Episode Transcript
Danielle Grandinetti: [00:00:00] Welcome to A Spot of Story with Danielle Grandinetti. Cozy up with your favorite beverage as we chat about sweet romance, thrilling suspense, and fascinating history. Perhaps you'll find your next read in one of these stories.
On this episode of A Spot of Story, we're diving into the craft of storytelling with author Jill Kemerer.
Jill, a Publishers Weekly bestselling author of heartwarming, emotional, small-town romance novels, often featuring cowboys. Nearly a million of her books have sold worldwide. Jill's essentials include coffee, caramels, a stack of books, and long walks outdoors.
She resides in Ohio with her husband. They have [00:01:00] two adult children. For more information, visit her website, jillkemerer.com.
We're gonna be talking today about Jill's book, Creating a Writing Life. Jill, I'm excited to have you here.
Jill Kemerer: Well, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Danielle Grandinetti: As soon as I saw the cover of your book, I was like, okay, I need to read this. And then when the opportunity to interview you came up, I was, like, doubly excited.
Jill Kemerer: I was excited too. Thank you. I really appreciate all you do to help, you know, readers find books by authors like me.
Danielle Grandinetti: You're very welcome, and you're one of my favorite authors as a reader, so this is doubly exciting.
Jill Kemerer: Gosh, you're just making my day here.
Danielle Grandinetti: You're welcome.
Jill Kemerer: Thank you.
Danielle Grandinetti: So your book, Creating a Writing Life, is encouragement and advice for authors and writers. Bestselling lists, fame, and financial rewards don't compromise your [00:02:00] writing life. They're products of it. I love that description. This book will help you figure out the day-to-day decisions to help you achieve your writing dreams. Where and when do you write best? What equipment do you need? How do you handle envy, rejection, long droughts between writing contracts? Creating a Writing Life gives you the tools to manage every aspect of your career, including income expectations, and how to handle success.
Author Jill Kemerer has experienced all this and more in her writing career, and this book will launch you into yours. What are you waiting for? Let's get started creating your writing life.
Would you like to add anything about the inspiration behind you writing this particular book?
Jill Kemerer: Sure. I had the idea for a book like this probably five or six years ago, but it was always just something that I thought, oh, well, maybe down the road I'll have time. And I realized I never had [00:03:00] time because you know how writing is, you always have that next exciting thing that comes up.
And so approximately four years ago I thought, what if I just started writing it here and there, like in between, just a little bit each day type of thing? So I came up with an outline and I quickly wrote, you know, a few thousand words. I don't remember how many. And then it just sat there. It sat for months.
I didn't even touch it for months. And I'm like, wow, that, no, that's not gonna work, you know? So I said, okay, I'm gonna do this, but I'm gonna have to do it in 30-minute increments. And so I ended up just writing the book in 30-minute increments over, you know, several months, and that was three years ago now.
And so then I still had to keep kind of, um, finding ways to fit it in. And I finally, finally have it done. And I'm glad it took [00:04:00] me that long because over even those past four years, I've learned so much more and I was able to talk to even more writers. To get more insight into all these topics.
So, what started out as one thing became much more, um, I don't know what the word is, not complex, but I guess just more complete. And I'm sure in five years it would be even better, but it has to get out there somehow. Sometime.
Danielle Grandinetti: Right, right.
Wonderful, wonderful. It sounds, I love all the different aspects that you included in it. Did you have a favorite topic that you dived into in the book?
Jill Kemerer: I love them all. Um, but for me, the time management portion. Really about how we have to kind of plan our writing into our day. It doesn't just happen. That is one that is near and dear to my heart. Um, because I [00:05:00] struggle with it all the time.
I'll get into a great groove and, you know, a couple months I'll be like, oh, I'm doing great. And then a month will go by and everything just fell apart. It's like I forgot everything, so I have to go back and figure out what I'm doing wrong. So that is definitely the topic that is closest to me.
Danielle Grandinetti: And encouraging for writers who are just beginning to recognize that someone who has the number of books you have already under your belt still struggles with something that beginning writers like it's across the board no matter how many books you have.
Jill Kemerer: Something that I think I will always.
Always struggle with. Yeah. And I think part of it is just because I know my personality. I've been this way since I was a little kid. I like to dive into something and just focus only on that and I wanna pour all my energy into that. [00:06:00] And then when it's done, you're like, oh, this is great. Now I can, you know, make time for all these things.
But then I'm always just kind of jumping into that next big project and all those little things. They, you know, they don't really, they're getting crammed in. So I've had to figure out how to balance that more where I am focusing a big part, part of my day on this, this important, you know, big project, but also getting those other things done.
Danielle Grandinetti: Right, right. I can see this book is gonna help me too. 'Cause I am the same way.
Jill Kemerer: Yeah. Just warning you, you're always gonna fight it if you're like me, so.
