Kristine Rudolph on Process, Tools, and Free Resources
We recently sat down with author Kristine Rudolph, a middle grade and women’s fiction novelist about to go on submission for her latest manuscript. We were impressed by the strength of her manuscript and by Kristine’s acute insights about choosing tools for specific stages in the writing process. We thought this interview with Kristine would keep you inspired over the holiday break!
You recently finished writing a middle grade novel, and we were struck both by its concept and your elegant execution of it. We know you can't say anything about the novel before it goes on submission, but In our quest to help authors refine a process that works for them, we'd love to hear a little bit more about yours.
My process usually starts with a “what if?” question. For example, in a women’s fiction manuscript I wrote years ago, I asked what would happen if a young child disappeared while in the care of her stepmother? From there I usually pull out my beloved yellow legal pad and draft the contours of a narrative arc. It’s very spare — think bullet points. But I need to see the big picture before I write. As I am drafting that bare bones outline, I keep another yellow legal pad where I describe the characters as they evolve in my outlining process. Sometimes it’s just preserving the necessary details — “need a best friend who is from a different school” — and sometimes it’s a general placeholder — “her mother.” Then, once the plot is all out on the legal pad, I go back in and fill out details on my characters. I try to not commit to details about them that I don’t need early in the process, which frees me up to paint them in later. I know some people who won’t write a word until they know their characters better than they know themselves. That’s not me. I try not to box myself in. Once I have the plot laid out and the characters described in a general sense, I start writing the first page.
I used to edit heavily on a daily basis. I would never start writing again until I read and edited everything I’d written last. Now I find that “editor brain” and “creator brain” don’t always play nicely with one another and I don’t do any substantial editing until my first draft is complete. Once I do a few rounds of heavy edits, I always send my work to my longtime critique partner and some other beta readers. Because I write for middle grades now and have two middle grade readers at my house, I have an easily-gathered focus group. With my last manuscript I also relied on readers from The Spun Yarn and was blown away at how helpful the process was.
How long have you been writing, and what role has writing played in your life? How does writing interact with parenthood?
Like many others, I’ve written stories my whole life. I was a history major in college and had the opportunity to write a number of creative pieces based on historical research. Law school on the other hand — I felt like that experience sucked the creativity right out of my skull. It took five years after graduating from law school before I started writing again. I wrote a women’s fiction manuscript that I self-published. I see that book as my “professional writing” launch, so that was sixteen years ago. I’ve written consistently since then and have completed and shopped five different manuscripts.
I could write reams on how fiction writing and parenthood interact. On a basic scheduling level, I’m not the kind of writer who can go in and out of a story easily. I need a solid chunk of time. I work a few other jobs, too, so that means I am very big on time blocking. Once I set writing time on my calendar, that space is sacred. On an emotional level, parenthood makes the highs higher and the lows lower and feeling that intensity of emotion in both directions absolutely fuels everything I do, most especially my writing.
How many manuscripts have you written? What struck you about how different or similar this manuscript's evolution was to your first novel? Do you feel as if you're refining a process, or learning everything all over again?
This is number five! I have written three women’s fiction manuscripts and two middle grade ones. I have worked hard on craft to improve my skills in both drafting and editing. I have also gotten a lot better at “reading” feedback. I used to make every single change suggested. I agonized over them, really. Now I see all feedback as a set of data points. I look for patterns. And I always check the feedback against what my own goals are for the work. I am definitely not learning everything again every time. My first book took ten years from the first typed word to self-publication. The latest book took about six months.
How long did this manuscript take you to write, and how many drafts has it undergone so far?
About six months, although once I signed with an agent she asked for extensive revision and that took another six weeks start to finish. I have no idea how many official drafts there have been, but I can say I’ve done no fewer than a dozen heavy editing passes on it.
What are the resources you'd recommend to other writers who may be undertaking a novel for the first time? What kind of help did you seek out as you were writing?
Oddly, I would say I’ve learned a ton from Twitter. There are a lot of agents there and they talk about the business. Hashtags like #askagent and #amquerying and #amwriting are loaded with free info that can send you down fantastic rabbit holes. It’s also a great place to just get a feel for the current issues in the industry.
Find a writing group of critique partner and stick with them. I cannot stress enough the value of having one person who knows my writing inside and out. She knows my crutches and when I can do better. Plus, the process of helping her with her writing has taught me so much. Her style is very different from my own and sometimes this business can be so isolating that it really helps to have an inside glimpse at how someone else thinks through problems in her own writing.
Join associations and attend their conferences. I’m a member of three and from networking to learning craft to learning the industry to just meeting writer-y people, there is nothing like it.
Any words of encouragement for novelists just starting out?
What I didn’t appreciate when I first started out was that you really, truly *only* learn by doing. You have to write, edit and get feedback, then do it all again. And again. And again. And slowly, through that iterative process, you will improve. Also, I underestimated the amount of energy I needed to spend keeping tabs on the publishing market. You can’t ever forecast what will be a hit, but you can pay attention to the business you want to enter and start to get a feel for the ebb and flow of trends.
Finally, you hear it all the time, but it bears repeating — rejection is absolutely part of the process. It happens to literally everyone on every level. And it will absolutely grind you down. It is emotionally very grueling to hear “no” over and over again. But I think it does help to depersonalize those rejections. The amazing thing about publishing is that while the industry is in a lot of flux, that opens up opportunities for disruption on both the content and delivery levels.
