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Sujin Witherspoon

@sujinwitherspoon

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horror author
words in The Dark Magazine, forthcoming from Tales to Terrify
rep: @shellyromerobooks (Azantian Literary Agency)

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the most magical time of the year!! writing retreat # 3 in the books 💘 by @sujinwitherspoon

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7 hours ago

Description has never come easily to me because, as a writer with aphantasia, I grew up paying little attention to the descriptions in the books I read (I couldn’t visualize them, after all) and didn’t realize for years that I had carried the same habit into my writing. Then, someone read my work and asked me where the characters were. They said something about ‘white room syndrome’. I was like 🤓❓

I’ve since gotten a lot better (at least I’d like to think so?), but my first drafts still always come out way too thin on the description side and a big part of my first round of edits that I do on my own is reminding myself to 1) keep track of where the characters are/what they’re physically doing, and 2) communicating those details to the reader.

Reference photos are an invaluable part of my writing process, so while I was on vacation this past week, I decided to try a little exercise: describe what’s in front of my eyes. I first wrote this snippet in my Notes app, shielding my phone screen from the sun with one hand and typing with the other.

Maybe it’ll make it into my current WIP? 👀

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Hi, I’m Elle! I write weird, surreal horror with haunting atmospheres. Currently, you can find my work in The Dark and Tales to Terrify.

📚 #writersofinstagram #bookstagram #horrorwriter #writingcommunity taken in Crater Lake National Park by @sujinwitherspoon

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2 months ago

Join me this Friday in a LIVE informal discussion/Q&A with authors and animal experts @keshewrites and @jessicalewisauthor ! This will be a free online event hosted by @write_hive as part of their annual writing conference (there’s still time to grab a ticket!).

EDIT: the second slide should say July 10th - July 12th!

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love animals, and some of you may know that when I was very young, I would exclusively write stories featuring animal characters (they were all just knockoff Warriors stories, iykyk). I’m absolutely thrilled to be able to moderate this discussion, and hope to see you there <3

#writehive2026 #writingconference by @sujinwitherspoon

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3 months ago

As I prepare to dive back into edits for the project I lovingly call SEASONG (a YA cosmic ocean horror featuring doomed yuri, Happy Pride!), I wanted to take a moment to capture proof of life lived in the moments when I’m not writing or editing.

May was a special month for me because it was the first month I’ve had in a year that came without any pressure (internal or external) to write/edit. It’s hard to not write, honestly, because writing makes me feel productive and in this capitalist hellscape, if I’m not productive, what am I doing?

But it’s important to live life. If we don’t take the time to look up and around at the world around us, what are we going to keep writing about?

#writersofinstagram #writingcommunity #authorcommunity #refillyourcup #creativity by @sujinwitherspoon

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5 months ago

Just wrote THE END for the first time on my fourth completed manuscript and my favorite of all the books I’ve written so far in my life. It’s now in my agent’s hands (for now), and I’m taking some time to sit with the feeling that even if this book ends up going nowhere, it’s a story that I love, and sometimes that has to be enough.

📚authorsofinstagram bookstagram yahorror horrorbooks yaauthors cosmichorror by @sujinwitherspoon

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5 months ago

There’s something very special about revisiting an old franchise that you were once obsessed with but that you’ve forgotten about as you grew older, and I’ve been doing a lot of revisiting these past few days. It kind of gives me the same feeling as coming home to a childhood bedroom. Everything is the same, but it feels a little different, but then you sit with it for long enough and you can recapture some of the magic that used to be there.

I hope the book I’m writing right now will one day see the light of day, but if it doesn’t, then at least I’ll know that it is loved by me.

#writersofinstagram #writingcommunity #creativeburnout #creativeburnoutrecovery #traditionalpublishing by @sujinwitherspoon

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8 months ago

When I was a preteen, I decided that I would get my first short story published by 16. Obviously, that did not happen! And then the horrors of real life (SATs, National Merit Scholarship, college applications) took me away from writing and crushed my belief that I could be a writer at all.

I don’t regret pursuing something else (I’m STILL pursuing academia). I just think it’s funny that once upon a time, I thought not being published at 16 meant that I would never get published at all.

#writingcommunity #writersofinstagram #authorsofinstagram #2016vs2026 by @sujinwitherspoon

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8 months ago

It’s release day for my flash fiction story, Marionette! You can listen to it now on episode 732 of @talestoterrify wherever you get your podcasts (or online via the link in my bio).

📚 horror flash fiction short story podcast by @sujinwitherspoon

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8 months ago

REALITY OF SPRINTING WITH FRIENDS IN TWO TIMEZONES ✍️🌍

we are closing out the year by writing as many words as possible. different timezones can’t stop us from writing together 👯

#writer #writingcommunity #author by @sujinwitherspoon

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10 months ago

Christmas came early! I’m so thrilled to be working with @shellyromerobooks (@azantianliteraryagency) moving forward and I genuinely cannot imagine having a better champion for my books and my career.

Lots of exciting things are in the pipeline, and I can’t wait to see what we can do in 2026 :) by @sujinwitherspoon

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10 months ago

Entering my favorite season of year and turning one year older 🥹

This was one of the toughest years I’ve lived, but I’m grateful to be pursuing challenges of my own choosing rather than being stuck in a place that was sucking me dry like I was last year. On the whole, I am happier than I used to be, and I’m sure that’s worth something even if this year feels like it was a major train wreck.

Every step of the writing process this year felt like pulling teeth, but I still did it and I still managed to finish some things, so yay! Here’s hoping 26 brings something more to celebrate.

📚
writing wrapped writer author traditional publishing by @sujinwitherspoon

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10 months ago

our application to be your new favorite authors
inspired by @lilywzywrites and @kswri.tes

solar (she/her) is a vietnamese fantasy author who spends more time justifying women's wrongs than writing her books. but when she does write, her works feature vietnamese characters in a fantastical world with a complex political landscape. she has published short stories, essays, and poems in All Worlds Wayfarer and others!

elle (she/her) is a chinese-american horror author with a particular love for dark, haunting, atmospheric settings that have a light touch of magic. when not writing, she can be found watching cartoons with her cat. her work is published/forthcoming in The Dark and Tales to Terrify.

#authorlife #writerofinstagram #writingcommunity #writingfriends by @sujinwitherspoon

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a year ago