Danielle Grandinetti: Yes.
Jill Kemerer: Yeah.
Danielle Grandinetti: Finding a way to work with it as opposed to letting it get you down and stall you out.
Jill Kemerer: Yeah. Well I've been there many times.
Danielle Grandinetti: Yes. So what can readers expect when they open this [00:07:00] particular book?
Jill Kemerer: Okay, well the book is, um, short chapters. It's a lot of chapters, so there's eight parts. All of them are dealing with some aspect of the writing life, and my goal was to have it to be really accessible for busy writers. So you can just pick it up and read just one chapter. That might only be a page or two.
Get something out of it and set it down. And even if you don't come back to it for a week. You're not really missing out. You can just pick up where you left off. I think we're all time crunched and it's not just time crunched, it's like technology crunch. Like we just, it's hard to want to sit with a nonfiction book for a long portion of time, like a novel will just draw you in and you'll wanna keep reading.
You're like, I need to, I've gotta know what happens next. But nonfiction is a little different, so I just wanted it to be [00:08:00] bite size pieces of information.
Danielle Grandinetti: Do readers need to read chronologically or can they jump to a topic that's very applicable for them?
Jill Kemerer: I would say they can just jump to the topic.
They might be better off reading an entire part, like, you know, for instance, there's a section, um, on, uh, well, I don't even remember. Let me look. I've got the book here. Okay. So part two is your writing process. And that involves, um, how to cultivate ideas, how to capture ideas, how to keep coming up with ideas. That might help if you're reading all of those together. But, but you don't have to, I mean, you can, you can get something out of just one chapter. It's, it's not, you are not gonna be missing anything if you skip [00:09:00] around.
Danielle Grandinetti: Wonderful, wonderful. 'Cause I know, different writing craft books or different, you know, have different aspects of how to make the, best use of them. So that helps.
Jill Kemerer: Yeah.
It's not really, I don't feel like it's, I feel like there's a natural se sequence to the layout, but I don't believe that it's like building on, building on itself so that you have to master this part before you can skip to this part. That's not, that's not this type of book.
Danielle Grandinetti: Awesome. Awesome. What would your, so of, of the main, you said there are eight parts to it? What are the eight parts?
Jill Kemerer: Well, again, I have the book here so I can I don't have to remember.
Part one is your current writing life. This is really, going into my past about my writing life before I was a published author and then as I was a published author. How to evaluate your current writing life, what equipment you're gonna [00:10:00] need the best time to write, all of that type of stuff.
Then we get into part two, which is your writing process. And this is really about, ideas. Are you a pants, are you a plotter? How do, how does story come to you best and how can you, you know, enhance that and work with that instead of trying to fit yourself into a mold that you're just never going to fit into, which, you know, we often try to do as novelists.
And then just also like evaluating your strengths and weaknesses. I think that's really important and gets easier as you get along in the journey.
The third part is the hard times when nothing's going right, when you're getting rejections, when everything nothing's happening and you don't know why. Um, you know, all of that is in part three, the hard times.
And then part four, uh, that is things we don't talk about. And this, I felt was really [00:11:00] important because this is the information that you want, but you can never find just by doing a Google search. It's, this is the stuff that other you hear from other writers when you're at a writer's group or you're at a retreat and you really wanna know this information, but you don't know the best way to go about it.
So these are things like the costs of being an aspiring writer. How much income do authors make? Expectations, the financial side of writing, those are all in that, that part. Also working with an agent. Those are, you know, we talk about agents, oh, which agent should I go with? Which agent should I, but we don't really talk about how you work with the agent. What is what does that look like? Right.
And then the fifth part is your people, finding your peers, finding other writers. Also dealing with envys in that one, because that's part of your people.
Danielle Grandinetti: It's true.
Jill Kemerer: Unfortunately. Sometimes your [00:12:00] people skyrocket to success while you're just sitting there. Um, and it's like you want them to be successful. You also want you to be successful, so.
Danielle Grandinetti: Right, right.
Jill Kemerer: That can be tough.
Part six is thrive. How do we thrive as writers? Especially this is more for seasoned authors. You've written several books. How do you maintain that joy of writing? How do you overcome some of these common writing problems that stall us out in a manuscript?
The seventh part is finding your readers, and this is really about marketing and promotion and platform. It's not a long, don't worry, it's not long. You can get through that one quick.
And then the final part is, um, a successful writing life. This is really going into what success looks like for you. How are you going to celebrate it? How are you going to celebrate success along the way because [00:13:00] success is finishing the first draft of a novel. Success is sending it off to a critique partner. It's sending it off to an editor. These are things that we don't always look at as success because we see that, oh, you hit a bestseller list, or that, that success, but that's, that's not the only success. The success is also just in accomplishing these day-to-day things.
So that is the book in a nutshell.
