The Accidental Storyteller For S. E. Tschritter, storytelling wasn’t a career path she initially sought out—it was a way of existing. As a child, she spent hours in the back of a station wagon or playing with Barbies, weaving complex narratives long after most kids had put their toys away. She didn’t realize at the time that these games were actually practicing the craft of storytelling.

Her official entry into the world of publishing happened “by accident” following a period of deep personal loss. After experiencing several miscarriages in 2009, Tschritter began journaling as a form of therapy. Those journals eventually became the book Love Letters to Miscarriage Moms, which provided comfort to thousands of women and was eventually picked up by a traditional publisher.

Writing the “Prodigal” Story While her first book was born of grief, her second project, The Prodigal Son: Crackhead to Jesus Freak, was born of a “whirlwind” of trauma. Her late husband, Clint, was a pastor who struggled with a secret addiction to alcohol. His relapse led to a drunk driving accident, a stage four cancer diagnosis, and a felony charge—all at once.

At his request, S. E. began interviewing him to capture his story of “God’s backlash of grace”. The process was grueling and took seven years to complete. “There were days where I could only write like two paragraphs at a time,” She recalls, describing the emotional weight of reliving their broken trust and the final days in the hospital.

The Brilliant “Shower Hack” for Trauma One of the most profound moments in Tschritter’s writing journey came when she hit a wall during the final 30% of the book. She found herself unable to type the scenes of her husband’s final hospital stay because reliving them was too painful.

Her solution was as creative as it was effective: she went into her garden, hit record on her phone, and simply talked through the events while getting her hands dirty in the soil. She then took the recording inside, played it near her laptop’s dictation software, and went to take a shower so she wouldn’t have to listen to herself. This “brilliant” method allowed her to get the story down without the immediate trauma of staring at a blinking cursor.

Choosing the Indie Path Despite her initial goal of being published by a “Big Five” house, She chose the indie publishing route for The Prodigal Son. She realized that traditional houses often take up to two years to bring a book to market, and she wanted her story to be available while it was most relevant. Furthermore, she didn’t want to sanitize the “real and raw” language that made the story authentic just to fit a traditional “Christian world” mold.

By creating her own LLC and imprint, Tschritter took control of her career. She hired a professional editor and worked with her sister, a professional typesetter, to ensure the book was competitive in the market.

Advice for the Fray S.E.’s message to other female authors is simple: Don’t give up. She emphasizes that while the “craft” of writing—like avoiding passive verbs and using sensory details—can be learned through practice and writers’ conferences, the instinct for emotion is something a writer must simply trust within themselves. “The ones who make it,” she says, quoting her mentor, “are the ones who don’t give up”.