Unlock Hidden Stories: Rebecca Danzenbaker Reveals the Secret to Writing That Captivates Instantly
Today’s Write Now interview features Rebecca Danzenbaker, author of SOULMATCH.
Who are you?
I’m Rebecca Danzenbaker, author of Soulmatch — a YA dystopian romance publishing with Simon & Schuster about a future where you can’t escape the mistakes of your past lives. I’m also an award-winning portrait photographer in Ashburn, VA, worked in the corporate world for a decade, and was once an elementary school music teacher.
What do you write?
I write commercial YA romances heavy on the angst.
The niggling idea to write Soulmatch came in 2010, but at the time, I had two toddlers and was building my photography business while managing a team of 25 at Congressional Quarterly. Instead, I made world-building notes here and there over the next decade, telling myself I’d write it when I found the time.
COVID hit, and I started having panic attacks after reluctantly shuttering the photography business I’d nurtured for so long. On top of that stress, I feared that I or someone I loved would catch this mysterious illness, or we wouldn’t have enough groceries… or toilet paper!
The movie nights, jigsaw puzzles, and six-feet-apart jogs with friends didn’t begin to fill the hours I typically spent running my business. My preteen/teen children didn’t require and weren’t interested in constant supervision. A few weeks in, I joked with my husband about “finally writing that novel I always said I would.”
The next day, I was in the middle of a Photoshop workshop on CreativeLive when the futility hit me. I wouldn’t remember the complicated editing technique if and when I could reopen my photography business. On a whim, I searched their catalog for “how to write a novel.” The first course that popped up was “Wired for Story: How to Become a Story Genius” by Lisa Cron. I started it that day.
A week later, I had an outline for what would eventually become Soulmatch. Three months after that, I completed the first draft. I was hooked, enjoying the entire process from outline to edits. As a bibliophile who (until I began writing) digested over 100 novels per year, I loved my new superpower of crafting from scratch the type…
