Welcome, Listeners

Evergreen Intro: Hey writer friends and listeners. Thank you so much for joining me today on the Nonfiction is my Lane Podcast—where a community of writers and authors come together for a literary chit-chat on their journey to finding their secret sauce in the nonfiction space. We’ll also chat about the steps they’ve taken in their pursuit of becoming writers of this genre. As well as sharing the ins and outs, ups and downs, highs and lows of how creating systems, processes and workflows has kept it all running.

Welcome to episode #3: Sister-Sister w/sisters Chyrel J. Jackson & Lyris D. Wallace on the Nonfiction is my Lane Podcast, I’m your host, Latrice Fowler.

This is Latrice Fowler with the Nonfiction is my Lane podcast. And I want to welcome my newest guest to the podcast, Chyrel Jackson and Lyris Wallace. Welcome ladies.

Thank you for having us.

Yes, so my first question for you ladies ... is, I'd like for you to tell our listeners who you are and a little bit about you and your family life and where you are in the world.

My name is Chyrel Jackson, and I'm one of the authors of "Different Sides of the Same Coin." It's a book of poems that we self-published, and we're new authors. And I am in Mississippi, but I am from the windy city.

And I'm Lyris Wallace. Cheryl and I are actually sisters, and I co-authored the book, "Different Sides of the Same Coin." And I am located in the windy city, I'm in Chicago, Illinois right now.

Awesome. I appreciate that. So, let's dive in a little deeper and chat about your writing life and how that all got started.

Okay. I always shared my writing with friends and my best friend, which is my sister, who I wrote this book with. So, she's always been a fan. And, um, I so greatly love her for that reason, but I was very public about my writing. And my sister Lyris, was kind of quiet about it. She journaled for years, but she was more like the secret journaler. She didn't share her work. So, I was very surprised to find that not only was she a great writer, she's really my favorite writer, but she never breathed a word that she wrote. That she had an interest in writing. But I probably should have guessed because she was a journalism major.

I was writing all the time, but I wasn't writing poems. I was writing movies, movie scripts and stuff like that. Short stories and stuff like that. I didn't really venture into poetry until, uh, uh, later, uh, in my life when I felt like I had to get to understand myself. So, I started a journal, um, trying to understand why things were happening in my life, that was happening. And when I went back to read some of the entries, they sorta had a rhythm and I was like, Oh, I like that. So, I kept writing in that rhythm and they just kind of turned into poems. And then when I finally did let Chyrel read one, she was like, oh, we should do a book. And it was like one Thanksgiving we were talking about wanting to do a book. And the very next Thanksgiving we were showing the book. So, it kinda went, kinda fast.

So Chyrel, you mentioned that you were more so public with your writing and you wanted to showcase your work and publish your work. Was that your initial thought process? Did you always want to be a published author?

It really was, but Latrice, let me kind of just do a little bit of a background, really briefly, really quick. Lyris and I grew up in a predominantly Caucasian suburb at a time where little black families didn't move their whole entire family of four children into a predominantly Caucasian suburb. So, we didn't really outside of our family and the 6 o'clock dinner hour at the dinner table with your immediate family, seeing black people. And on family reunions where we'd go out of town for those. We didn't have interaction with other black people. The interaction we had was with kids that didn't look like us. So, when we went to college and we just crave to have something more than that experience.

So, when we went to college, in the college years, it was like a literary spiritual awakening of sorts because for the first time in our lives as 18- and 19-year-old girls. We were exposed to English literature that had people speaking like we did and speaking to the matters that were important to our lives. So, we were reading, James Baldwin, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni. And we were just having this like literary explosion. We just couldn't believe what we were reading. And that was our introduction to ... I don't even want to say self-awareness as much as it was our love for literature, black literature. And that kind of how everything started because we saw ourselves in books and we saw ourselves on the cover of books and we needed that. We needed to have that.

