Giving myself permission: My writing journey
Giving myself permission: My writing journey
When I was younger and I first started writing, I didn’t need permission to write creatively. I just wrote. My love for writing started when I waited for my parents at work. While they did their jobs, I typed away on my typewriter and scribbled in my stack of cat-printed journals about make-believe characters who typically lived in lands where dragons were real risks in your day-to-day life. I didn’t ask to write. I didn’t question myself. I just got lost in the worlds I was making up.
But even though my childhood days were filled with writing and reading, I didn’t connect the dots that I could be a novelist. Along the way, I explored many other interests and careers, all of which help me as a writer because I have so many varied experiences to pull from. For years, I wrote non-fiction, running my food and film blog, A Dash of Cinema, and other online publications. What I wrote about was firmly rooted in reality, and I rarely strayed from this comfort zone.
Ironically, it wasn’t until I began writing for tech products and had an official writer job title that I felt like I had “permission” to not only call myself a writer, but to also start writing creatively. Imposter syndrome is real! Outside of work, I felt the need to use a different part of my brain, naturally gravitating toward creative writing. When an idea for a book struck, I started writing my first novel. And I couldn’t stop. From worldbuilding to research to character development to creating scenes, I fell back in love with writing fiction.
Fiction writing has not only helped me process the world around me, but it has also helped me better understand myself. In my books, mixed race characters are front and center. This is important to me because growing up, I didn’t see characters who looked like me or my family in movies or books. The world is a diverse place, and it is incredibly important for readers and viewers to see themselves reflected back on the page or screen.
When I had the seed of an idea for what is now my debut romantic comedy, Lunar Love, I had to give myself permission to write this story. I had something to say, and I wanted to feel represented. So, I tapped into the mindset that I had as a kid. The part where I wrote stories freely and without worry (because what six-year-old knows what imposter syndrome is?). My job title may have given me permission at first to own my writing identity, but now I have to give myself permission. Some days this comes easily, but other days the imposter syndrome creeps in and has a lot to say. When this happens I try to remember that we get to choose what we call ourselves, and that at the end of the day, the only permission we need is from ourselves.
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Lauren Kung Jessen is a mixed-race Chinese-American writer with a fondness for witty, flirtatious dialogue and making meals with too many steps but lots of flavor. She is fascinated by myths and superstitions and how ideas, beliefs, traditions, and stories evolve over time.
From attending culinary school to working in the world of Big Tech to writing love stories, Lauren cares about creating experiences that make people feel something. When she’s not writing novels, she works as a content strategist and user experience writer.
She also has a food and film blog, A Dash of Cinema, where she makes food inspired by movies and TV shows. She lives in Nashville with her husband (who she met thanks to fate—read: the algorithms of online dating), two cats, and dog.
Find out more about Lauren on her website https://laurenkungjessen.com/
LUNAR LOVE
This sweet, enemies-to-lovers debut rom-com filled with Chinese astrology will undoubtedly prove to be a perfect match with readers of Helen Hoang, Jasmine Guillory, and Helena Hunting.
Always a matchmaker, never a match…
Olivia Huang Christenson is excited-slash-terrified to be taking over her grandmother’s matchmaking business. But when she learns that a new dating app has made her Pó Po’s traditional Chinese zodiac approach all about “animal attraction,” her emotions skew more toward furious-slash-outraged. Especially when L.A.’s most-eligible bachelor Bennett O’Brien is behind the app that could destroy her family’s legacy . . .
Liv knows better than to fall for any guy, let alone an infuriatingly handsome one who believes that traditions are meant to be broken. As the two businesses go head to head, Bennett and Liv make a deal: they’ll find a match for each other—and whoever falls in love loses. But Liv is dealing with someone who’s already adept at stealing business ideas . . . so what’s stopping him from stealing her heart too?
Category: On Writing
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