now that Colin must navigate politics, paparazzi, and legal questions about his personhood. Colin’s still angling for his Happily Ever After, but the growing scrutiny on his relationship with Dav threatens their budding romance. And if he’s not careful, Colin’s fight for agency may just destroy symbiotic human/dragon relationships worldwide.
Why write?
Big question! I started writing fanfic in 1991 because it was a fun way to expand on the stories I already knew and loved. I found the community of fanwriters I fell into welcoming, encouraging, and fascinating. (One is still my friend to this day!) A few decades later, a TA in uni encouraged me to try writing original prose, and I never looked back.
I love being a writer because I love sharing stories with people. Whether as an actor (my other job), through fanfic, or through original stories, I write because I love the engagement. I enjoy squeeing, jumping up and down, and shouting at my readers, and having them do the same in return. When I say it like that, it sounds like I'm doing it for the fame or the acclaim or something, but that's not it. I do it because I want nothing more in the world than to share stories—mine or other people's—with creative, compassionate, interesting, intelligent, motivated, and marvelous people.
Can you describe, briefly, your writing routine or process?
I tend to write most in the evenings, after the sun has set and the world has settled. I like to have a glass of wine and a candle lit, but they're not necessary. When the storytelling urge comes over me, the rest of the world just vanishes, sometimes for hours and hours. It doesn't matter where I am. (I've definitely opened my notebook on the train, knowing that I have to get off in a few stops, and looked up from the pages at the end of the bloody line. More than once.)
Generally speaking, I tend to start a new manuscript in November for NaNoWriMo and then spend the rest of the year on edits, secondary-reader feedback, and revisions. I like to channel that Back To School energy of September into a new project, where I can. You know, buy new stationery, start seriously figuring out what the story is on long autumn walks, feel like I'm embarking on something as the leaves turn, that whole vibe. Winter is for hibernating with the completed manuscript, scratching out notes and rearranging (or rewriting) the story, and spring is for finalizing it all. Summer is for recovery and soaking up the sun to refill my creative battery! And percolating the next project. There's something intuitive, at least for me, to creating a story to the rhythm of the seasons.
I'm a plantser at heart, so while I'll start by utterly pantsing a novel, I usually stop about a third of the way through to take a good look at what I've created, and create an outline for the rest of the book from there. I find that if I plan something too meticulously or too thoroughly, I lose all interest in writing the story. It takes all the joy of discovery out of the book for me. To that end, I also don't write in order, I never could. Thank god for the invention of Scrivener—it's made playing Jenga with the narrative so much easier.
I also don't believe in the maxim that "real writers write every day." First off, that's ableist and classist. Not everybody is healthy enough or financially comfortable enough to be able to carve out that time every day. But also sometimes the motivation or the muse just isn't there. On those days, I take long walks or hot baths and have a good long think about the story, which I find helps shake things loose.
I severely burned myself out in 2020 trying to use the lockdown “correctly” and “productively,” and I'm still struggling with the mental blocks that come from the exhaustion and depression of burnout. I've worked hard to undo the effects the bad habits the rise-and-grind mentality have had on my creativity, and I find that the kinder I am to myself, the more freely my stories come.
What are your big-picture goals as an author?
Honestly, I don't really know any more. I achieved a lot of my goals on my debut novel in 2011: film interest, agent offers, awards, critical acclaims, trips to New York, parties! But all of it dried up with the publication of my sophomore novel, and each novel since then has received less and less attention. The last handful of years, I've been desperately trying to recapture that lightning and get it back into the bottle, but now I see that I've been doing it all wrong. I've been trying to write what will sell, instead of what makes me happy. And as a result, the books I've produced in the last few years have been mediocre and not sold. So I parted ways with my agent and took some time away from writing, and now I'm coming back to things with a brand new manuscript that is challenging, genre-blended, not-at-all mainstream, queer as hell, and just warms the cockles of my weird little heart.
So my goals now, I think, are more about my own personal satisfaction and happiness than external validation and reward. Of course I'd love for Nine-Tenths to get super popular, get picked up by a Big Five, and be made into a wildly successful TV series, but only because I'm desperate for the security and comfort that the kind of wealth that comes with that level of success could buy me. (Oh, how I want to quit my day job, get a cute little rescue mutt, and write all day!) But if that doesn't happen, that no longer feels like personal failure, like it used to. If all I get is a bunch of enthusiastic comments and reviews, maybe some fanart or cosplayers, and people who are happy to squee and flail with me about my stories and characters, then that will make me happy. I just want my stories to make people happy, the way they make me happy.
In the moments when those goals feel far away, what keeps you motivated?
I reread the comments on my fanfics. I'm still writing fic, albeit far less frequently, and the engagement and enthusiasm of the fandom community reminds me why I tell stories in the first place.
What’s the most difficult part of writing, in your opinion?
The boredom of the actual writing. Sitting in one place for hours every day to tap-tap-tap out words, one after the other, is agonizing. It's necessary to get to what I consider the best part—the revisions—but it's a slog.
As Dorothy Parker famously said: "I hate writing. I love having written."
The most fun?
Having written!
The must fun, playful, exciting part of writing for me is when the manuscript is finished, and I get to get in there and pull it apart and turn it over and over in my hands to examine it for themes and beautiful moments to polish up, to revise, and edit, and fine-tune. To make it the best version of what I'm trying to say.
It's like playing with Lego! I love it! There's a danger of over-working it, but that's where the imposed rhythm of the seasons comes in for me. I know I have to let the book go by July, to declare it "done" or at least "good enough," or I might never stop kneading it and accidentally punch all the life out of it.
Who are or were your literary heroes?
I appreciate Anne Carson's command of wordcrafting and how meticulously she chooses each word to turn her prose into poetry; Dianne Wynn Jones' belief that her readers are clever and the way she allows her characters to manipulate the genres and plots of the stories they inhabit; Rainbow Rowell, for the way her prose is so spare, but her characters are so sublime and full, not despite the spareness of her prose but because of it; Neil Gaiman's overarching themes of self-determination and the ability to be one's own guiding star (and his seriously enviable ability to sell the same IP over, and over, and over again and find a way to make the story new each time. I mean, how many versions of Good Omens are there out there? Musicals, radio plays, graphic novels, scripts books, television shows...and each version of the story gets at the heart of different themes and gives the reader different feelings).
What advice do you have for authors just starting out?
Figure out a way to motivate yourself to finish your work. We are all brimming with stories, and settings, and characters, and plots. But vanishingly few people who start a novel actually complete it. What works to motivate one person may not work for another. Some like to give themselves gold stars or treats, some need the external peer pressure of writing in public or participating in contests or retreats, and still others need a rigid routine and deadline. You have to find what works for you, and then trick yourself into doing it. Writing is a monumental exercise in willpower. It takes self-motivation on a level akin to quitting addictive substances or healing from trauma. It's so easy to just daydream and not write. Too easy. Figure out how to get yourself to THE END. And know that each book is different, and what worked for one may not work for the other. That's okay. That's normal.
Where can we buy your books/read your work?
Many of the books are currently available for free (in whole, or in part) on Wattpad, if you wanted to give them a try before purchasing them.