author feature: Megan Lange
Megan Lange is the first place winner from our 2025 Manuscript Challenge!
AUTHOR BIO
Professionally, I am a technical writer located in Minnesota, and I spend my weekdays writing technical manuals. Born and raised in a suburban city in Wisconsin, I have been using creative writing to escape mundanity for as long as I can remember. I studied technical and creative writing at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities where I was first published in the literary magazine “The Tower” which was a huge highlight of my college career. I’ve been published via writing contests a handful of times throughout college and after. With each publication I am encouraged not to give up on my passion and potential.
What first drew you to fantasy as a genre?
I don’t remember a time when I wasn't attracted to fantasy, starting with an aesthetic fixation on old, strange things which always felt magical to me. Like many people I was drawn to the styles and genres I still love today as a child. When you’re young enough to still believe in magic and that you could have it in you it’s a feeling you never forget. That’s something I try to capture in my writing.
Tell us about your creative process! Are you a plotter? Pantser? Something in between? What is your ideal writing environment?
I desperately wish I was better about plotting, but usually ideas strike me like lightning, and I follow the electricity wherever it leads. That is probably the reason my writing successes have been relegated to short stories as it is much easier for me to reverse engineer a plot out of five thousand words than fifty thousand. I do aspire to complete a long-form project one day, so I’ve been working on refining my plotting process and figuring out ways to outline that work for me.
I prefer my writing environment free from wandering eyes with music and something yummy to sip on.
What parts of writing bring you the most joy?
Good question, I’ll let you know when I figure it out.
In all seriousness I love line writing. As a technical writer I take pride in my grammar, punctuation, and syntax (I would tell A.I. to take a hike if it had legs). With the right outliner, I think I could make a pretty good ghostwriter so I can focus on sentence flow, description, and character minutia without all the messy business of tricking myself into thinking I have good ideas (idea-havers, please hit me up). I also love editing, especially since I have such a hard time with plotting. It's kind of magical to go back and figure out what I’ve been planting for myself without realizing it and finding the plot wherever it’s hiding. There's a thrill in that even if it is extremely frustrating.
What authors inspire you most, and why?
In recent years Ottessa Moshfegh’s work has been my top fascination. Her skill in craft is so impressive, beautifully gross, gritty, and vivid, always grounded and aware. To steal a word from John Waters’ review of Homesick for Another World, Moshfegh’s work is simply scorching. I aspire to create something so strange and yet confident in what it’s attempting and achieving. For fantasy, Leigh Bardugo has been hugely inspiring to me. Her Grishaverse feels tangibly real and interconnected with levels of world-building to the smallest detail. Lastly, I would be remiss not to mention Victoria Aveyard and Sarah J. Maas who got me back into fantasy in high school. I probably wouldn’t have started writing if not for the rekindling of that fire.
Do you have writing favorites when it comes to trope, characters, magic system, etc?
When an idea strikes me, it is almost always a dialogue driven character moment where I can imagine the conversation clearly, something very tense and emotional. I like doomed relationships whether deaths or betrayals, a heartbreak always sticks with me more than a happy ending. Additionally, I find myself drawn to magic systems wherein powerful characters are limited or thwarted by social, emotional, or political means rather than just more powerful magical ones. Give me witch hunters, give me court mages, give me spell bindings and rules. I find my interests change frequently and I can't say what tropes or rules I'll want to try out in the future, but this is what's got me today.
What’s one piece of writing advice that has stuck with you?
“You can edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page.”
I believe a version of this quote has been attributed to Jodi Picoult, but it was originally delivered to me via a writing professor in college. I’ve been applying it to writing and everything else since I first heard it.
What are your goals as a writer? Where would you like to see yourself in 5 years?
Writing is a passion I am clawing tooth and nail to keep in my life even as other responsibilities take precedence. Winning this contest has certainly encouraged me to put more time back into it. I have maintained since my early twenties that I want to complete a book before thirty, but that deadline is coming quickly so we’ll see if I can hit it. In five years, maybe I’ll have a finished draft. Maybe it will even be the rest of Two Men Dead. I'm also interested in exploring ghostwriting as a career path one day and I already do a version of it as a technical writer, but I probably need a lot more published fiction under my belt first.
Where can people go to support you and follow your writing journey?
If you’re feeling old school you can go to my website www.eatbookswriting.com to leave me a message, see where I’ve been published before, and check out a backlog of my short stories. If you’re interested in collaborating or feel like providing feedback shoot me an email at meganlange@eatbookswriting.com.
