Who are you?

Hello! I’m Melanie K. Moschella. I’m a mom and a writer, living in the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire with my husband, daughter, dog, and two cats. My completed Raek Riders Series is a five-book new adult fantasy series that will be available March 19th, 2024

What do you write?

I started writing when my daughter was about seven months old. Being a new mom during a pandemic was extremely isolating. I spent a lot of time alone with my very fussy baby and retreated mentally into what I call an “extended daydream.” I have an overactive imagination and have always used it to escape into when life got difficult or boring, but I’d never been a mom before … I wanted my daughter to grow up proud of me, so I decided to write my daydream down and try to publish it.

I love writing, but it has been really difficult to balance with parenting my daughter. I write very quickly—almost obsessively—and it’s hard to do that and be a full-time mom at the same time. Not to mention, when I’m writing, I often can’t sleep at night because my head is constantly spinning with new scenes and dialogue. That said, I couldn’t possibly give it up! I crave the escape into my mind that transports me from my daily routine, and I thrive when I have a creative outlet.

Where do you write?

I tend to write on my laptop, sitting on my couch. I write my first drafts in Google Docs, since it auto saves, then I move to Word for edits. Even though I consider myself a pen and paper person, I don’t actually do any planning or writing by hand. I keep notes in the notes section of my phone—for when I wake up in the night and need to write something down—and I transfer those notes to a list that I keep in a Google Doc. 

I keep a lot of lists! I keep a long bullet-pointed list of scenes and dialogue, a list of characters (because I’m the author who can’t remember her own character’s names), a list of places and terms, and several different to-do lists. My to-do lists have expanded exponentially since I finished writing my series and entered into the realm of self-publishing. I now keep one for social media ideas, website updates, newsletter updates, blog post ideas, and my publicity schedule! It’s a lot … Sometimes being a writer has almost nothing to do with writing. 

When do you write?

I write whenever I can! I wrote my first book almost exclusively during my daughter’s brief naps when she was a baby. It was awful because I had no idea when she would wake up and would have to stop mid-sentence to get her. After that, my husband got a remote job, and I was able to have slightly longer chunks of time to work. But when I’m engrossed in my writing, I’ll take any chance I get to put down my thoughts, sometimes writing late into the night. Once I spent three days in a hotel nearby as a mini writer’s retreat, and that was pure luxury—I wrote nonstop the whole time, only pausing to eat and exercise. 

My writing is entirely freeform. I don’t set time limits, I don’t set word count goals, and I don’t have deadlines. I just write. I write until I unburden my mind from everything it’s storing. Then I daydream until I feel the urge to write again. That said, I keep an obsessive eye on my word count just because I like to watch it climb. On a good day, I’ll write 2000-3000 words, and on a completely manic day I’ll write 10,000. The final three books in my series, I wrote each first draft in about two weeks. That’s 90,000 words in two weeks, which I would say is the absolute fastest I can write. First drafts are first drafts, though, and I spent months reading and editing after those two weeks. 

Why do you write?

I started writing to make my daughter proud—because I didn’t want to just be a mom, as if being a mom isn’t the hardest job in the world … But now I write as an escape. I was always an escapist reader, only now I venture into the characters and plots in my own mind instead of those written by others. The adventures in my books are far more romantic and thrilling than my real life, and as much as I love my family, writing is just for me—it’s my me-time. It’s challenging and exhausting, but it’s also my break from being responsible for my daughter, my pets, and my house.  

How do you overcome writer's block?

I’ve never really had writer’s block because I only sit down to write once my story is bursting out of my head. I do my best planning when I’m on the elliptical, and I come up with my best dialogue when I’m trying to fall asleep at night. My husband and I joke that there are little elves in my head coming up with my books and that I’m just their ghost writer because I often feel like I don’t consciously make decisions about my plotlines. I even cried on the elliptical once when I realized where one of them was going … I don’t know if my writing process is normal by any means, but it seems to work for me. 

Bonus: What do you enjoy doing when not writing?

When I’m not writing, I’m being silly with my daughter or going on family hikes. You’re probably also expecting me to put here that I read, but the truth is, ever since I started writing, I’ve struggled to read. I always used to escape from life into books, but now I find myself comparing my writing to what I’m reading instead of just enjoying myself. Reading has been feeling more like work than an escape. I’m sure I’ll take a break from writing at some point and rekindle my love of reading, but for now, I’m focusing on my own books. 

My thanks to Melanie K. Moschella for today's interview. Learn more about the Raek Riders Series on Melanie's website.