Emerging Writers Series: Amelia Joy
“It was really helpful for me to remember that this is just the first book; it’s not the one defining piece of art that I’m ever going to create in my life that will define me as a writer forever - this is just the beginning.”
One of our core missions at Aniko Press is to bring readers and writers together, and what better way to do that than by picking the brains of some of the writers whose work we’ve been loving recently. There are so many ways to be a writer, and our new interview series aims to focus on just that.
This week I spoke with Amelia Joy, a fiction and memoir writer and author of All Summer Long (2021), a fiery novella that charts the heady turmoil of youth, first loves and the often painful lessons of uncovering who we are and what we want in life.
We caught up on Amelia’s self-publishing journey, what it takes to know when your work is ready and her advice for writers looking to get their work out into the world.
How did your writing journey begin? When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I am one of those writers who tends to say they’ve always been writing. Ever since I was very young, I used to pretend to write the alphabet; even before I knew how to write, I would copy little scribbles everywhere! Most of my family also write. My mum has just released an autobiography that she’s been working on for a long time; my dad writes, as do my grandparents. I do feel like I’ve always been drawn to writing and language.
During high school, I started writing short stories and things like that, but nothing serious. Me and my friends used to take turns writing stories for each other and then reading them out to one another. When I was around eighteen, nineteen, I started what I thought was going to be another short story and then decided, “you know what, I’m going to write a novel now”, and that became my new thing. I remember I went to the bookstore and bought ‘How to Write a Novel for Dummies’ and decided that was that - let’s do it! For obvious reasons, that novel did not work out, but that’s really when I got more serious about it. It started me on this path and helped me decide this was something I wanted to pursue more seriously. I majored in English for my Bachelor of Arts and dabbled in a bit of everything else, slowly finding my way. Then I completed a postgraduate certificate in creative industries, which was quite broad. When I moved to Melbourne, I decided I wanted to focus more on the writing side of things and enrolled in a Masters of Creative Writing. That helped me to start understanding the whole industry a bit more.
I’d love to hear more about your decision to self-publish and your thoughts behind self-publishing in general. How did you know when your work was ready to publish?
When I wrote that first novel when I was nineteen, I initially thought I would get an agent and get it published the ‘traditional’ way, but of course, I didn’t even really know how to write at all at that point. I was wildly optimistic! By the time I finished All Summer Long, it had been a long journey, and I had it sitting around, not doing anything with it. I had other projects and ideas I wanted to pursue, and I wanted to get it out as fast as possible. It felt like it was ready to go out and find a readership and the more traditional route seemed long, you know, sending it out and waiting around, waiting for responses, probably getting rejections. I’m not even sure how long it takes to go through the whole process, from being picked up by a publisher to being fully published. I knew I wanted to release it as fast as possible.
In my mind, I always think about how musicians market and release their music. It’s very common for musicians to release all their music and do all their own production, so I thought, why don’t I just apply the same process to writing? Why is writing always considered a different industry in this aspect? It’s the same in film; you have to start putting yourself out there. At the time, I didn’t know that many writers, but I knew a lot of musicians - it made sense to apply the same process to my writing and books and to build an audience that way, rather than waiting around for someone else to tell me I’m good enough.
It takes a lot of self-belief to self-publish. I didn’t have anyone else checking the book and giving me permission that it was ‘good enough.’
I’m saying that it’s good enough and that for me, was good enough. It took time to get to that point, and I had doubts along the way. I did work with an editor, who was the first person to read All Summer Long outside of my friends and family, who told me it was great and gave me some guidance for improvements. That helped me think perhaps I was being a perfectionist and that the book was ready. It was really helpful for me to remember that this is just the first book. It’s not the one defining piece of art that I’m ever going to create in my life that will define me as a writer forever - this is just the beginning.
Aside from the writing side of things, the book itself is very aesthetically pleasing! I’m interested in how much input you had with that or whether you worked with a designer?
Thank you! And yes, it was all me. I had a strong idea for how I wanted the book to look and what I wanted it to feel like as an experience for a reader. I always had that image in my mind of the love heart on the tongue and I was like, “okay, where do I find that?!” So yeah, I did all the cover design and typesetting myself. The only thing I got help with was the editing. Other than that, it was all my vision which was very cool and rewarding to do. That’s one of the things I love about self-publishing - creative control is maybe the wrong word, but definitely the creative freedom to follow your vision for your work.
I liked how Jemimah Halbert Brewster described All Summer Long as “an excellent example of the power and importance of the novella.” They’re absolutely right! Did you start out intending to write a novella, and what place do you think novellas hold in the Australian literary scene?
