The WRITE Prompt had the pleasure to speak with Tahani Nelson (also known as The Girl Who Wears Armor Everywhere), author of the Faoii Chronicles.

If you like immersive world-building and badass women leading armies, you will love The Last Faoii and Faoii Betrayer, the first two books in the Faoii series. Tahini is currently working on completing the third installment.

Her series was born out of a desire to create the stories that she craved when she was young.

As she puts it: “I’ve always loved reading fantasy, but I struggled to find heroines that I could really aspire to, I was tired of damsels in distress and love triangles.”

You can find more of Tahani’s work, including some short stories at TahaniNelson.com.

Or connect with her on twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

TWP: You are currently self-published, but your journey started out on a more traditional path with a small publisher. Can you tell us about that experience?

Tahani Nelson: I originally published The Last Faoii through a small crowdfund-based publisher called Inkshares.

I had to sell hundreds of pre-orders for my book before they would publish it, which is not an easy feat. But I believed in my story and my world, so I pushed through and connected with people. Shared my premise. Sold people on a dream they couldn’t yet hold.

And it worked.

I made a lot of connections, and while it was nice to have a fanbase already in place and a strong network of other authors before I even published my first book, that was the only positive thing that came out of the experience.

I have the best fanbase anyone could ask for.

The main thing about working with an outside company is that you must be willing to release some of your control to that company. And if you’re going to do that, you better be damned sure that company cares about your success half as much as you do.

It didn’t take me long at all to realize that there was nothing Inkshares was willing to provide that I could not do myself–often with better results. 

The Amazon page they set up (which I could not access) had a spelling error on it that they never fixed. My paperback books were of poor quality and the pages were always falling out.

I had no way to tell how many books I’d sold or who was buying them (the one time I DID get a number of “books printed” it was less than what I had personally purchased for faires and cons.)

And, despite all of the work I put into marketing my debut novel during the two years I was under Inkshare’s contract, I never got any of the royalties I earned.

There is nothing that they offered me that I haven’t learned how to do myself–with better results–since my contract ended.

[I]f you’re going to [work with an outside company], you better be damned sure that company cares about your success half as much as you do.

I’m not saying that all publishers are bad–but I AM saying that you need to do your research before you enter an agreement with anyone.  There aren’t a lot of places you can go after you’ve aligned yourself to a sub-par company. Agents don’t want someone else’s sloppy seconds.

I’ll probably never get out from underneath Inkshare’s name, but I self publish now and I absolutely love the experience.

I have complete control over my novels. I learned how to make my own covers and typeset my own chapter headings, and I think my new books look even better than what Inkshares originally produced.

Now, everyone that’s getting paid for The Faoii Chronicles actually cares about them, and that means more to me than I can even say.

TWP: After that experience, you decided to pursue self-publishing. Can you tell me a little about what went into that decision and your journey to where you are now?

Tahani Nelson: The biggest thing was wanting autonomy over my own works.

Self-publishing is hard, but so far there hasn’t been anything about it I haven’t been able to learn to do on my own. And, since I truly care about what I’ve written and want the world to be able to see it, I put more effort into every part of the process than someone else would have.

I’ve discovered that I need to have a hand in every part of the journey, so self-publishing works best for me.

TWP: You’ve found some early success with your debut novel, is there anything specific that you believe helped with your success?

 Tahani Nelson: I have the best fanbase anyone could ask for. My readers go out of their way to share The Faoii Chronicles with other people. And they’re supportive when I need them most.

When my Imposter Syndrome convinces me that I’m not good enough or if I get nervous about giving a presentation or doing a reading, I always have my army of Faoii at my back, and that strengthens me.

Also, I wear armor to ALL of my events, and that’s caused some unexpected waves. But it’s good, too. People recognize me when they see me. Sometimes they’ll see me three or four times at different events before they come talk to me.

That never would have happened if I was just wearing normal clothes.

TWP: What is the most surprising source of inspiration you’ve ever had that led to an idea for a book or a scene?

Tahani Nelson: I wrote the first three chapters of The Last Faoii at 2:30 in the morning after waking up from a dead sleep.

I woke up, got up, wrote it all in one go, and went back to bed.

The next day I sent it to my father and asked him if it was something I should pursue. He encouraged me, and I kept going.

Today, those three chapters are virtually unchanged from that first night, which is rare. Everything else changed a dozen times. But not that. 

TWP: Do you have any favorite writing exercises or prompts to get the creative juices flowing?

Tahani Nelson: I used to really struggle with “getting the creative juices flowing.” It seemed like everyone else in the world was writing 2,000 words a night and that was so… daunting. I’d freeze up before I even started.

I’ve since learned that most of my writing block stems from fear. Goals that are too big, I’m afraid I can’t reach them. Fear of the publishing process or if someone will like what I’m writing. Fear that I won’t be able to get the juices flowing.

I wrote Faoii Betrayer in 11 months–200 words at a time.

And I learned that, when I was aiming for these seemingly-impossible goals or focused on what comes after, I was too anxious to actually start. So I wouldn’t write anything at all.

Now I write 200 words a day. That’s it. 200.

Most authors say that’s barely anything. Maybe they’re right, but it’s more than the 0 I was hitting before, right? 200 words never seems like too much or like I can’t do it or like it’ll be terrible (and if it IS terrible, it’s only 200 words. I can just delete it).

Telling myself to write 200 words took out all the fear that used to get in the way of my writing. A lot of the time, I’ll hit my 200 and that was enough to open the floodgates, and I’ll keep going for hours.

Other times I only hit the 200 and stop for the day. But it’s progress– and it works. When I told myself I had to write 2,000 words a day, I didn’t write anything for 2 years. I wrote Faoii Betrayer in 11 months–200 words at a time.

TWP: What do you do when you experience writer’s block or when you are struggling to create good material?

 Tahani Nelson: The 200-words-a-day thing is my best advice for writer’s block, but if you’re struggling to create good material, it might honestly be because you haven’t fed your brain new material often enough recently.

I know we all consider ourselves writers–and writers often consider themselves readers. But do any of us really read as much as we did when we first claimed that title? Are we really offering our minds something deeper and richer than constant scrolls on Facebook?

Stop comparing yourself to other authors. It’s destructive and doesn’t actually help.

If you’re struggling to create rich material and you didn’t use to–see if you’re feeding your mind information at the same rate as you used to when it seemed like you couldn’t think of anything other than new tales to tell.

And if that’s not the problem, then maybe it’s just because your brain is longing for a change of pace.

Read something outside your comfort zone. Watch something controversial or unique or different. If you put new ideas into your brain then your brain will have something new to work with.

TWP: Lastly, do you have any parting advice for aspiring authors who are hoping to one-day self-publish themselves?

Tahani Nelson: Stop comparing yourself to other authors. It’s destructive and doesn’t actually help.

There will always be someone who is doing better than you. Someone who writes more words each night or who has more reviews or makes more in royalties or who has more post engagements.

There will always be a reason for your brain to tell you that this isn’t worth it. You’ll never catch up. But I promise–your brain is wrong.

Keep going. Every time you find yourself comparing your achievements to someone else’s–stop. Take a deep breath. And compare yourself to where you were a year ago. 5 years ago. 10. Look at how far you’ve come.

Would Younger You have even imagined they’d ever be able to write a book? What do you think Current You will think of Future You in 5 years?

Those are the only comparisons you need as a self-published author. The rest are just traps in the guise of goals.

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