That's awesome. Yeah, we do need that. And I wanted to kind of share something to that, as you kind of opened the door for this. I didn't grow up reading literature. In fact, I hated to read. I was always one of those kids that, you know, mom would say, "if you're bored, go read a book," that just wasn't me. So, until I was an adult, then of course, you know, that that change, but shamefully, I purposely kept myself from reading works from, you know, your Toni Morrisons or your James Baldwins. Cause I was just scared of understanding our paths. And that's really heartbreaking to admit because I am a black woman, and I didn't take the initiative to learn about our black culture. It all came down to fear, you know, of what I may uncover and until I became an adult. So, I can understand what that shock could ... that initial shock could have been for you too, when you were in college, you know. To see that there were people who looked like us that were writing these works of art and sharing our history. So yeah. Thank you for sharing your backstory story.

That kinda is Lyris's story. So Lyris, you kind of wanna tell Latrice about that?

Well, I grew up, uh, I didn't like to read either, but it was, um, it, it was sort of different. It was like when my parents brought us books, and both our parents love books. So that was a big thing in our house, books. But when they brought us books, uh, Chyrel and I ... it's like we grew up as twins and not just sisters. Because everything they brought us, we had to share it, and Chyrel was good at everything. And I wasn't, and I didn't like reading because we would read books and I don't know why we did that. It wasn't like they told us to do that, but we would always read the book together. So, we'd be reading a book, and Chyrel would finish like 10 minutes before I would. And she'd just be sitting there, you know. And I was like, man, you know, that would make me feel so bad. So, I hated to read, I just hated reading. And then when I got in high school and I was reading Edgar Allen, Charles Dickens, and Shakespeare and all that. I was like, this has nothing to do with me. And I, and then I hated it even more. Because they made us take literature classes, but it wasn't black literature.

So, when I got to college and I said, okay, I'm going to be a journalist major. But I was like, how could you be a journalism major, and you hate to read? So, what I did was I ended up taking like 5 literature courses at the same time. So, it was 5 different literature. I had Shakespeare, I had black literature, I had a regular literature course. Then I had like a religious literature class. I had like 5 different ones, because I knew it would force me to read. And when I stepped into that literature class and the first book, I read was Wallace Thurman's "The Blacker Berry." And I read that book and then we went off to Zora Neale Hurston. Then we went on to Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, James Baldwin ... and I was, my mind was absolutely blown. I mean, I couldn't believe it.

I thought this was the best thing I had ever read. And then I just became, like I just needed more and more and more and more. And it was just, it was amazing because then once I got into Wallace Thurman and Nikki Giovanni and James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison. I could go back and appreciate Jane Austin and Emily Bronte and, uh, Edgar Allen Poe. We actually grew up with Edgar Allen Poe because our brother would actually read Edgar Allen Poe to us as bedtime stories. But I couldn't appreciate that until I read James Baldwin. Then I really loved Jane Austin. And she's one of my favorite authors. I have like everything she ever wrote. I can appreciate that now, but then I couldn't appreciate it. Cause I couldn't, I couldn't relate to it.

So, you said that you grew up in a predominantly Caucasian suburb. What type of college did you two attended to be exposed to all of that richness in our heritage? What kind of college did you go to?

I went to Paul University. This is Cheryl. And my sister went to a performing arts college.

I went to Columbia college.

It's interesting to me that we aren't exposed to things like that in high school. And it's just a wonder when you do go to college and then that information is available, and I think that's wonderful. But then at the same time, it's not because of the other kids that don't choose to attend college, then they can't be exposed unless of course, you know, they do the research for themselves. Uh, and, and then it was kind of exciting how you two found the same thing initially, but then in different ways and while on different paths.

Exactly. I kind of had an inkling though when I was 19 and I walked into my literature course and Dr. O'Brien had a special guest that day. And so, I walk in there and here's this really regal man sitting in a chair with his legs crossed and his name was James Baldwin. So, for me after meeting him. There's just no way possible that I didn't want to at least attempt to try to start writing or have my voice heard. As a way of activism talking about our social issues in the same kind of way, mirroring him.

You both kind of touched on what type of body of work that you have written in the book that you have published already. But if you want to, we can dive a little deeper with, you know, what's your angle? What's your point of view or your underlining message, if you will, for the body of nonfiction work that you do?