It honestly started as a 2000 word, half-monologue style story, and I had no idea what form it would take, but I knew the exact story I was telling. Even while writing it, I kept reminding myself to not worry too much about the finished product but to just tell the story that needed to be told. Once it was complete, it landed at that word count, and I had no idea what that was! I found myself Googling “how long is a novella” and decided, yup, we’re going to call this a novella, and if someone disagrees, then that’s just marketing. Aside from that, I knew I wanted the story to feel a certain way, like one of those ships in a bottle, very of a specific time and place where you rush into this world and then get ejected back out. The shorter form of the novella lends itself well to that.
I also wanted to write something that would appeal to people who aren’t necessarily ‘readers’ because it’s so short and consumable. I love how novellas force you to distil the story down to its essence; you can get rid of all the fluff around it and stop worrying that it has to be X words long; you can just let the story be what it is. When you’re writing any story, you just have to let it be as long as it needs to be and let it land where it lands.
All Summer Long is highly evocative of how wild love, passion and lust can be, but I also felt there was a strong message around how women often take the faults and failure of love as all their own. I think lots of women would identify with Olivia feeling like she’s “too much”. How much of this do you believe to be down to individual experiences versus the patriarchal narratives women exist within?
It’s always interesting how much of your psyche comes out when you’re writing. Even when you’re supposed to be writing fiction, it’s like, “hmm, okay, I’m definitely working through some stuff here! I thought that was just between my therapist and me!” It’s something I reflected on a lot as I was writing and going through the process, and recognising how Olivia feels is how I’ve also felt many times over. It reminds me of the monologue from Gone Girl that she does about playing the role of the cool girl, how she’s chill but she’s interested, she’s seductive but demure - all these perfect lines between these various dichotomies. That’s something I’ve strongly identified with in the past, this playing the role of the ‘cool girl’, and that comes out for Olivia, how she thinks it’s a crime to be ‘too much’ or emotionally intense, and how this is a shameful thing. It’s deeply personal but also something reflective of these thinly-veiled misogynies that exist in our lives. It’s really interesting that that came out. I like to think that by the end of the book Olivia arrives at a place where I’ve arrived at in my life, which is not so much that we are too much but that these men are not enough.
We have a strong readership of budding authors. Do you have any advice you’d share with others just getting started on their own writing journeys?
I think a lot of my writing advice is not really writing advice, in a way. My main piece of advice is just to spend a lot of time living. It was vital for me to spend many years working different jobs, falling in love and out of love, seeing the world, and generally having experiences and drawing inspiration from that. I think it’s so important to spend your time living and letting life happen to you, waiting for when you’re ready and have something to say - a story to tell. I don’t believe in spending a lot of time setting rules for yourself; I don’t think it’s necessary to write X number of words per day or take that whole business approach to writing. I’ve found it works for me to be open to writing whenever and wherever it comes to me. It’s also fine to spend time not writing at all!
Spend time consuming other art forms, listen to music, watch movies, go to art galleries and other hobbies that have nothing to do with writing - let other things influence you outside of writing.
I’ve seen on your Instagram account that you're in the process of writing your next draft! Can you share a little with us on what you’re working on?
It’s definitely going to be memoir but not necessarily a chronological, classic memoir where it all flows from one event to the next. I think it will be more of a collection of vignettes and snapshots - a lot more raw and personal. It’ll be a bit more of a journey and that process of coming through your twenties, perhaps where we leave Olivia at the end of All Summer Long; I see this collection of writing as taking off from that point and focusing on that journey of self-discovery and finding yourself.
And finally - I would love to know! - will Olivia and Miles be making any more appearances in the future, or do you feel their story is finalised in your mind?
Great question! I do feel like that story in that time period is very much complete for me. It took me a long time to get to a place where I felt that story could be what it was and to tell it, so I do feel like that is done. But I would love to revisit them perhaps years down the line, maybe they reconnect or something like that. I wouldn’t mind doing it in a short-film form. It might not even be Olivia and Miles, but I would definitely like to tell that story of how past lovers reconnect - I think there’s a lot there to work with! So, who knows, maybe one day.
Amelia Joy is a memoir and fiction writer. Her work has appeared in Dubnium, Farrago, MZ and Reed Magazine. She grew up in Adelaide, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English, before making Melbourne her home. In 2021, she independently released her debut novella, All Summer Long. She is currently studying a Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing and working on her second book, a memoir collection.
IG: @lorexlunar T: @lorexlunar
Web: www.loreandlunar.com
Elaine Mead is a freelance writer and book reviewer, currently residing in nipaluna (Hobart), Tasmania. She is passionate about the ways we can use literature to learn from our experiences to become more authentic versions of ourselves and obsessed with showing you photos of her Dachshund puppy. You can find her online under www.wordswithelaine.com.
