An insightful conversation with award winning author WD Kilpack III…
1. What experiences or influences inspired you to pursue a career in writing?
I’ve always been a storyteller, even before I could write. Then, I would draw my stories. So comic books became my gateway drug to reading. (I still love comic books!) So my first life goal was to open my own comic-book company, until I wrote my first novel, when I was 12. When I was 12, Mrs. Ferrin, my teacher for Language Arts and Gifted & Talented, told me that, rather than doing the regular writing assignments all year, to write a new chapter of a book for each of them. (I guess she saw something in me, although she never said that or told me what it was.) By the end of the school year, I wrote my first fantasy novel. At that moment, I changed my life goal from comic books to novels. When I was 15, I was hired for the first time to write, for a local sports publication. They could not legally ask my age (and I had a mustache) and they loved my writing samples from the school newspaper. That certainly helped boost my confidence in my writing, as did rising to be Editor-in-Chief of my high school newspaper and serving as editor of the campus newspaper in college. From the time I was 15, I was also freelancing, so I had 200 publication credits by the time I was 20 years old (primarily news).
Aside from that, my family was financially strapped when I was young, so I did not have a lot of toys that the other kids did but, if I asked for a book, the answer was never “no.” So I learned fairly early that I could get a feeling of satisfaction like the other kids talked about when they got cool toys when I got cool books and would tell them about the stories I read. Another major influence was my Aunt Jan and Uncle Wayne, who had a little library in their house that was loaded with science fiction and fantasy novels. When I saw that, I thought it was about the coolest thing I’d ever seen! They told me which ones they loved and I made my mental list. I also made a goal to have my own little library just like theirs. I have achieved that goal and now Jan and Wayne have added my books to their little library, which is about as cool a thing as I can imagine.
2. Could you walk us through your writing process?
I don’t have a lot of process per se. That said, I am a big believer in ritual. So I write every day, without fail. Some people have asked me how I maintain that level of discipline, but it’s not a matter of discipline for me. I’ve been doing this since I started writing and drawing my own comics when I was 6. I can’t not write. In high school, I had a red, three-ring binder full of lined paper that I carried around with me so I could write whenever the urge hit me. I viewed it as a necessity. I didn’t think much of it but, later, at high-school reunions (particularly after my publication credits started piling up), people started mentioning that binder. I had no idea that people noticed it, let alone that it made enough of an impression on them to bring it up years later. So that’s what I do: I write. When I have an idea for a book, I start. That’s the most important step to writing anything, be it a short story, a poem, a news story, a screenplay, a novel, or any other piece: starting. If I have the kernel of an idea, I write a paragraph. If I write a paragraph, I usually write two or three. If I write a few paragraphs, I usually write a few pages … and so it continues. There have been times when I have sat at my desk (or wherever I might be with my laptop or three-ring binder) and not stopped writing for 12 or 14 hours straight. With the New Blood Saga, that’s what I did with the first drafts of all eight books of the series: I started and I just kept going, reading what I wrote every night to my wife (her bedtime stories), receiving feedback from her (particularly about female characters). The next day, I would back up five or so pages, tweak while reading to get back in the right mindset, then just write again. I don’t know if that could be called “a process” or not, but it’s what I do.
3. Do you follow any specific routines or rituals that help you stay focused and motivated?
Paulo Coelho said, “The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything.” I’m usually the busiest person I know. I don’t know if this qualifies as a routine, but I have a white board in my office. It’s about 2 feet by 3 feet. When there are things that need doing that will take more than a few minutes or cannot be done now (for whatever reason), then they go on the board. I regularly fill that board with items. I get a good sense of accomplishment from checking things off that list. I also get a sense of accomplishment from erasing out those items and moving items into those open spaces, which reconfigures the board, giving it an all-new look. (I’m also an artist.) Might sound simple, but those things help keep me going. I also used to be a high-performing athlete. I wrestled for 12 years and qualified to represent the USA in Greco-Roman wrestling. No one can do that without focus and being able to self-motivate. Wrestling is also the hardest sport there is. So, as Dan Gable said, “Once you’ve wrestled, everything else is easy.”
