When The Reader Becomes The Author: Whitney Estenson
Readers may think the author is in control of their story, but Whitney Estenson knows better. When writing the first book in her award-winning Ascendant book series, she quickly found out her characters should lead the charge.
“As soon as I tried to just follow the characters, it went so much quicker and the story was better,” said Estenson. “Once I let go, it became very obvious that it was the right way to go.”
A middle school English teacher and avid young adult fiction fan, Estenson always considered herself a reader not a writer. But the idea of writing a book crept in, and one day, she decided to go for it.
“It just came from being such a fan of books and loving to read so much,” she said. “I wanted to make a world I would love to be a part of.”
Estenson has four books: House of Aries, House of Taurus, House of Libra and House of Scorpio. Her series is part of the young adult genre she loves while also delving into the world of fantasy.
FINDING HER PROCESS
Just like she tells her students to do in class, Estenson started with brainstorming. Three months of it. Wanting to somehow tie her story to the zodiac symbols, she began digging into mythology. When the ancient stories aligned with her own ideas, things started to come together.
“The best fantasy novels are the ones that are relatively possible,” Estenson said. “When I would have an idea, and then the mythology or history would back me up, those were pretty exciting moments.”
After her idea took traction, Estenson set out to write. She tried different approaches after researching how other authors approach writing. First, she tried planning out each chapter. That didn’t work. Then she tried writing scenes out of order to focus on the big moments of the plot. That didn’t work either.
“I found myself arguing with my characters,” she said. “I was trying to force them to get to a scene that I already wrote that just didn’t make sense.”
Estenson eventually found her groove by creating major checkpoints for her characters to get to, then letting them take it from there. With her protagonist sat the wheel, Estenson said sometimes she ended up in a place she didn’t expect.
“Sometimes even I’m surprised by the route we took to get to a certain checkpoint,” she said.
OPPORTUNITIES FROM THECLASSROOM
It took two years to write the first book. Estenson’s students played a hand in adding ideas to the book through an in-class exercise where Estenson gave them pieces of her draft to edit. That assignment helped her land a publisher. During a parent-teacher conference ,one of her student’s mothers talked to Estenson about her own book. A fellow author herself, she introduced Estenson to Flint Hills Publishing, a boutique publisher in Topeka. Once Estenson signed on with Flint Hills Publishing, she worked with an editor to get the book ready for publication in under a year. Just as her students find feedback challenging, Estenson said she too struggled with it at first. But eventually, she came to enjoy the process.
“I liked the challenge of it,” she said. “If I can’t justify why something should be in the book, then it shouldn’t be there.”
Just a few months after the release of House of Aries, Estenson went back to her laptop to start the next book. That’s when she started to really have fun.
“Middle books were easier. You don’t have to introduce the world or solve all of your problems,” she said. “You get to go full tilt from start to finish and walkaway.”
AUTHOR AND MARKETER
Working with a smaller publisher, Estenson had a large role to play, including designing the covers and helping to get the word out through local events and social media. She promoted her books at Topeka’s First Friday book festival and speaking to local school districts. She also invested in paid ads on Facebook and running promotions on Amazon. Once her book is released on Amazon and on her website, the ascendantseries.com, the next—and most nerve-wracking step is seeing how it goes over.
“It’s a very vulnerable thing to puta book out there,” she said. “You spend countless hours, months and years of your life writing it, then you just hope others like it.”
And others did like it. When Estenson submitted her books to the Reader’s Choice annual book contest, she received a silver medal, symbolizing that her books were a favorite among the readers.
“I’ve been lucky that they’ve been well received by people,” she said. “It brings me joy to know my books are out there for others to read.”
