Meet Donna Cooner | writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Donna Cooner and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Donna, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Learning to embrace failure.

I’ve worked out with a personal trainer for quite some time now. It’s definitely a love/hate relationship. Part of the “love part” is I feel stronger and healthier. Part of the “hate part” is the failure.

I especially despise this one exercise called tricep dips. It involves raising your bodyweight up and down using your tricep muscles. My bodyweight is ….ummm…”sufficient”…enough to make this exercise especially challenging. So, on the third set, and the forty-fifth rep (but who’s counting, right?), I stop. My arms are shaking, my muscles screaming–and I can’t do one more repetition.

I stop.

I give up.

I quit.

I fail.

Instantly, that horrible “failure” baggage (that has nothing to do with dips) crowds into my head. Anne Lamott captures it perfectly. “My fear of failure has been lifelong and deep. If you are what you do- and I think my parents may have accidentally given me this idea- and you do poorly, what then? It’s over; you’re wiped out. All those prophecies you heard in the dark have come true, and people can see the real you, see what a schmendrick you are, what a fraud.”― Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

But here’s the thing. When you’re building muscle, you have to fail to get stronger. In the gym, the goal is to NOT SUCCEED. If your body was strong enough to do what you’re asking it, there would be no need to build more muscle. It’s when you fail, that growth happens.

You can probably see where I’m going with this.

It’s the same with writing (and probably everything else in life). Here’s just a few of my failures:
I stopped writing creatively for ten years.
I started several manuscripts I never finished.
I finished a novel I never sold.
I published a novel some people didn’t like.
And:
I could only do five tricep dips.
You may notice a progression. I didn’t know it at the time but, with each failure, I was building muscle. I have multiple novels published in many different countries now. It was a hard road and took a lot of writing muscle. New, stronger muscle. Forged in the despair and uncomfortableness of failure.

My personal trainer was also a therapist (and very wise about such things). She gives this wonderful advice:

“Think of your lives and moments when you were blinded by getting to the outcome, achieving the goal no matter what. Maybe there was shame in the idea of “Giving Up”. Maybe you associated “Giving Up” with FAILURE. Here’s my suggestion. Let’s not call it “Giving Up”. Call it anything else that connotes Wisdom, Moving On, Letting Go. Or, call it “Giving Up” and embrace it!” Leah Barrett

So here’s my hope for you (and me) today. That we embrace our failures and use them to make more muscles.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I write stories about young people who struggle with their identities in the world of social media. My debut novel, SKINNY, was published in 2012 and named an ALA’s Best Young Adult Fiction Award, BEA’s Young Adult Buzz Book, and a Bankstreet College’s Best Children’s Book of the Year. My book, CAN’T LOOK AWAY, was a Teen Choice Nominee and an ALA Top Pick for Reluctant Readers. SKINNY, SCREENSHOT, and FAKE were all Colorado Book Award finalists. All my books were selected for Scholastic Bookfair and Book clubs. Foreign rights for my books have sold in Norway, Sweden, Russian, France, Finland and Basque.

My publishing journey has been a forty year + struggle, full of rejection. But there has also been some amazing successes. The hardest part is to keep writing what excites and interests me, and not focus on the publishing aspect. That comes naturally if I have a story with a heart-felt, passionate message. I love hearing from readers who don’t think anyone understands what they are experiencing, and then they see a connection with my characters. Surprisingly, these readers’ stories of connection come from all over the world and through multiple languages. That confirms to me that I actually have an important story to tell and I need to keep telling it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I have lived in Fort Collins for over twenty years and love to show guests around. Of course, the first place to go is to take the Thompson Canyon up to Estes Park and revel in the grandeur of Rocky Mountain Park. I’ve seen it in every season and it never fails to wow me and my guests. Back in Fort Collins, Old Town is definitely where I hang out. If it’s summer, spend some time in the square and listen to a wide variety of bands on stage outside among all the amazing flowers and sculptures. If it’s winter, enjoy visiting Santa in the square or ice skating. There’s hot chocolate afterwards at Nuance Chocolate or catch a warm up drink at Whisk(e)y, where you can choose from over 2250 different whiskeys behind the bar. Cap off your night with live jazz and a rooftop view at the top of the Elizabeth Hotel. In between the drinking and dancing, there’s biking, hiking and water sports galore.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d love to dedicate my story to my writing group, the YAMuses. We met over ten years ago at a writing conference and have kept in touch over the years, encouraging and commiserating through all the ups and downs of the publishing world. The six of us live all across the United States, but rarely a day goes by that we aren’t in touch through texts or emails. We talk story ideas, read manuscripts, share insider publishing tips, and lots of memes.

So thanks to Katy, Kristen, Veronica, Bret, Talia, and Beth! You are my anchor in this crazy, publishing world.

Website: donnacooner.com

Instagram: @dcooner

Twitter: @donnacooner

Facebook: Donna Cooner