Writing Gothic Fiction While Working in Motorsports Social Media

My professional and creative work occupies two worlds that don't usually appear in the same sentence: gothic fiction and motorsports.

I'm Reagan Westerly, a gothic fiction writer working in motorsports.

Alongside writing and pursuing publication, I work professionally in digital and social media within the motorsports industry. That means my day-to-day professional experience with online content exists alongside the much slower process of writing fiction, developing manuscripts, querying, and building an author career.

Working in Social Media and Writing Fiction

My professional background in social media gives me a different perspective on the growing overlap between creative careers and content creation.

Writers and other creatives are increasingly confronted with questions about discoverability, audience development, personal branding, short-form video, long-form content, newsletters, websites, and how much of their time should be spent promoting creative work rather than making it.

For me, those questions aren't theoretical.

I work in social media professionally while simultaneously navigating them as a writer.

My current author platform includes short-form content, YouTube, my author website, a newsletter, and Author Hard, a 30-day series documenting the work I'm doing to move my writing career forward.

Author Hard and Building a Creative Career

Author Hard began after a publisher declined my completed gothic short story collection, Project R, following nearly a year of correspondence and consideration.

Instead of treating the rejection as the conclusion of the project's story, I began documenting what happened next.

That has included researching literary agents, querying Project R, drafting new fiction, working on my 1920s gothic novel Project H, developing a free gothic story for my newsletter, creating YouTube content, and continuing to develop my author platform.

The project also gives me an opportunity to explore a larger question: what does building a creative career actually look like while you're still in the middle of building it?

Motorsports and My Creative Work

Motorsports remains a significant part of my professional life outside of fiction.

Although motorsports and gothic literature may appear unrelated, both are part of my broader online presence rather than separate identities created for different audiences.

My work in motorsports provides professional experience in digital storytelling, social media strategy, audience behavior, and content creation. My writing work applies a very different form of storytelling to gothic fiction.

Together, those experiences shape how I approach the intersection of creative work, media, and building an audience online.

I continue to document that intersection through my website, Author Hard, social media, YouTube, and my ongoing fiction projects.