MAEVE FOOTE: WRITER,
CREATOR OF WORLDS
When I arrive, Maeve Foote is already settled in. She is typing on her laptop and sitting next to her signature leather bag, listening to something in her headphones. She smiles at me when I sit; after several years of being in the same major, we have no need for personal introductions. She will graduate in May with a degree in Creative Writing.
Maeve grew up reading, but her start as a writer came from the novel series Warriors. Intrigued by the cat-focused world-building, she took it as a challenge and said to herself, “I can write it better!” She began writing her own version, but as she added more and more, she realized it had become a unique novel. “I got a little bit bored … I wanted to be more creative and original. So I started to add things.” After a few years, she had already filled 15 spiral-bound notebooks with her writings. She holds her fingers up, counting how many different series she had written in those notebooks. Her journey as a fanfiction writer led her to her current work-in-progress, an urban fantasy novel that reimagines our world. As of right now, she has transitioned to digital writing “by necessity,” but her last notebook count was at 40.
Characters are the focus of one of her many works in the 2024 edition of Ivy Leaves, “The Other Aidan.” While fictional, the story was inspired by her family’s interest in genealogy. When researching their family history, they found two families in neighboring towns with the same names of the children and father, but different names for the wives. Maeve was inspired to write “The Other Aidan,” wanting to explore how a cheating father naming his sons “Aidan” (or, Aiden) would affect the children in the aftermath of his death.
As she speaks to me about her writings, she leans in closer, her hands becoming more animated and her eyes sparkling with excitement. Her passion for her craft permeates the conversation. I take a moment to ask about her writing process. She finds beauty in music, but when I ask what kind, she laughs and says, “a charcuterie board?”
From movie soundtracks, to musicals, to alternative rock, she settles down with her mishmash playlist and begins. “I would say it begins with an idea. Which is like saying art begins with a medium … but it starts with a big idea.” She then focuses on that idea, carefully chipping away at her characters, which she says form the “biggest component” of her writings. “Characters, to me, are the oil to the machine of a book. They are what makes it run. You can have a mediocre story, but if your characters are like fine wine, it is great.” She says her characters begin with the question: “How are you being influenced by your past?”
She wanted the main character to explore his identity, “feeling that it was stolen, but also that complicated relationship of being connected by this person who did an awful thing. But neither of you are to blame, so who is there left to hate?” The rest of Aiden’s journey can be found in the journal, along with her other pieces, “Aranea Postmortem” and “Koi Fish,” which expand her repertoire into realistic fiction and fairytale-like fantasy.
“I write to explore perspectives with an open lens and let my audience be the judge.”
Before I left our little rendezvous, I asked her what she seeks to accomplish with her work. We’ve been sitting on the couch for over an hour now, unable to contain mutual excitement over her work. “My first goal is to entertain. I want, first and foremost, for people to enjoy my story.” She goes on to say, “I write with intention. I write to explore perspectives with an open lens and let my audience be the judge.” She strives to create stories that spark enjoyment and excitement while reading and have her work inspire empathy in others.
