Write a First Novel Inspired by Your Own Story with María Alejandra Barrios Vélez

Q&A with María Alejandra Barrios Vélez

• How long did it take you to write your book? Because I know there’s a physical part of actually writing it, but also there’s a mental part of thinking about it and fleshing out your story, so how long did that take combined?
• Yeah, that’s a great question. Before I was writing my book, I was writing a lot of short stories. I think I’m primarily a short story writer. And I was just writing, writing a lot. And then the pandemic hit, and before I knew that the pandemic was coming, I had enrolled myself in a year-long class to write a novel. And the reason why I did it was because I was scared. I was like, I don’t know if I can write a novel by myself and like, just hold myself accountable. And all of this to say is that that was like a year-long process, and I wrote the first draft in around, six months? Seven months. I don’t know if it was any other months, if it was any other year, if it wasn’t a pandemic, if I would have written it that fast. But I think there was like an urgency there, with my abuela passing, or about to pass away,  during that time. It just kind of felt like I needed to get the story out. That was the first draft, though. And after that, there were probably 10 or 12 revisions after that, if not more. I stopped counting because I was like, “It’s too much.” But yeah, that first process was like, around six months and then two years, give or take, for revisions. 
• Is there a certain part of the book that you’re extremely or really attached to, like a part that when you read it back, you’re like, “Yeah, I did that?”
• That’s a great question. So this part I read, I mean, I love it. And one of the reasons why I love it is because it was the first scene of the book that came to me. I was just like in a coffee shop in Kingston, which I had never been to before, and I sat down and opened my computer, and it was the weirdest thing, I just started writing this scene and it made it through so many revisions of this book. This book changed so much, and this scene stayed, and there was like a point where my editor, who I really like, was like, “Do we need that scene?” I was like, “Yes, we need it and no one can touch it.” So yeah, that scene I’m very attached to. And I think a lot of the scenes with the ghost, because I think that was like a conversation that I was having with myself a lot. Writing this book was, how did I want the ghost to materialize? Like I wanted the ghost to be a character that was just as important as any other living character. Like, I wanted the ghost to have, like, thoughts and feelings and opinions, and my character is like a grandmother, so she was very opinionated ghost. So I was just, you know, very proud of those conversations that my character has with the ghost as well.
• I’m curious if there are any resources that you can recommend. Like, authors that you looked up to. books or podcasts or videos or whatever that helped you through your process?
• Oh, my God, absolutely. So, that helped me through my process… I always mention Kweli, an organization that is New York-based for writers of color. They have fellowships. I don’t know if they’re open right now, but they open a few times a year. They have fellowships, they have two conferences: they have one for writing for children, and then they have one, writing for adults. And they are so generous with all the fellowships,like they’re always fellowships for the conference. And there are amazing writers that attend like Victor LaValle. Always, like, the line-up is incredible. What else? In terms of podcasts, there is one that I find very useful. It does have a swear word in the title. Okay, that’s fine? It’s called The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, and that one is very useful because it talks more about—which we can talk about more— about the industry side of things. So like agents and getting a book deal, all of those things. So that one is very useful. I also really like to listen to craft talks. So for example, whenever I read a book that I really like, I, as soon as I finish it, or even if I don’t like it that much, just as soon as I finish it, I go to Spotify or whatever, Apple Podcasts, and I just type the name of the writer and then listen to the process and how that was. I’ll keep thinking if I come up with more. If anyone has any questions or wants to come back to this question like “Maria, you said that you have more resources!” Please email me and I’ll give you a more detailed response. The first name? Kweli. It’s amazing. Oh, and they also publish short stories and poetry, and they pay, which is nice.
• I’m curious about your process for choosing a title, because I know that’s very important to your story. And I know that you mentioned that the title changed originally, So I was just curious about that process. And what made you choose that decision? 