Um, well in this book, we're speaking to young black girls to let them know that, um, you know, they don't have to be or look like anyone else. They don't have to compete with anyone else, whatever they have, whatever, whoever they are, whatever they look like, it is good enough. They are good enough. They don't need more hair. They don't need fake nails. They don't need, you know, eyelashes. Whatever the Lord has blessed them with. They don't need to be a size 10. They don't need to be a 100 pounds. Whatever the Lord has blessed them with it is good enough ... it is more than good enough. And they just need to feel good in that, rest in it and celebrate.

Yeah, take ownership of it. Don't be ... accept it and take ownership of it. We are in such a culture of political correctness and it has to be staunch this way. You have to do it that way. Until we have just become, you know, they want you ... you have to speak a certain way. You have to look a certain way, but if your hair isn't long, you don't have to put a weave in it unless you want to put a weave in, but your natural hair is good enough. You don't have to be ashamed of your body. If you're not a size zero, and you're a size 18 or 20, that's good enough. Whatever you are at this moment that you find yourself. If you make peace with that, it's enough, except it, is good enough because God doesn't make a mistake. That is what our message is.

I really commend your message. And I hope that there are so many young girls out there that will be exposed to your word ...

... and young boys too Latrice ... and young boys. Because we are not, I, we have a lot of content in there for young men.

Awesome!

It's basically a celebration of culture, history, families, sisterhood. It is a celebration of sisterhood. We celebrate young black boys. We celebrate black women because we are one. It's a lens from black women. And so that's kind of a lens that we view the world. But like you Latrice, we were choking on being separated from that culture. Because everybody in our world didn't look like us. We were forced to speak a certain way. We were forced to look a certain way. By the time we were 18 and 19 and moving around in the world on our own, we were, we just, we just had a thirst, and we had a desire to seek out. We got our first apartment in the inner city because we wanted to be around our people in experience our own heritage and our own culture. So that's what our book is. We wrote a book the way we see the world.

And keep in mind also, going back to the way we were raised. Our father was very protective of us. Like we only went into the city on the weekends to see our grandmother. And our grandmother lived on the West side of Chicago. And, uh, it wasn't the best neighborhood. So, she would only let us out on the front porch. So, we didn't know what it was like. I mean, we thought that the city was so far away from us. We had no idea that we only live like 30 minutes outside of Chicago, because our dad never let us go anywhere. And it wasn't until I got into college, that we could really explore and see things for ourselves. Then we got exposed to the city because my ... the college that I went to is right in the downtown area and exposed me to everything. So, when I had my son, I wanted to make sure that he didn't have the experience that I had.

Additional Latrice, you kind of touched on something and I kind of wanted to go back around and just kind of pull that out a little bit. We ... it's not like we are anti anybody. That's, that's not, that's not who we are as people. But we just ... we ... we have come to find in our lifetime because we've sought out this connection with heritage and culture. People want to shame. It makes me think that black or being an African American is less than or that you somehow aren't good enough. And a turn down your ethnicity, turn down your ethics. What we have found out is black women is no, no, no, no, no. We should not have to turn down our blackness so that you can feel more of something that you think you are. And so, we speak and our messages are to a great extent.

I agree with you because if we don't put our work out there for the little black boys and little black girls to be exposed to. Because no one else is going to tell them that, you know, they're great or that they're strong or that they come from kings and queens. And they won't know that because you know, other people are taught to help suppress that in us because you know, that's what they've been taught too. So, I commend you for sharing that.

Okay, walk our aspiring writers that may be listening to this podcast, through the process of how you two wrote and published your book of poetry. What did that process?

Well, it was very, uh, it was very organic actually, because we have a compilation of 20 years of writing. And so, because Lyris journaled, and I journaled. It was easy and we had all of this stuff saved. It was easy for us to go back in pull out writings, literally that were that old and put them inside of a book. Now, part of the driving force of that was my dad got sick and he wanted to see our work kind of all-in-one book.

So, it made it easier for us to pull all that stuff together and, um, for him so that he could have it before he passed away. And so, it wasn't a hard process because like I said, some writers lose a great deal of their content because they're just not careful with how they save it or where they put it. But Lyris and I were very particular about keeping, you know, um, our work intact. And so, it was just a matter of literally just pulling that word down and putting it in one file and we had a book. So, it wasn't um, painstaking as it probably will be for anybody else who didn't have 20 years’ worth of writing.