4. What challenges did you face while writing your book(s), and how did you overcome them?
My biggest challenge in life now is time. I want more hours in the day. I set life goals for my writing but, when I got married and had kids to raise, I quickly learned that I could not provide the kind of lifestyle I wanted for them off my freelance writing. Journalists do not make a lot of money. They are in the business because they’re adrenaline junkies: they love deadlines and knowing things first. So I put a lot of my writing goals on the back burner and went corporate, working in marketing, to raise a family. My youngest is out of college, so now I’m going full bore into my novels. Now I get to pursue this life goal that I put on hold for decades. I am making the most of it and loving every minute of it. I want and I need more minutes.
5. Which authors or books have had the greatest impact on your writing style, and what do you admire most about their work?
I loved science fiction from the start, being raised on reruns of Star Trek, Lost in Space, and Logan’s Run. As I got older, Star Wars came out and blew my mind. (And, of course, Star Wars and Star Trek both came out in comic-book form, as well.) Then there was Battlestar Galactica on TV and movies like Beastmaster, Krull, Dragonslayer, Highlander, Willow, Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, the Lord of the Rings cartoons, the Rankin-Bass Hobbit cartoon, and Legend. All those things were cinematically influential.
For reading, in third grade, I started reading mythology. I think that interest resulted from watching Shazam on Saturday mornings, wanting to learn more about “the strength of Hercules” and so on. I just loved it. There was a kids’ version of Bulfinch’s Mythology, then I read every single book the school library had on the subject. So that was when I was introduced to Homer, who influenced everyone in fantasy (whether they realize it or not). The next year, when I was 10, I read The Hobbit and it blew my mind in the same way that Star Wars did! That was also the same year that I started playing Dungeons & Dragons. So, first, I read this amazing book! Then I get to pretend to be in that book! My life was never the same.
So first major influence: Homer. Then Tolkien blew my mind. The next major influence for me was Piers Anthony with his Xanth series, then everything else he wrote (he was very prolific). I loved Terry Brooks so much that my senior thesis in AP English was comparing and contrasting Brooks with Tolkien. When I discovered a vein of fantasy that I call “realistic fantasy,” which is where I would categorize my own fantasy writing, then I really started consuming: David Eddings, Stephen R. Donaldson, Robert Jordan, John Adams, Robert Holdstock, Tadd Williams, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne McCaffrey, Melanie Rawn, Elizabeth Haydon, and George R.R. Martin. In all of these, the characters are very real, but in fantastic settings, with fantastic things happening to them.
I was also academically influenced by the writings of Robert Frost (I’m an internationally published poet), William Shakespeare, and Aristotle.
Last, I would be remiss if I did not mention Aaron Sorkin and Quentin Tarentino. I watch a lot of movies and TV (when I’m not writing). I love their dialogue. I love that they have not caved into this anti-intellectualism that has poisoned society. Their work always includes characters that are smart, articulate, and insightful. There are moments when I watch stuff they wrote and my mouth just hangs open … then I rewind it and watch that scene again.
6. What essential tools and skills do you believe are crucial for an author to succeed in their writing career?
The best advice I have is write, write, write. You see a movie and a line of dialogue has you going down another path, write it down. You hear a song and a lyric strikes you, write it down. The best advice for someone wanting to be a writer is just that: start.
7. What does a typical morning look like for you?
Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. (Yes, I am an avid Beatles fan.) I start my morning with hot tea (Earl Gray, Scottish Breakfast, or Irish Breakfast) and take it with me to my laptop, whethere I take my laptop to my desk or to my recliner or the kitchen table or somewhere else. (Note: “morning” is a relative term. I am nocturnal. I always have been. Although last night was not a normal night for me, I was up until 6 a.m. … more regular would be 3 a.m. … then I got out of bed at 10 today.) I typically start with my daily marketing to get it off my plate, which takes an hour or so although, once a week, I do my weekly push, which takes hours (how many depends on what I decide to do as the weekly push). I check e-mail and social media as I do my daily marketing. An exception to jumping right on the daily marketing is when I dream about writing. I am a lucid dreamer. When I am writing right up until I go to sleep, I often dream about it. When there is something I’m writing that I am unhappy with (for whatever reason), I often wake up with the solution after dreaming it. The power of the subconscious is amazing. If I was not unhappy with something, I still sometimes dream about it, then wake up with something better than I had that I was happy with in the first place. In those cases, I jump right on writing, so I can get that idea down while it’s still fresh. If I can’t do that because I don’t have access to my laptop (for whatever reason), then I will jot down enough of the idea that I will be able to review my notes and know what I was thinking later. Whenever possible, as soon as daily marketing is finished, I write, edit, or work on cover art (I create my own book covers). Then again, after all that … let’s get existential: is anything typical?