• Okay, so that’s actually a great question. My title changed, like, five times. So, first it was called A Cilantro Wedding Bouquet, which is a mouthful. I’m happy that it changed. But it had a special meaning in the story. And then when we went on sub— sub is when your agent takes the book to publishers— my agent was like, “I don’t know about that title. Let’s change it.” So we changed it. And then an editor that was interested in the book was like, I don’t know about this title. So we talked to the editor and it had another title temporarily. And then finally my editor ought the book. But when we were in negotiations, one of the first things she told me is, “I’m going to buy the book, but this title is going to change.” I was like, Cool. So we decided on the title together, actually. We went on a bunch of rounds of, like, looking for sentences in the book, or coming up with different words that were associated with the book, and just came up with a bunch. And then landed on The Waves Take You Home, which I love. But yes, there is something about publishing that I feel like maybe people don’t talk about a lot, is that titles change a lot. Sometimes you can’t get too attached to your title because, you know. But I mean, I’m sure some people get to keep it, but I’m happy with mine.  
• Two questions: How did you find your editor, and what was the most discouraging part during this process? And how did you work through it?
• That’s a great question. So I finished my novel in 2020. And then in 2021, I spent the first six months revising it on my own, and it was so hard because I had never written a novel before. So I just had this, like, 80-something thousand manuscript, that, at the time, looked insanely long. I was so overwhelmed. And I kept, like, changing things around and moving commas, and just being like, “What am I even doing?” Like at that time, I was just like, “I’m just going to write another book. That’s going to be easier than just revising this.” But during that time, during the summer, I read an excerpt of the novel in a podcast,  and an agent contacted me and she was like, “I love what you read. Do you have more?”  I was like, “Yes, but I don’t know. It’s the shape, it’s not working so well.” So I kept talking to her, and I revised it once more, now with the incentive that I had someone that potentially was interested and I signed with her. So that is kind of like an unorthodox way of getting an agent, because usually you query, and, you know, it could be a process that varies for some people. They query ten, and they get it in a month. For some people it might take longer. But I got my agent that way. I got a great feeling and it was great, I’m very happy about that decision. And then after that, we went on sub. So basically, what agents do is they make a list of editors from the Big 5, from different publishers. So they’ll contact Penguin, Hachette, etc., etc., and editors from those houses, and then they’ll say like, “Yay, I want to buy it!” or “No!” So obviously that process is, especially for a first-timer like me, was very, well, it’s a lot! Because you go through all the feelings like, “Oh!” and it’s like a rush when editors are like, “I’m reading and I’m loving it!” You’re like, “Yay, this is going to happen!” And then the next day they’re like, “No.” But yeah, so my editor—who became my editor, read it and really liked it, and she offered. So basically, my agent contacted her. Yeah, that was it.
• How did you decide which language to write the story in? 
• Oh, that’s a great question. I was living at the time—Well, I live in the US, and at the time, I was wondering about that question a lot. Truthfully, it has a little bit to do with what I was reading in the talk. I wanted to start building a life here. And, you know, I had a dream and I was like, “Okay, I’m here. Let’s try and write this in English.” Which, honestly, it was very hard and very nerve-wracking to write a novel in a second language. But I’m glad I did it.
• What were the biggest lessons learned transitioning from flash/short fiction to a full-length novel?
• Well, that’s a great question. I think the biggest lesson is, it’s just to use your toolbox that you use in your short stories, and take it into your novel like, don’t think that maybe it’s like a different thing, a different part of your brain. Or this goes for the poets: people always say, like, poets are the best novelists, which I agree, and it’s because they use their—especially the way that they see language and they structure it, which is so beautiful and different, and they put it into the novel. So I think that’s the same for flash, where flash, for those of you who don’t know, is basically a story that’s under a thousand words, so very short stories. And so you have to be very precise with language. So I think, just like using all the lessons that I have from Flash about being very precise, thinking a lot about story structure, and having it very present, and just like putting it into my novel and not being afraid of that.