And the concept of the book was really easy because we knew that we wanted to pay tribute to, um, the culture, black culture. So, my sister used a lot of phrases and a lot of, um, things from black culture, right as are, uh, leading into our cap. Cause we wanted to pay homage to who we are and our ancestors and just the whole culture. So that in itself, wasn't hard to come up with because like I said, we, we had been so inspired by James Baldwin and, and people like that. We just wanted to pay tribute to them. So, we, we use a lot of, um, uh, even, you know, singers. I think it's a chapter in there after a Stevie Wonder song, you know, just honoring black culture, bringing it all together.

Right. And so, music that's, you know, that's the soundtrack of everybody's life. So, it was easy to go and pull different things. My mother was a big advocate. She loved Negro slave spirituals. So, we have a lot of those. We just like my sister just said. We pretty much really wanted this to be an authentic salute and a tribute... celebration ... celebration to a heritage, culture and history ... black history. And so, this is what this book of poems is.

With a new project that you're working on. What does that process as a writer look like? And how are you incorporating that ... the writing into your personal and family routines?

This second book is ... it came rather easy too, because like my sister was saying earlier. Uh, we were dealing with the passing of our father who was a very, um, he was really dominant in our lives. So, uh, the second book of poetry is really kind of dedicated to him. Like the chapters in the second book are tributes to the music that we grew up listening to in his base. He listened to the blues. So, a lot of our chapters, all of our chapters start with like blue songs. And a lot of our poems is dealing with the relationship we had with our father. So, it's not really a, like a process or anything. It's just something, um, that we thought, well, it wouldn't even feel like it was necessary. It's just something that was automatic because having a father for 85 years and then to suddenly not have this force in your life, that's a big pain.

So, we wrote about that and also, you know, just life itself, um, you know, current events made us, write. And you'll see a lot of that in the book too. You know, the things that we were dealing with, like everybody else was dealing with.

Seeing, you know, social conditions sometimes are great catalysts for writing. And so, because we're like everybody else in this pandemic. We're in the house and the TV is on and you're watching a black man being just, somebody is suffocating, choking this man ... with a knee on this man's neck. So that sparks ... that sparks you to write. That motivates you to write. You feel, you feel like you have to write about that. So, you know, everything ... life as we're living it. That is the biggest motivating catalysts and process of everything that we do. It's not just sitting around writing pretty words. We love language, but if we can link that and tie that in together with our experience as black women, you know, you have a black son, you're terrified, it's taking a breath and praying every time he leaves the house. Cause you want him to come back home.

So, we're write about that stuff. That's the lens that we write through. And that's what our process is. It's just living and ... the human experience that we all share is, you know, hopefully these are universal, diverse enough subjects. But those are the types of things Latrice that we're writing about. And that's kind of, I hope that isn't a flippant response to you about our process, but it's very simple. It's not really hard or long and drawn out. Whatever kind of motivates you to pull inside yourself and figure out how you want, how you see the world. And you feel that you have something to say about it. That, that is the bigger process for us.

Now, are you on some sort of writing routine? Do you have a writing routine? Are you writing in the mornings or after a full-time job or are you writing whenever the feeling strikes?

Latrice, my sister can speak more to this, because I'm more ... I'm ... I just, uh, ... we're both emotional and we're contemporary writers of literature. So, we both love language and that will speak, you know, of itself. But because I do love language and just writing. I write all the time. My sister has to really, really be motivated and inspired. So, she's not writing like that. She's writing only when she's really inspired by something.

Yeah, something has to really be on my mind. Um, for me to write ... my sister is amazing. She can, she can say, okay, today I'm going to write 4 poems. I'm going to sit in from of my computer and I'm going to write 4 poems. And bam she writes 4 poems. I, on the other hand, if I'm not feeling it, I can't write it. And if I try to force it, it seems like the weakest force stuff I ever came up with. So, you know, when I'm feeling it, you can, I think the reader can tell when I'm really into it. And when I'm not into a they can tell that too. But I write out of emotion. Especially out of emotions ... especially, you know, like my sister was saying, you know, uh, sitting there seeing a black man telling you he can't breathe. Of course, I had to write it. Now thing is, I don't write it as I'm seeing it. I have to process it, you know, and then when I processed it, then I'll write. But my, my, my sister is amazing. And she just says, you know, I'm going to sit down and I'm gonna write 4 poems today. She can do it. That's not me.