8. How do you like to unwind after a long day of work?
First, I rarely stop. When my wife gets off work, we like to relax in front of the TV and binge watch (primarily) British television. The writing is (generally speaking) of higher quality and certainly less trite. We have several of the typical streaming services but what do we watch 90% of the time? BritBox and Acorn. Getting back to the “I rarely stop,” almost every night, my laptop comes with me and is on my lap while we watch, particularly on my weekly marketing push days. Those are often very repetitive and mindless tasks, so I do them while watching TV and don’t miss a thing. Other times, I’m dealing with problems that consume me so completely that I completely miss out on a couple hours of TV and could not repeat a single thing about what happened, even though I was there the entire time. It’s part of the focus I mentioned earlier. I can hyper-focus and tune out as needed. When my wife and I go out to movies, sometimes a concept will get me going that, as we’re leaving, my wife will just look at me and ask, “You need to write, don’t you?” So we go home so I can get whatever is going on in my skull out so it can stop consuming me.
9. How do you prioritize self-care in your daily life?
Self-care? What’s that? Every so often, I just don’t feel like working. So I don’t. On those nights, my wife and I will just binge watch and eat ice cream (mint chocolate chip) and nothing else. Those might be the nights that we rewatch favorite movies that we have on DVD, like Stardust or Bourne Identity, or maybe binge a movie trilogy, or Avatar (that one’s harder to get my wife to watch often, because it’s so long … binging series allows breaks that just pushing the pause button doesn’t seem to provide). I also take breaks from work to cook. I do all the cooking and I get a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment from that. It’s a creative outlet and, when something turns out, I really do get joy out of it. I have some dishes that are better than I’ve had at restaurants and I love it when my family loves to eat my food. My wife says it’s one of my love languages. (Someday, I’ll publish a cookbook with my recipes.) I love exploring new flavors and styles of cooking, and of course the sense of accomplishment when something I cook turns out just as I had hoped. If it comes out better than I hoped, then that’s certainly worth a cheer. Cooking also helps add some depth to my world-building, because I love mastering different types of ethnic cuisines. Food is a big part of culture.
10. Are there any habits or rituals that have greatly contributed to your productivity as an author?
I’ve already described plenty of habits and rituals, so how about a mindset? Here is my mindset: writing is not exhausting. It is fulfilling. Creating is joy. I love coming up with characters and worlds, then breathing life into them. I love taking something and turning it on its ear, giving it a different look, a different perspective that people may not have considered. That’s how I feel about writing: it is creation. I have been writing stories since before I could write (I drew them then). It’s never been exhausting, it’s a privilege to be able to do it and have the life where I can indulge this passion.
11. What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in your author journey so far?
I like to watch Westerns (movies), but I have never read a Western novel. However, Louis L’Amour changed my life. I read an interview with him in an in-flight magazine when I was 14. It was in Q&A format. The first question was half a column, listing all his accomplishments with his books, TV and movies based on his books. The last line of the question was, “How did you do it?” His answer was two words, and it had a profound impact on every aspect of my life. He said, “I started.” So, whenever I was in doubt, I started. And that was all it took. This philosophy is also reflected in other aspects described in this interview.
12. How do you handle bad reviews, and what have they taught you?
You can’t please everyone. It’s just not possible. That said, if you’re putting your work out for the public to see, then you have to develop a thick skin. In college, there was an English professor who used to send us (the campus newspaper) hate mail almost every week. She didn’t like that we used the Associated Press Stylebook, she didn’t like who was chosen to be quoted, she didn’t like that certain stories were done at all, she didn’t like the photos (granted, with a weekly paper, sometimes we didn’t have the time to reshoot pix … can’t say much more on that one), etc. This helped me develop a thicker skin. Now, when I get a bad review, I vent with my wife, then I do my best to just let it go. I know, it’s not easy. The bottom line is, how many books has that person written? None? Then that person has no idea how much time, effort, sleepless nights, waking up at 3 a.m. and going down to write or you’ll never get back to sleep, etc. That’s how I deal with it. On the positive side, that’s also why I never give a book less than 3 stars (out of 5), because I know how much work it is, and I refuse to slam someone for having the passion and the work ethic to write and publish a book.
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