Interview With Author and NaNoWriMo Participant Karen A. Wyle
It’s National Novel Writing Month and we’re celebrating with a series of interviews with NaNoWriMo participants here at Change The World With Words. Welcome to the first interview of the series with Karen A. Wyle.
Tell me a little bit about yourself. How long have you been writing, and what sort of writing do you do?
I am an appellate attorney, photographer, political junkie, and mother of two daughters. I live in Monroe County, Indiana, between two towns. I have been writing something or other since at least 3rd grade, when a poem of mine was published in a “Youth Speaks” column in our local paper. I wrote my first novel at age 10 – and my second some decades later in 2010-2011, starting with NaNo 2010. I’ve written a few short stories, on-and off poetry, and several picture book manuscripts. As an appellate attorney, I write persuasive prose for a living. I recently wrote a law review article which was published in two journals and was awarded 3rd place for the Harrison Legal Writing Award.
Is this your first attempt at NaNoWriMo? If not, what happened to the novels you worked on during previous Nano events?Have they found publishers/agents/been self-published? Or were they “just” a learning process?
I attempted and “won” NaNo 2010. I just self-published the resulting novel, Twin-Bred (available through Amazon and CreateSpace in paperback, and on Amazon, the Nook Store and Smashwords as an ebook). I also took part in and “won” Camp Nano, a stripped-down summertime version of NaNoWriMo, last August, and will start editing the rough draft of that novel (tentatively titled Reflections) in December 2011. This NaNoWriMo, I intend to work on the sequel to Twin-Bred.
How much planning did you do before you sat down to write that novel-in-a-month?
I’m pretty much a pantser. All I had the first time around was a starting concept and a character or two. I didn’t figure out much about the plot until a few days in, and I think I was about one-third through before the ending came to me. The second time around, I had a long list of notes and an ever-growing list of possible scenes, most of which made it into the novel. This time, I have the notes and may or may not get around to starting the scene list before November 1st.
What’s your strategy? Are you writing every single day? Aiming for a set daily word count? How long each day do you/will you spend writing?
I hope to write every day. I wrote every day until I finished the first time around, and either every day or every day but one during Camp Nano. I try to get a bit ahead early on, so that I can stay on track without writing the 1,667-word average amount on busier or less inspired days. Whenever I can write more than 1,667, I do. (I hate coming down to the wire on deadlines.)
Do you/will you connect with other participants, either online or in person?
I have several online Writing Buddies. The local NaNoWriMo group has kept going (meeting biweekly) between NaNos and will be meeting several times a week during NaNo 2011. I show up at least once a week and often twice – though I get more writing done by myself at my desktop computer. For me, the in-person and online groups are for support, brainstorming and chuckles.
What advice do you have for other Nano writers, or what’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given so far?
As one of the NaNo mottos goes: “Don’t be afraid to suck.” Don’t worry about whether what you’re writing will be in the final draft. Assume that the book will get a whole lot better in the editing process, and try not to edit at all during November. (If you end up changing bits here and there, don’t fret – just don’t fret about the editing you aren’t doing.)
If you’re stuck, stop by the forums and find some good memes or writing challenges. (Don’t stay long – the forums can be major time sinks.) Or look around you and work the first object you see into a scene. (Writing at Barnes & Noble one time, I saw the romance section and put one of my characters in an embarrassing situation with a steamy romance novel.)
Keep writing materials with you at all times!! Have a bedside notepad and pen. If an idea comes to you while you’re drifting off to sleep, bestir yourself and write it down. (Make sure you tear off the sheet you’re writing on, or you could write on top of it and lose two notes’ worth of inspiration..) If you walk the dog, take pen and paper with you. If you don’t have a waterproof note pad of some time, take baths or short showers.
Don’t submit your first or second draft to any agent, publisher or contest. Edit, wait, edit, wait, reread, edit, etc., for a few months first. The same goes for self-publishing.
Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. She now considers herself a Hoosier. Wyle’s childhood ambition was to be the youngest ever published novelist. While writing her first novel at age 10, she was mortified to learn that some British upstart had beaten her to the goal at age 9.
Wyle is an appellate attorney, photographer, political junkie, and mother of two daughters. Her voice is the product of almost five decades of reading both literary and genre fiction. It is no doubt also influenced, although she hopes not fatally tainted, by her years of law practice. Her personal history has led her to focus on often-intertwined themes of family, communication, the impossibility of controlling events, and the persistence of unfinished business. Find out more about her at her website http://www.karenawyle.net/ or connect with her on Facebook.
If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo 2011 and would like to be featured in this series, see this post to find out how. Looking for NaNo inspiration? I’m reading Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days, (And Live To Tell About It) by Rochelle Melander – highly recommended.
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