Keira Gillett Author

Fierce Middle Grade Fantasy Reads

on writing

A Rose by Any Other Name is a Cabbage

By

Shakespeare might have said that a rose by any other name smells just as sweet and in normal life this is a truism. However, in the realm of stories a rose is sweet because it is a rose. Words are what an author relies on to convey meaning. This is why naming of characters, places, and things is so important.

Authors agonize over names, searching for the right one, in the same way my college friend loved to take a dozen photos of the same thing in order to choose the perfect one to Photoshop and then share. As my friend would say and many authors too, it’s worth the effort.

Take my stories as an example of how naming is important. Zaria Fierce is here today in all her glory because of her name. I had a small set of parameters when I went to name her. It had to be catchy like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Artemis Fowl, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, and other characters we know and love from literature.

It had to mean something. Zaria means princess, which is integral to the storyline. Fierce, because Zaria would be taken through a transformative character arc, where she starts out shy and withdrawn and ends up as a fabulous and fierce heroine.

Many characters in the Zaria Fierce Trilogy benefit from similar attention to detail. Names are evocative and denote a lot on their own and through social context.

Olaf might be to you a happy snowman from Frozen, but to me he is a mean-spirited troll with an agenda to reclaim a river that was once his.

I like to juxtapose preconceived notions of names. I also like to cater to those in the know and find names that feel like other names. These more aspirational names are sprinkled around and the prime example is Floki, a dwarf prince. You can guess from his name that he’s not the kindest of dwarves.

I even choose names that sound like something else we know, like Koll, the first dragon. He’s pitch-black with red scale patterns just like the live coal his name evokes.

Do you have a favorite name in the Zaria Fierce realm? Who do you think is named the best?

(Bonus, do you know what flower I shared with this article? Hint: It’s not a rose.)

Do Words Speak to You?

By

I keep a diary of words. Nothing formal. This diary has many forms – a notepad where I keep ideas for my books, a note draft on my phone, a document on my computer, a scrap of paper, a highlighted word or sentence amidst a blocky paragraph.

Some days I am a hoarder, collecting words like a magpie. I read the words in newspapers, blogs, books, and magazines. I take note, and I think how can I share this word which so perfectly expresses this idea? I treasure them, these little dictionary fragments and tuck them away for a rainy day. Big or small, unknown or known, each have their place.

When the sun appears I start over. I regularly pitch the words, deleting or tossing the words away. I’m determined to unclutter my ever-growing list of words like a relentless wood chipper, hacking at the words until there’s not even a reminder of their roots. But no matter how many times I ditch them, words keep coming back to me. Not always the same, but sometimes the very same.

Some words are tenacious, hanging on with unforeseen diligence, determined to have their say. Some are airy and blasé, eager to come and go as they please with a laissez-faire that is admirable. These words are secure in their meaning, they know if they’re not the right fit for today they may be tomorrow. So the list grows again with careful attention on my part.

It might sound strange, but as a reader and an author words have always drawn me in and taken me down a rabbit-hole of possibilities, whispering like the wind in my ear and dancing away just as intangible to hold. Do words speak to you? What word travels with you today, dear reader?

5 Habits of a Successful Author

By

I am often asked what it takes to be successful as an author. There’s a lot of ways someone can be successful, but I find myself going back to these five tips over and over. To be a successful author, one should:

  1. Read. Not just a little but a lot. The more you read, the better off you are, because you’ll develop your sense of storytelling. What works for you? What doesn’t? Why did you like this book, but not that one? And so forth.
    • Pro Tip: Read in genres you don’t write in to be exposed to words you otherwise might not find in your genre. If you can use these words in your writing, even better!
    • Pro Tip: Listen to audio books to get a sense of cadence and rhythm. You’ll learn what sounds right and this will enhance your own writing.
  2. Research. As an author of fiction, you’re not expected to be an expert, but you are expected to know what you’re talking about on a broad level.
    • Pro Tip: Save everything you research in a file. Try to catalogue and organize everything so you can quickly pull up what you need whenever the situation calls for it.
    • Pro Tip: Be deliberate when breaking from the truth. Own any changes to geography, history, science, etc.
  3. Write. Put fingers to keyboard, pen to paper, dictate, however you write – every day. Even when you don’t feel like it. That’s the sign of a professional author. Remember if you’re not writing, you’re not going to have a manuscript to publish.
    • Pro Tip: Set micro-goals and macro-goals. Both of these will help you feel like you accomplished something big when you complete one, and urge you onward.
      • For example, 500 word goals and chapter completion goals. I like to offset my 500 word goals to be at every 200/700 mark, that way I can also enjoy every 500 and 1000 mark and push myself between each goal. It’s a lot easier to talk yourself into pushing for an extra 100-300 words than it is to ask yourself to push for another 2,000 words.
    • Pro Tip: I hear all the time that a book is in the works, but never completed. Complete the book by any means necessary, even if you have to just type a stream of consciousness. There’s no wrong way to finish a first draft.
  4. Edit. Your first draft can be sloppy, hard to understand, missing punctuation, filled with notes, etc. The polishing of your manuscript comes during the editing process. A successful author will tackle edits many times before a manuscript is considered publishable.
    • Pro Tip: Get a reliable and trustworthy beta reader team together to tell you what is working in your story and what needs help.
    • Pro Tip: Don’t get hung up on the word count. It used to concern me that I would hear about authors ripping out thousands of words from their books during edits, whereas I’d be adding that many into mine. I’m here to tell you, both methods are correct.
      • Let me explain as an author who finds herself adding more words into a story than she strips from it. I think of books like meals. I can easily convey the meat of the story, give readers the heart and soul, but sometimes I fail to give the side dishes – the potatoes, those little extras that make a book and world immersive. Knowing that about my writing style, I ask my beta readers to be honest about where I should add the extra details – either for clarification or for pure fun. I always know what to do when I see “Potatoes” in their notes.
  5. Engage. A successful author engages with her fans. This is done across many platforms and through many avenues – social media, your author website, your e-mail lists, interviews, blog hops, book signings, etc. You should take the time to figure out what works best for you.
    • Pro Tip: Be sincere. Don’t do things you find taxing or annoying. Engage in ways that make you feel accessible, vibrant, and real. It should be fun. If it’s not, try something else. You should always be excited to talk about your books.
    • Pro Tip: Always travel with book swag, business cards, and books. You never know who will want to buy from you after talking with you. Sometimes you won’t need any of it, other times you’ll use all of it and wish you had more. Be prepared!