So ... the short answer is, there isn't really like ok a set time or this day, we're gonna write this amount. It's really pretty much whatever is motivating us to write. So, Latrice, I don't specifically have a set time of day, whenever I'm inspired. I have a pad and pen at my bedside because I wake up in the middle of the nights and times and stuff, and I have to write it out. [overlapping between both authors]

I do make up a concerted effort. Like, uh, sometimes my sister, sometimes she panics, you know, [inaudible] she's going off. So I'll say, okay, I'll make a concerted effort to see where my mind is. Okay. And I will sit down, and I was, and I will try to come up with a subject, not really a subject, but you know, like something, even if it's just a sentence that I could build off. If I could come up ... most of the time, if I can come up with that first sentence, that first sentence, it will spark everything else. And then sometimes I can write a poem and I can start to poem and I'll get out. Like, you know, I'll get like half a page. And I'm like, what I feel as an author, I say, it's not finished.

So then if I'm, um, I'm struggling with it, I'll put it away and I'll come back. You know, like 3 days later, I'm like, Oh yeah. And then it comes, it comes. Like I said, you can't force it because if you force it as a writer. I think your readers will see or if you're trying too hard, they will think, you know, they will, Oh, they like in some movies, you just feel the manipulation. Instead of just letting it progress and happen, you feel, Oh, they were manipulating me now. They want me to cry at this moment. You could tell in a movie when it's a forced emotion. And I think you can tell in someone's writing when it's a forced kind of thing.

I agree now, you know, Latrice, we're going to kind of switch it up on this third book. And so, I'm afraid because this has come so easily for us. And so natural, because this is really like our wheelhouse of where we're our most comfortable, we're kind of branching out on this third, um, book that we're doing, and this is a family drama. So, we might be, we might have a whole different thing if you talk to us later after that, once that drops. Of what our process is. We'll probably have a whole lot more to tell, but like these first two words it's really, really been, you know, intrinsically easy.

So, with that said with this third project, are you both going to continue as writing duels or do you each have aspirations to write separate projects in the future?

You know, eventually Latrice, we probably will, uh, branch out. But we are so much in tuned with each other and we've been with each other, our whole lives. We think the same. We almost sound the same and we're just better together. And so frankly we know that, and that's why we do all of our books together is because we're, we're a force of nature independently. But when you put us together, it's just like a whole hurricane. So, we're definitely, I think we're, we're definitely better when we write together.

Yeah, we've been together, you know, our whole life. Well, I mean, we literally shared a crib together. So, I … you know, I think, uh, we just feel comfortable that way. And I'm pretty sure, you know ... like I said, I have written, you know, like, uh, screen, uh, scripts for like television shows and movies things that I would love to get out there. And my sister's not a screenwriter. She writes literature. The more comfortable we get with, you know, our projects together, I think we will branch out eventually. But right now, we just feel more comfortable with one another.

Cheryl, did you want to add to that?

No, I was just going to say Lyris was right. You know, he did her show treatments, and you know, all that kind of stuff. Separately, we've written other things. But we do just prefer the literature and writing these projects that we've been working on for whatever reason. We have just ... turned out that way. But we just prefer writing with one enough.

So, let's shuffle back a little bit and talk about how you too structure your projects, working as a duo. Is there a timeline or deadlines put in place that you try and establish? What does that look like?

Latrice, honestly, I've had to learn really that my sister is an artist in the true sense of the word. I'm not going to get anything out of her by cracking a whip or pushing her to do something, because like he said, it's forces and it's not her best. So, I've had to learn to just kind of trust that she will get on board. Now sometimes she drives me to the edge of my sanity because I am ... understand that we have deadlines and things of that nature. So, I can't ... and deadlines won't let you wait for a click or your inspiration to kick in. So, in that regard, but it's also helped me to manage everything else. Then some things you just kind of just have to push off to the last minute. Because you know that you got to give her a little bit more time. And so, because we know each other, and because of that, we have that understanding of each other. I think that's why it works.

