Today I’m so excited to bring you an interview with one of my Twitter and blog friends and upcoming author Alexis Grant. You can find Alexis blogging about her experience writing a travel memoir, getting published and consulting clients on social media here.

1. At what point in your travels did you know you wanted to write a book? Or, was writing a book always part of your life plan?

I’d always wanted to write a travel memoir, and I had the idea in the back of my head even before I left for Africa. But throughout my trip, I focused on freelancing for newspapers and magazines and writing for my blog and, well, traveling. Exploring and meeting people. I didn’t give much thought to writing a book — until the very end of my journey. Sitting on my hotel bed in Madagascar on one of my last nights in Africa, I made a list of all the people I’d met throughout my six-month trip, filling an entire page of my notebook with names. Each of those names, I recognized, came with a story. And that’s when I realized for the first time that I had enough to write a book, that I could actually make it happen. So this idea of a travel memoir about backpacking solo through Africa starting forming in my head just three days before returning home.

2. Your book is a memoir. Did it come naturally to you to write about your own experiences?

Not at all! I still struggle with it! My background is in journalism, and journalists rarely include the word “I” in their pieces. My first draft of the book was written very much in a journalistic, reported style. With every draft I move closer to memoir, including more reflection, more of my feelings, more about my personal growth during my journey. I’ve learned that this reflection is really what makes a memoir shine. Every time I give a section to a writer friend to read, she always likes the reflection parts the most — the parts that I’d worried were too revealing or embarrassing or even stupid. Readers like seeing into a writer’s soul. So as writers, we have to bare our souls, turn our insides out.

3. Tell us a little bit about your process of getting an agent.

I did a lot of research into how to approach literary agents, knowing I’d need one to get a deal with a traditional publisher. I perfected my query, my proposal and even wrote my entire manuscript before querying. (It has since been revised several times.) I looked for agents who met the qualifications I’d decided were important to me: one who was hands-on and would help me edit my manuscript; a woman (because my book is aimed at women, though I’m hoping men will read it, too); and someone who accepted e-mail queries (because I wanted my agent to rely on e-mail for communication as much as I do).

But what ended up helping me the most were the connections I’d made throughout my writing process. I was introduced to my agent, Rachelle Gardner, through another writer who I’d made friends with on Twitter. I hadn’t thought to query Rachelle because she specializes in Christian books. But this Twitter friend happened to know that Rachelle was looking to transition into mainstream books and that her taste included the type of book I’m writing.

4. Can you give us a few more details about your book and what we can expect?

My book is about what it was like to backpack alone through Africa — what that was like as a woman and how I grew along the way. I’m super independent, and I often think I can do everything myself, but this journey proved to be more difficult than I expected.

One of my favorite parts of the book — and of my trip — was reuniting with a polygamous family in Cameroon who had hosted me six years before during my college semester abroad. Life in their village — without electricity or running water, where 10-year-olds worry about how they’ll afford to go to school — is drastically different from what I’m used to at home in upstate New York. I spent many an evening sitting around an open fire in the wives’ dirt floor kitchens, talking with them and their children about life in the village, as well as life in the United States. Their questions about my home helped me look at my life in a new way, seeing both the positives and the negatives of American culture. One of my objectives with this section of the book, aside from helping the reader love this family as much as I do, is to share those insights.

I also tell tales of getting stuck in a sandstorm in Timbuktu, finding leeches stuck to my skin in Madagascar and feeling homesick in Ghana, the kind of real-life adventure stories I like to read when I pick up a travel memoir.

5. You write in a post that writing is lonely. What ways did you use to combat the loneliness?

I put a lot of time into building an online community that helps me feel supported even when I’m sitting alone in my office. I found it difficult to connect with other writers working on travel memoirs, so I created a Ning group for writers of the genre, which now has around 65 members. Who knew so many people were writing travel memoirs like me!

I’m also super active on Twitter — I call it my virtual water cooler. And I try to connect with writers in person, too. I’ve found several great critique partners and attended a few writer’s conferences. I also worked on my book at an artists’ residency in Georgia for five weeks, where I met some super inspiring writers, as well as other types of artists. So there’s definitely a community out there, it’s just more difficult to find than walking into an office and sitting amongst co-workers.

6. What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Revise. Revise again. And again. Have a writer friend read it, and revise again. Even after you think your piece is as good as it’s gonna get, revise again. I’m constantly amazed at how my book continues to improve on this zillionth revision. Even when I think I’m close to finishing it, even when I think there’s nothing more I could possible revise, I manage to make it better by — you guessed it — revising. That’s how you grow and improve as a writer. So embrace the rewrite! And when you do, you’ll no longer be aspiring. You’ll be a writer!

Thank you so much for your insights Alexis! Can’t wait to read your memoir.