For AAPI Month, do yourself a favor and ask:Are your Asian parents right and you should have been an accountant, not a writer? FREE Decision Tree: https://www.sophiachang.com/freebie

Madonna. Babs Bunny. Sophia Chang.

The trifecta of reinvention. (In my childhood dreams, at least.)

Kevin Chung from Standout Creatives interviewed me on Substack LIVE and this is Part 1: my origin story about reinvention as a survival mechanism.

Find out how losing my eyesight led to extremely smutty Harry Potter fan fiction—and the launch of my writing career including a Reese's Book Club fellowship. We talk about social media destroying your ability to think for yourself and the Ronny Chieng lesson I try to embody every time I pick up the mic.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Why reinvention is survival, not a self-help meme or a marketing ploy
• How a silhouette can be racial (?!)
• Going blind and wheelchair-bound—and writing my way out of it
• Getting the Reese's Book Club fellowship
• The Be The Most You writer manifesto: you are what makes your writing

Timestamps:

00:00 When I Grow Up, I Want to be Famous...

01:01 Madonna and Babs Bunny: My Reinvention Idols

02:19 How Can A Silhouette Be Racist?

03:02 Reinvention as Survival, Not a Self-Help Meme

05:50 Going Blind and Wheelchair-bound: A Forced Reinvention

08:16 Harry Potter Fanfiction Smut

12:09 Is Social Media Destroying Your Voice?

15:18 Creative Advice on Bravery from Ronny Chieng

18:06 Summits, Unsubscribes, and Your Author Voice

Subscribe to this podcast for Part 2: pitching your book, selling yourself, and my 100% request rate querying agents; why "follow your bliss" is a privileged lie; and how radical acceptance of your darkest feelings makes you a better writer.

For AAPI Month, do yourself a favor and ask: are you actually ready for traditional publishing or are your Asian parents right and you should have been an accountant? Find out with my FREE flowchart — plus get access to Ask Sophia Q&A where you can submit a question for me to answer on the podcast. https://www.sophiachang.com/freebie

Sophia Chang is a Reese's Book Club LitUp fellow, disabled dancer, and extroverted writer. She hosts The Sophia Chang Show podcast where her honest traditional publishing stories will make you scream in your sleep. Subscribe to find out why deadlifts will save your writing life.

TOPICS: reinvention, author voice, disability and writing, digital minimalism, Harry Potter fan fiction, social media detox, Asian American author, traditional publishing, writing community, podcast for writers, MOG antibody disease, extroverted writers