But also, Latrice, Chyrel's not telling you ... when Chyrel decided to do this second book. I wasn't on board with it. I didn't want to do another poetry book. Cause I was actually had jumped to the third book. And I was working on the third book and uh, she said, well Lyris just come on and write like 5 poems. And I was like, well, how is that going to look? You know, you have this book of poetry. And then I come in with these little 5 weak poems. I said, it's just not going to go to do right. So, I said, Chyrel, okay, give me until the end of February. And I'm going to try to match what you wrote. But I mean, Chyrel has something like, I don't know, 60 poems or something. And I was like, I can't, I just can't produce like that. I have to feel it.

So, I said, I at least wanted to go into this thing with at least 50 poems. So, I gave myself, I set that, that goal for myself, 50 poems till the end of February, come up with these poems. And, you know Latrice ... I ... ever since college, I found out cause I was a journalism major and I had to do a lot of deadlines and I worked well on pressure. If you give me, you know, like 6 months to do something, to be honest and tell you the truth. I'm not going to crank it out until like the last 2 months. Because I'm under the gun, but I've worked really well like this. Some of my best stuff is under the gun.

I do that too.

I'm sitting here and I'm listening to this, and I just can't ... But Latrice, Chyrel knows that. She knows that about me. I'll give you an example. This is a good story. Chyrel was getting married, and we had been planning this wedding for a year. Okay. And when she found out that I could write poetry, she wanted me to write her a poem for her wedding. And I said, oh, okay, you know. But this was like, you know, a whole year out. She kept saying, "Lyris where's the poem, where's the poem." I said, "oh girl don't worry about it I got it." I hadn't started on it. June comes in and it's like two weeks before Chyrel's wedding. And she said, Lyris, where's the poem? And now keep in mind Latrice.

I'm running around. I'm getting stuff. I'm making arches, um, painting, uh, baskets. You know, I'm doing all this stuff that I'm like, Oh my God, it's 2 weeks before the wedding. So, I'm trying to come up with something. I'm trying to come up with something. Latrice, two days before her wedding, I'm lying-in bed. All of a sudden, it's 3 o'clock in the morning and bam, it hits me, and I just started writing. I couldn't, I couldn't stop writing. I wrote, I wrote. And I read it and Chyrel, and she was like, "Oh my God, it's beautiful!" And I was like, see, don't ever underestimate me because I'm really good under the gun.

You know, sooner or later I just have this feeling that good luck is this going to run out? I'm not, not that person. I can't just do something like that. Wait to the very last minute to do it. It just drives me. I have no ... I'm looking at, I'm looking at you and Latrice, quite honestly. I'm like, what are you talking about?

I got through college like that, Latrice. My whole college career was waiting till the last minute. And I'm telling you, it worked for me.

You know how they give you the syllabus at the beginning of the semester, I didn't care nothing about the syllabus. I waited till the last minute, every time ... and Latrice, every time I got an A on that paper.

And I would be surprised too ... I was like, "I know I'm going to get an F” ... then I'd get it back ... and was like "an A+, what ... what ... okay!?!”

Right, right. And I noticed though, Latrice. But I tried to do the right thing and do it, you know, in a timely manner, I would get a C, C+. I was like, oh no, this is not working. Let me go back to what works.

We're sorry Chyrel!

I just don't understand. I really don't.

I did the same thing when it came to losing weight for her, her, her wedding. She ... I told her, I told her, I said, girl, buy that dress. Chyrel, how many sizes too small did you buy that dress? Cause I think we bought that dress 3 or 4 sizes too small.

Yeah, it was 4 sizes.

Because I told her, I said, don't worry about it Chyrel, I'm a lose weight, for your wedding. And like I said, it was around January. Now the wedding is in June and it was January. And I was sitting at lunch on my, on my job. I was sitting in lunch and I was eating this really good submarine sandwich. And it crossed my mind. I was like, oh my God, what month is this? And I was like, Oh no, it's the end of January. I said oh God I gotta lose weight. I can't get in that dress. Latrice, literally the dress only came up to my ... right above my knee. Seriously, I couldn't get in it any further. Latrice, you should have seen me. I was working out. I was doing stuff I hadn't never done before. But Chyrel, who got in that dress? Not only did I get that dress on. It was too big. It was too big Latrice, and I was 4 months pregnant.