Author Interview Part 1 for Zaria Fierce Book Two

By

Q: How did you come up with the title of Zaria Fierce and the Enchanted Drakeland Sword?

I’ve said before that Zaria Fierce went through different plot ideas before she and I settled on the story arc we have today. (Yes, I do believe Zaria helped shape her story.) She was very stubborn and didn’t want to be in a Beauty and the Beast retelling or go to the Drakeland Institute for the Elite with other misfit fairy tale creatures. I kept all the original world-building documents on these ideas and as you can see Drakeland was a name I kept.

The title for the school plot line would have been Zaria Fierce and the Enchantment of the Drakeland Sword and with a small tweak it became the title for this book. I did for a brief time consider Zaria Fierce and the Acquisition of the Drakeland Sword, but that was a bit of a mouthful. I also considered just before publishing book one changing the title for book two to Drakelord Sword, but the connotation was different than I wanted and would have required changing Drakeland to Drakelord everywhere it was mentioned.

Q: Was the second book easier to write than the first book?

Yes and no. Yes, because a lot of the world, characters, and story arc had been defined in the first book. No, because I wanted to ensure the second book counted as much as the first and third in the trilogy. As a reader and blogger, I know a lot of trilogies and series fail to be as gripping in the second book as the first. I didn’t want the second book to fail readers’ expectations. I’m happy to say that if the reactions from my beta readers are any indication, then Zaria Fierce and the Enchanted Drakeland Sword is as good if not better than the first book.

Q: Where do your ideas come from?

I get them from everywhere! I save online articles about things that intrigue me, I follow tourism accounts on social media for settings I liked to place a story in, I research and dive into things various topics, and READING! It’s kind of like the rule of the internet – if you can think of it and can’t find it, make it… or in this case write it.

Q: Who has been your favorite character to write and why?

For the Zaria Fierce trilogy it’s Zaria of course. She came into being long before her story arc came to me. It’s been such a pleasure to go on this journey all over magical Norway with her. I think her message is special and important. Girls can be the heroines of their own stories and lives. It doesn’t mean you have to be alone and it doesn’t mean you have to be brave from the start. It’s about finding out that growing up happens when you take risks and when you keep true to yourself.

Q: Why did you decide to write?

I love reading and I’ve always been creative and had an outlet for that creativity. You could say it started in elementary school writing tons of little illustrated books, then in high school and college I focused on writing poetry, and then I turned to writing fanfic about my favorite stories… and then eventually my own stories. That was a pretty interesting leap for me and a difficult one, not because I couldn’t write, but because I was always second guessing the story ideas. In that way, Zaria Fierce has given me the courage I spoke about in the last question. It’s been thrilling to present my writing to the world.

Q: Where did you overcome writer’s block in Zaria Fierce and the Enchanted Drakeland Sword?

By

A: I set aside writing Zaria Fierce and the Enchanted Drakeland Sword to go over edits for the first book, which took several weeks. When I got back to the second book, I couldn’t remember what I’d been intending to do with the scene I was midway through, or where the story would go next. The idea had been plumb forgotten.

So I had to reread what I’d written. When I got to where I had stopped writing I still couldn’t remember. It felt like the story had stopped and the ideas for the world with it. My previous trick of giving it a day to come to me didn’t work this time. So each day I dabbled at the scene and added pitiful word counts to it. I spent too much time as I added, rewrote, and fleshed out the scene.

I started to wonder if my ending for the third book should be moved up in the timeline and happen in the second. Then I wondered if I did that, what would happen in book three? No es Bueno. I wanted the third book to keep its original ending. What to do?

Eventually, I sat down and pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote down the sequence of events that had already happened in the book. (It was not as detailed as the timeline I wrote for the first book which had a deadline to observe within the story.) Seeing it spelled out that way made it so easy to write down the next sequence of events… and the ones for book three.

I told you, I was both a plotter and a pantser. It takes both to create something magical.