If you love writing don’t give up on it. The people who rise to the top in this industry are not necessarily the most talented; they are the ones who work their butts off and don’t give up. They see obstacles not as dead ends, but as challenges.
Fantasy fiction author Kristen Ciccarelli has had no shortage of struggles in her publishing journey, from revising a manuscript for a year and a half, only to be told it had lost it’s heart, to receiving over 80 rejections to finally being accepted by Pitch wars. She fills us in on how focusing on your love of writing can help you weather out the storms and her number one simple (but effective) piece of advice to help you finish writing your novel.
Hi Kristen, tell us a bit about yourself
Hi there and thanks for having me! I’m Kristen Ciccarelli, the author of the ISKARI series, published by HarperTeen. It’s a set of three companion novels: The Last Namsara is about a dragon slayer; The Caged Queen is about an outlander queen; and The Sky Weaver is about the captain of the king’s guard and an uncatchable thief.
I live on an island in the North Atlantic these days, but I originally grew up on my grandfather’s grape farm, and before becoming an author I was a baker, a bookseller, and a ceramic artist.
What made you want to be a writer?
I’ve always written stories, ever since I could first write sentences on a page. It was my favorite way to entertain myself growing up. But I never thought you could be an author the way you could be a teacher or a firefighter or a doctor, so it was never something I set out to become. It was just what I Ioved to do. And then one day, I stumbled across Kristin Cashore’s blog after reading Graceling and Fire. That was when I realized that authors were regular people. And since I was a regular person, maybe I could be one too.
Do you have a writing routine?
My writing routine is basically: write and write until the book is done. :) I’ve tried to keep to a Monday to Friday 9-5 routine, but it doesn’t work so well for me. If I wake up at 4 am, for example, and can’t stop thinking about the book I’m working on, I’m not going to go back to sleep. I’m going to get up and work on it. Or, if my book is due on Monday, but my editor doesn’t give me back my edits until the Friday before (a thing that has definitely happened) then my weekend is not going to be spent relaxing or hanging out with friends; it’s going to be spent not showering and pulling all-nighters. So the truth is: I try to keep a reasonable writing schedule when I can, but mainly I write until the book is done (and try to eat, sleep, shower, and play when I can).
How do you outline your work and begin writing?
It really depends on the book. I used to be a “pantser”, where I had a few big pivotal scenes in my head and just wrote towards them, moving from one to the next, having only a vague sense of where I was going. When I got my book contract and suddenly I had deadlines to hit, I started outlining the whole book before starting to write, so I could make sure to hit those deadlines. But then I burned out this year, and outlining was just making me miserable. I needed to take a step back, to go a bit easy. So, I started letting myself just wander and play, without having everything laid out or set in stone. So basically: it really depends on the book I’m working on/the stage I’m in and what that book or stage requires.
One thing I do need to know before I start writing (whether pantsing or plotting) is how a book ends and who my characters are at the end.
Do you have any tips for a productive writing day?
Turn off the internet.
I’ll repeat that: Turn off the internet.
That is my best tip for a productive writing day.
Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
If you love a book you’re working on, don’t give up on it. If you love writing, period, don’t give up on it. The people who rise to the top in this industry are not necessarily the most talented; they are the ones who work their butts off and don’t give up. They see obstacles not as dead ends, but as challenges.
What do you think is the biggest challenge for debut authors?
The biggest challenge is probably the sheer terror of it all because the debut year is terrifying. You have no idea what’s going to happen, everything is outside of your control, and you also have no experience to fall back on and say “I’ve survived this before, I can survive it again”. You’re basically just white-knuckling it until the book comes out and you realize: You are fine. Your book is fine. Everything is fine. And then you can breathe and move on to the next book.
But there’s also the constant comparisons, especially if you’re writing/publishing in the YA scene. Everyone knows that social media highlights the biggest, splashiest news. Every time you go on Twitter or Instagram, you see someone else has just gotten their 4th starred review (and you have none) or someone else’s book was in yet another round-up of “best books of the year” (and yours haven’t been in any) or someone’s book just sold in its twenty-seventh territory (and your book is just in English), etc, etc, and on and on. There are so many ways to compare yourself to everyone else, and if you start down that road, you will always come up short, because someone always has it better than you.
If you’re a debut author and you’re reading this, my advice is to find ways to turn down the noise. Make sure you have supports in place. Make sure you have strategies for dealing with fear (and the things it morphs into anxiety and depression). Make sure to find ways to stay grounded. Focusing on the next book helps a lot. So does turning off the internet. And getting outside and going for a walk. When I was at my worst in my debut year, I combatted it by a) not going on the internet for an entire month (except to very occasionally check emails) and b) forcing myself to walk a lot. The results were astonishing.
What methods of book marketing do you find the most effective?
Word of mouth is the most effective marketing. And word of mouth is not something an author can control or even really influence. It’s your publisher who has the marketing power to put a book on the map—they have 100x the reach you do. Authors have very little marketing influence. In light of this, I focus on the things I love and can control: writing a good book, writing the next book, being accessible via Instagram (which I like best of all the platforms), and running a pre-order campaign (not because pre-order campaigns move the needle much—if at all—but because I love running them, it’s a way to connect with my readers and make them happy). I wish I had some secret marketing recipe. If I did, I would share it!
What struggles did you face in the writing and publishing process?
Oh gosh. A lot. And the struggles are never-ending! :) Here are just two (of many) examples I could give you: The book I nabbed my first agent with got very close to being published—an editor at a big house worked with me on it, we revised it together for a year and a half (we did 3 revisions) in the hopes that her team would give it the thumbs up, but instead they turned it down 3 times and after the last “no”, my agent told me the book had lost its heart (shortly after this, that agent left the industry). It was a huge blow—not because the book didn’t get published, but because it seemed like the entire time I was making it better, I was actually making it worse. It made me think I wasn’t meant to be a writer.
Fast forward a few years to The Last Namsara: it was rejected by over 80 agents, and I actually completely gave up on it (thinking again that maybe I just wasn’t meant to be a writer). My last-ditch effort was applying to Pitch Wars. I told myself that was the very last “query” I would ever send. And after I hit send, I moved on. A little over a month later, I found out I was accepted and a few months after Pitch Wars, the book was bought in a pre-empt.
I could tell you lots more stories, but the important thing to remember in this industry is that everything is completely out of your control EXCEPT the writing. Which is why you really need to love the writing. That love will sail you through the storms. :)
What is the best writing advice you have received?
Figure out where you want your character to end up at the end of the story, and then start them in the opposite place (or as far away as you can).
You can find out more about Kristen via her website and on Instagram.