Oh my goodness!

So, I kind of feel like we're a little bit like we're cheating you. Because I kinda feel like, you know, you're waiting to hear this, like this really earth-shattering process. So, you can kind of share these little nuggets of information with your audience.

You have been giving us nuggets. I'm mean, that's the exact things ... to hear different writer's processes whether it is a process or not. You know what I'm saying. So no. This is all valuable information!

If I had to give advice to your audience, if they wanted to write. My thing is, just do it. Just write! Start with that first sentence. When you get that first sentence out. You can build on that first sentence.

And most people think that it's like, it's like, Oh, it's rocket science. Write, what you know! Write what is the most familiar. That you have the most knowledge about. That is what you write about. Don't write about something foreign, that you have to resource. Write where you are. Write what you know.

Yeah, I think that greatest advice we can give though, is just write. Just get that first sentence down and sometimes, you know, write something and you say, oh my God, this is the best stuff I ever wrote. And you go back, you go back to it. And you're like, Oh, this is trash. I cannot tell you how many unfinished screenplays I have. Because I go back and say this is trash.

We're really, we're saying the same thing. And Latrice, I mean, in terms of like Lyris, we kind of did a reverse of each other. Cause she's thinking, Oh, you know, she's overthinking this book that we're writing. We have the material and we're familiar with it. And we know it. And I keep telling her, just write it, write it out, get the story out. You can always go back and say something a little softer or say it a little harder or make it a little bit more light. But she's like, oh it's too dark. [inaudible] And she's like, I haven't stopped writing. And I'm telling her just write it out because we could always go back and change it. So, it's like, our roles are kind of changing with this third project.

No, I get it. I do the same thing. I have to stop myself from editing as I'm writing because I know I can go back and redo it once it's done. I just have to get the first draft done and then go back. But you know, that's still something that I'm working on.

Yeah, that's me ... editing ... micromanaging my writing and you can't do that. Just like Chyrel said, you just got to get the story out. It's great that it's both of us. Because even though we're two sides of the same coin, we do things differently. But because we're so much alike we always meet in the middle, and that's why it's good to have another person.

Well, ladies, I do appreciate you two for hanging out with us today for this author's chit chat. But before we wrap up, tell our listeners where they can find you online?

I have all of our local media handles, but if your audience would access our website, it's called sister, SISTERS, rock, ROC, N as in Nancy, rhyme spelled out, RHYME, sistersrocnrhyme.com. That's our website hit that, and you will have access to everything with social media handles that we have.

Awesome. Now for my last question, and I know you touched on this at the beginning of our conversation, but will you share with us again about your latest book and any other new projects you're working on as well?

Okay. The current project that's available right now @ Amazon and Walmart.com. That's called Different Sides of The Same Coin. The second work in progress that we are working on now. That's called Mirrored Images and that will also be available in both places, Amazon and Walmart, as well.

Alright, ladies, those are all the questions I had. If you have anything else, you want to add before we officially wrap up the floor is yours.

I just wanted to say thank you so much Latrice for having us. It's really been great, and I wish you every success too. Cause I know that you're kind of new with your podcast, but we're very, very appreciative and we had so much fun hanging out.

Yes, we did. Thank you so much for having us.

Yes. And thank you also for being here and coming on to chat with us today.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Episode 1 Outro: That's it guys for episode #3: Sister-Sister on the Nonfiction is my Lane Podcast. I really hope each of you listening enjoyed spending time with me and our new author-friends and sisters, Chyrel J. Jackson & Lyris D. Wallace. We sure did have an amazing time hanging out with you.

Evergreen Outro: Alright writer-friends and listeners. I'm your host, Latrice Fowler, thank you so much for tuning in on today's author chat on the Nonfiction is my Lane Podcast. You can find all the links and author info mentioned in today's show, in the show-notes on nonfictionismylane.com. Before we part ways. Wherever you may be listening, don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. And make sure you leave a comment and rate this show. Your reviews will help this show move up in rank. Helping more writers stay inspired to step out of their comfort zones and create their own writing journeys, processes and workflows. That's all and that's it, thanks again, my friends. I can't wait to hang out next month for the next author chit-chat. See you then!