Deep Dives

This Detroiter self-publishes fiction. Shannon Mackie shares ‘catalyst’ behind completion of first book.

Shannon Mackie, a Detroit-based freelance writer and storyteller, has written several novels and short stories across genres. Meet Planet Detroit’s 2025 Neighborhood Reporters in this Q&A series, written by Neighborhood Reporters.

by Larissa Diem March 10, 2025March 11, 2025

Shannon Mackie joins Planet Detroit's spring 2025 Neighorhood Reporting Lab. Photo by Larissa Diem.

Overview:

-Detroit-based freelance writer Shannon Mackie opens up about her creative process, the impact of work and motherhood on her writing.
-Mackie has been professionally writing since 2017, self-publishing novels and short stories, including her speculative fiction debut 'Antebellum Age.'
-Mackie navigates the complexities of her children's growing independence while embracing new opportunities in her creative journey.

This story is produced as part of Planet Detroit’s 2025 Spring Neighborhood Reporting Lab, supported by The Kresge Foundation, to train community-based writers in profile writing. This year’s participants will focus on highlighting grassroots leaders driving positive change in Metro Detroit.

Shannon Mackie is a Detroit-based freelance writer and storyteller who has lived in Elmwood Park for more than a decade. After studying journalism and marketing in college, Mackie works as a communications manager and freelances for media outlets like Outlier Media.

When not writing professionally, she can be found working on her novels. Mackie is a self-published author who has finished several novels and short stories across genres, including her speculative fiction debut “Antebellum Age.” She is joining Planet Detroit this spring as a member of the Neighborhood Reporting Lab.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Mackie about her creative process and the effects of work and motherhood on her practice.

I know that for writers, finishing a work is a huge deal. Everybody wants to be a writer, but it’s hard actually putting in the work to finish a project. What was that process like?

OK, so I always tell everybody that what helped me was National Novel Writing Month. It helped me because I signed up and then you have an account on the website, and you’re supposed to enter your word count everyday, stuff like that. So even though nobody was really asking me “are you writing?” I still felt like I’m accountable in some way because I have to report that I’m writing stuff. The first time I did that was around 2017, 2018. So that was really the catalyst for finishing my first novel.

Are you super militant about word count? Or what does that look like?

The first book that I self-published I had a developmental editor that I worked with on it and she was pretty serious about word count. The book was at 60,000 words and she was like, “Adult nonfiction usually has around 70,000 words.” So she made me get the word count up to 70,000.

Do you write within a genre?

I really like speculative fiction but the current book that I just finished is more like mainstream literary fiction. The first novel was speculative fiction and a lot of the short stories are speculative fiction.

Do you like to do anything other than writing or is that your biggest hobby?

Yeah, probably just writing. My kids are 20 and 17 so I’m kind of at this point where I feel like I don’t have to drive them to things anymore. So I’m figuring out what I’m going to do with all the extra time. Running for me is also fun, but I just hurt myself so I haven’t been running lately.

You seem like a very creative person. Can you talk a little bit about what effect being a mother had on your creativity?

I really have mixed feelings about this period of my life because I am normally a quiet, introverted person. Because I’m like that, when they were younger, I was like “This is exhausting! I just want to have time for myself.” But now that it’s here, I’m thinking maybe I’m not ready for that! I’ve just been thinking all about that lately, about like, how do I really feel about my kids getting older and more independent? I don’t know, it’s like a weird feeling that’s both good and bad.

You do a lot of writing for your job: How do you feel about writing for work versus writing for fun?

I feel like when I worked at nonprofits that were small organizations, there’s a lot more freedom to do things. My boss was fine with me trying new things. However, with big corporate companies, you need to go through these 100 steps to get something approved or to get this OK’ed. So in those places it can really splash your creativity, but I feel like we need more freedom to try things.