19 Dec 2023

Interview With Elodie Lauret Journey Of An Aspiring Author

Elodie Lauret is part of this new generation of authors who juggles daily writing, online community and self-publishing. She is one of the initiators in France of the "vlogcast", a sort of podcast/daily diary in which she takes her audience throughout the process of writing and publishing her first novel. This year, she gained significant visibility on YouTube and Instagram in the sphere of “digital writers”, those who build engaged communities through posts on social networks and writing assistance videos. 

But, Elodie Lauret wears multiple hats. Aspiring author yes, but also writing workshop facilitator and trainer. Her guideline remains the one she had already set for herself as a teenager: to make a living from writing and to immerse herself professionally in this world, deemed closed.

What has been your writing journey so far?

Originally from Reunion Island, I have always written a lot. For as long as I can remember, my career choices have been made based on writing and this desire to make a living from writing. I wanted to dedicate the majority of my time to it but, at the start of my higher studies, masters in creative writing in France did not yet exist or were only just starting. 

So, I headed for a degree in philosophy then a year in England, a year off as a French assistant. For this year abroad, I had one main objective: to use all my free time to write.  

I took the opportunity to write my first manuscript. I needed to explore at the time, to write a lot without necessarily applying writing methods. However, I was already reading articles on how to write better, notably the blog “writing a novel”. The main thing was started, I was practicing. 

Back from England, I applied for the first master's degree in creative writing at the University of Toulouse. I couldn’t see myself committing to studies that wouldn’t allow me to write. 

After six years spent in mainland France, Elodie chose to return to Reunion, her island of origin, although aware that the cultural and literary dynamic would be less than in large cities like Toulouse or Paris. 

But the whole point was there too: being able to help promote reading and writing in Réunion and bringing in her luggage everything she had learned during her studies. 

My first project was to participate in a call for projects organized by the language learning application Duolingo. I worked with them for five months on launching a podcast. To be able to carry out this project, I had to create my micro-enterprise. Coincidentally, just after finishing this collaboration, the media library in the neighboring town contacted me to offer to organize writing workshops. I was also able to carry out civic service with children around writing. Everything fell into place, despite significant constraints such as the lack of public transport and the fact that I live in the countryside. 

With these projects launched in 2019, Elodie chose to professionalize at the beginning of 2020.

The challenge was to organize my schedule, to be able to balance it between writing, blog, podcast, and management of my accounts on social networks. Above all, it was about being able to benefit from everything I did and the content I made available. We had to find the right balance, so that it was win-win for the audience but also for me. 

So he came up with the idea of ​​creating an account Patreon and organizing online workshops for his community there. growing. 

This was consistent with a conviction I had that it is necessary to move from theory to practice because, if you do not write, it is impossible to progress, regardless of the number of tips you take. we can read. Patreon is the advantage of creating a caring, engaged community with which we can co-build.

Elodie was able to question her community, particularly on the themes of her first online workshops, organized at the beginning of 2020. 

In my professionalization process, there were three pillars. One, release my first book “Le Chronophage” as soon as possible, two, organize my first writing workshops, and three, start my podcast “The writing laboratory”. 

It was also through the latter that I discovered Elodie Lauret, by listening to her almost daily podcast. Audio vlog of her life as an aspiring writer, following day after day the process of creating her first self-published novel. I appreciated her authenticity, her spontaneity, the daily reality of an author who oscillates between discouragement, enthusiasm, the serenity of morning writing sessions and accumulated fatigue. 

How do you view the profession of author?

Generally speaking, authors have difficulty seeing their works as work deserving salary, compensation, or income. Between authors and marketing, the general public often struggles to reconcile the two in their minds. We tend to imagine authors, writers, designers, as “pure” beings whose only need is to create, to give their vision of the world, to entertain or to provoke. Under no circumstances should they “stoop” to marketing, to promoting their work, to adopting a commercial and communication approach for their works. 

According to Elodie, the authors themselves also have difficulty reconciling the two. Marketing makes it possible for an author to bridge the gap between the private and public spheres, to pass the work from one to the other and promote his work to an audience. 

To find your audience, you must use suitable tools. I went through this process myself. 

Previously, I could associate marketing with sales, linked to deception, something negative. But, now, I am convinced that marketing is a tool for authors, which we can decide to do in a useful way, without it being misleading or harmful. 

Elodie rightly points out that when an author is published by a publishing house, it is the latter which is responsible for promoting, “marketing” their work. The author is then more at a distance but the same mechanism takes place. This marketing work becomes all the more visible, concrete and above all necessary when one engages in self- editing. 

These subjects are fully part of the current debate on the status of authors. Fragile, precarious, this status highlights today an undervaluation of this role of author, of creator, both through remuneration and the protection of their situation, particularly on retirement issues. Joann Sfar or even Samantha Bailly are among the most visible committed authors in this battle that the Racine report has not yet made it possible to win. 

How can one become an author today and what place should training in literary writing play?

For Elodie, training is not essential. A large number of authors have been able to do without it in the past but it can be a very good springboard and provide good keys, practical tools. However, this should not be a crutch.

For her, it is therefore a question of not taking a lack of training as an “excuse” to justify a lack of progress, at least in production, in writing. 

We must not think “I cannot write because I have not followed this or that training or because I do not have a university course”. 

Elodie is convinced that you can acquire your knowledge as an author alone. Herself a trainer in the writing workshops she organizes, Elodie nevertheless highlights the risks of a “fad” or trend in writing training. 

This may reinforce the bad trend in France of already being ultra-focused on diplomas. In writing everything can be learned and above all, what counts is practice. 

Rightly, she argues that becoming an author is never a linear journey, it is above all a question of experimentation, of testing, of trying, of doing the things and not just reading advice online or attending master classes. ‍

In practice, Elodie Lauret argues that the short story remains one of the best experimental laboratories for budding writers, particularly through competitions. I can only agree with him because I joined Brandon & company after winning their short story competition in the “Novel” category.