Confessions of a Serial Scribbler
Some stories don’t begin with certainty, but with curiosity. Mary Lee Painter shares how she follows an idea before overthinking it, embraces rejection as part of the path, and keeps writing, again and again, until something clicks.
Thank you so much for inviting me to be here.
I'm Mary Lee Painter, romcom author, and lover of books. I've written a majority of my adult life, and it's all I want to do. My first adult romcom, The Other Fork in the Road, was published in 2024, Wild in Minnesota, June 2025, Holiday on the Rocks, October 2025, and my first YA romcom, Worst Idea Ever, was released in April 2026. I'm thrilled, and still can't believe, I just signed a contract with one of the "Big 5" publishers for a YA romcom.
I was asked recently about ways to come up with a new story idea. I love the process of taking an idea and running through all of the options that could happen. I like a loose outline of ideas because sometimes the story can take an interesting turn almost on its own. I enjoy the challenge of seeing if you can take an initial thought, a loose outline, and bring it to a conclusion. You can easily think an idea to death, so I tend to jump in and write. Instead of dwelling on not having enough, just do it. You'll know by page 50 if the story has enough to it. If it doesn't, file it away and go in a different direction. If a story isn't making you happy, maybe it's time to move on.
As far as a book I read recently, it would be Things We Never Got Over, by Lucy Score. I'm a sucker for romcoms. Movies I've seen one hundred times, and the books that make me forget to cook dinner and do laundry. Open and book. Disappear. Repeat.
Another thing people talk about is what to do when you're writing and feel stuck. If this happens to me, it means I'm overthinking. My solution is usually to read a new book. This means I'm typically at Barnes and Noble in fifteen minutes and binge read for the next day. Reading is a free education in how a successful book is written. For me it's Lucy Score, Tessa Bailey, and, of course, Lynn Painter. To get lost in one of their books reminds us of character development, a good plot, and lets us see how to move from chapter to chapter. It's like hitting the refresh button and having a brain vacation.
Everyone has their own journey, and the road branches out in many directions. I wanted to go the traditional publishing route. In order to find your way in, you need an agent. This means getting your manuscript as polished as possible, and to query agents. It's a painful process, at least for me, that was filled with lack of response and rejection. I didn't just get told "no", I got a ten-year subscription to it. But I love writing, and I queried while focusing on learning how to be better.
I got my first agent, my first little book deal, and then my agent retired unexpectedly due to health issues. A shocking turn of unfairness. I cried and ate Dove chocolate for twenty-four hours and then got back to it. I thought having a book and publisher in the works would make finding representation easier. It ended up taking another full year to find my current agent, but the wait was entirely worth it. She is fabulous beyond words. And through it all I just kept writing, knowing that if I had an opportunity with an agent or publisher, I wanted a few completed books ready— so if they disliked one, I had another.
Whether it's writing or a life change, rejection sometimes irritates us enough so we hunker down and focus on doing it better. To acknowledge that we have a lot to learn. And it makes us grateful for every opportunity when it happens. We all have challenges in everything we do, and the best feeling is taking that "No" and make it into "Oh, you just wait."