Danielle Grandinetti: That's wonderful. Thank you. Would you say it is geared more toward aspiring writers with one or two books under their belt? Or can it be used by authors who have multiple books? 'Cause you'd mentioned both in your descriptions.
Jill Kemerer: I feel like. Any author, no matter where they're at on their journey, can get something new out of this book. But I think aspiring writers will get the most outta this book. Or even the authors who maybe they've published [00:14:00] one or two books, um, like you said, I think they're going to get the most because they've probably been around the block the least amount of time. They haven't they haven't developed these relationships where they can find out this information from other writers. So. I think they'll probably get the most out of this, but I've had, um, I've had multi published authors say, oh, you made me think about, um, like approaching a series in a different way or, you know, something like that. So I think anyone can get something outta the book.
Danielle Grandinetti: Wonderful. It's, it's sometimes hearing that's why that, that author community part is so important. 'cause we can always see something from another perspective that puts something we've been doing for a while in a better light and actually can make us a better writer because we learned from somebody else.
Jill Kemerer: Oh, I agree. I would not be where I'm at without all of the just insights and encouragement from [00:15:00] other writers. I've just learned so much from other writers.
Danielle Grandinetti: Yes, yes, same. Very much, very much. With that in mind, what do you hope,, a reader will take away from this book?
Jill Kemerer: Well, I really hope that they understand that when they're in a discouraging place, they're, they're just feeling you know, frustrated, discouraged where they are like, I should be further ahead, or This isn't going to happen, or, why did this happen when they're in that spot? I really hope that they understand that they're not alone, that their situation is not unique. This isn't the first time this has happened to anyone.
It's happening to other people right now, no matter what's happening. It could be their publisher dropped them for no reason, or they, sent in a, a book and it got rejected even though [00:16:00] they're multi published or just, you know, it, all of the, the gamut of things that we run through as authors. And I really just hope that they, they can pick this book up and recognize, oh, I'm not alone. I, I can get through this. There is a, a destination still for me on this writing path. I just have to keep on going.
Danielle Grandinetti: Yes.
Jill Kemerer: So I just want them to be encouraged. And you know what? Honestly, if it is the end, if this is like they've given it their all and you've reached the end of the road then maybe you would feel some peace about it after reading this book? Um, I hope not. I hope you keep going. And ultimately I really just hope that this book is like sitting across from me in a coffee shop. We're having a delicious hot beverage and we're just talking, you know, we're just talking like you and I are today um, that's, that's ultimately the [00:17:00] goal like, just feel like you're just having a conversation with me.
Danielle Grandinetti: Learning from somebody who has been there and is willing to share some of those, they're not secrets, but they're the hard, you know, the other side of the coin that doesn't get talked about a lot because we like to put on that, um, you know, the shiny side. And, you know, and that's the part we all hear.
Jill Kemerer: We should though. I mean, we are professionals and this is our business and it's our job. So if we're constantly airing our, you know our insecurities and the, the problems that we're having then that does affect how readers and other people see us. They are seeing us less as successful, you know, as less successful. And we want, we don't want that, the image to be we be, be putting across.
Danielle Grandinetti: Exactly. So it's like this, this, um, challenge of [00:18:00] welcoming in aspiring authors and letting, helping them see how it, you know that their challenges aren't, they're not isolated in those challenges, but also have that professional image of, you know, you wanna celebrate the successes in the new book and the new contract. 'Cause that's the exciting part. And we don't wanna dampen that either.
So it's, that's true. Yeah. I agree very much.
Is there one thing you would love to leave listeners with today?
Jill Kemerer: I guess if, if you're a writer, I just would hope that you would. Just ex just keep on going on your journey. Don't worry what the journey looks like. It might be long, it might have a lot of winding roads. It might go straight up a mountain. Um, you don't know, but it's worth taking. It really is. If you have those stories on your heart or whatever, it can be nonfiction, a [00:19:00] novel, then just keep going with it. Don't worry about the results so much. Um, the journey, honestly, is worth it.
Danielle Grandinetti: I love that the journey is worth it very, very much. I, as an author, I can agree. Yeah. Very much.
Jill Kemerer: Exactly.
Danielle Grandinetti: Thank you Jill, for joining me today and talking about your new nonfiction book, Creating a Writing Life. Again, I love the title 'cause it really is, it's, it's all-encompassing, you know, creating the life that we want to, um, have as authors.
Jill Kemerer: Well, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate this.
Danielle Grandinetti: You're very, very welcome.
Listeners, thanks for tuning in as we explore the craft of storytelling. You can find additional resources and show notes on the episode page and be sure to check there for a link of where to find Jill and her books online.
[00:20:00] Thank you for listening to A Spot of Story with Danielle Grandinetti. We hope you enjoy today's conversation. Let us know by leaving a comment below and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Discover more information about today's book by visiting A Spot of Story online at daniellegrandinetti.com/podcast.
Happy reading.
