Mia Mercado

How did you become a writer?

I have this disease that makes me fear rejection and want to do a thing in which I constantly get rejected. I thought I wanted to be a teacher, but I have a different disease where I desperately want everyone to like me and wow, can you believe it, middle schoolers are not my target demo. Instead, I got an English degree and didn't read any of the books they told me to (I'm literate, I swear!). The semester before I graduated I quite literally Googled "creative writing jobs" and found a position as an editor with Hallmark Cards corporate headquarters. From there, I've learned I like writing longer things, funny things, and things that probably embarrass my parents a little bit. Sometimes I think about dropping everything and opening a coffee shop. I think this is a standard part of the creative process.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

I didn't realize how much I liked funny things until I was fully an adult, so many of my writing influences are people who are currently writing really incredible things. (Sorry to all the dead male writers.) I will read anything by Jia Tolentino, Alexandra Petri, Samantha Irby, Megan Amram, or R. Eric Thomas. Jaya Saxena, Jazmine Hughes, and Caity Weaver have also perfected the art of making serious things funny and stupid in the best way. The shows PEN15 and Bob's Burgers are church to me. Also, Billy the Blue Power Ranger was super formative in my early writing for different, hornier reasons.

When and where do you write? 

It's currently 2 p.m. and I'm at a coffee shop. This is pretty standard for me. Sometimes I write at 11 a.m. and I'm in my bed. Sometimes it's 4 p.m. and I'm in my office (a different bed in another part of my house). I'm not good at the "wake up early and write" routine. I write during normal-ish, 9 to 5 work hours because that's when my husband works and I want to hang out with him (read: do crosswords and watch Love Island) when he gets home. I force myself to leave the house to write a few times a week because otherwise I'll never shower and see people other than my husband or the cast members of Love Island.

What are you working on now? 

Figuring out how to promote my debut humor collection WEIRD BUT NORMAL. It's a bunch of funny personal essays and conceptual humor pieces about the awkward, uncomfortable, yet surprisingly regular parts of being a person. There's body hair! There's boobs! There's figuring out why women are expected to wear heels that make them taller but not so tall as to scare straight men! It comes out May 19, 2020 with HarperOne. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I'm pissing myself thinking about any writer that's like, "writer's block? don't know her." Imagine if I just answered this question "no." Honestly, that would be the funniest thing I have written or will write. The word "ever" suggests writer's block isn't something I experience constantly. I am fully convinced that everything I write will be the last good, funny thing I ever write. I'm also learning how to not panic about that since it seems like people I admire also panic about it. Like, if people as cool and successful as Lizzo fear rejection, I'm probably fine. Is that a healthy and good answer?

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Don't say "no" to yourself before someone else does. This was something Bryn Donovan, a wonderful writer/human person I was lucky enough to work with early in my career, said to me but she probably said it nicer and more eloquently. Basically, don't preemptively reject an idea, a piece, a joke solely because you think someone is going to say "no" to it. If you have something you've crafted into something that makes you happy, pitch it. People have said "yes" to some buck wild things. Like, The Princess Switch has a sequel coming out on Netflix. Someone said "yes" a movie with three entire Vanessa Hudgens.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Follow me on Twitter @miamarket. Don't feel embarrassed to promote work you're proud of and excited about. (I don't feel proud of or excited by my Twitter so maybe don't follow me?) Also, stop Googling the ages of people who you think are more successful than you.

Mia Mercado is a humor writer and essayist based in the Midwest. Her work's been in places like The New Yorker, the New York Times, McSweeney's, Bustle, and a bottle she threw in the Milwaukee River when she was 9. Her debut essay collection WEIRD BUT NORMAL with HarperOne comes out May 19, 2020. You can read her weekly-ish newsletter Cake for Breakfast at tinyletter.com/miamercado, but no pressure.