Happy Monday, friends! Shannon here to introduce our very last 2018 Summer Panelist (sobs!).
Please welcome author Kim Culbertson to the blog! I met Kim at an author dinner a few years back and was immediately taken by her smarts. I love hearing her talk about the journey and the craft of writing and I know you’ll see exactly what I mean when you read her answers.
 |
| Shan and Kim at a dive only redeemable by its twinkle lights and conversation. |
Let me tell you a little bit more about the author herself:
KIM CULBERTSON is the author of the YA novels Songs for a Teenage Nomad (Sourcebooks 2010), Instructions for a Broken Heart (Sourcebooks 2011), which was named a Booklist Top Ten Romance Title for Youth: 2011 and also won the 2012 Northern California Book Award for YA Fiction, Catch a Falling Star (Scholastic 2014), The Possibility of Now (Scholastic 2016), which was named a Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year (2017 edition), and The Wonder of Us (Scholastic 2017). Much of her inspiration comes from her background teaching high school since 1997. In 2012, Kim wrote her eBook novella The Liberation of Max McTrue for her students, who, over the years, have taught her far more than she has taught them. Kim lives in Northern California with her husband and daughter.
We’ll talk a little about Kim’s books on Wednesday, but her dedication as a teacher and her work with the National Writing Project Writers Council are truly inspiring. I can’t wait to learn from her this week. So let’s get to it.
Today’s panel question is:
Kim: I feel like my empathy is a big strength; it is essential to my writing – to be able to put myself in my characters’ minds and hearts and try to understand why they make the choices they do. But my empathy can also get in the way of writing darker, more innately devious and terrible characters because I always try to believe they see themselves as justified or right and this softens them. I’ve had many readers over the years tell me that I love my characters too much, that I too often see good in people where there isn’t any. I used to feel like, “That’s a good thing!” but I do also see their point. There is a certain naiveté in believing people have good in them when they keep showing us otherwise. And it does keep me from writing truly wicked villains in the way some writers can, but I am coming to grips with that about my work. I prefer the messier, flawed characters who have both good and bad sides to clearly good or bad types of characters. Maybe this is because, for the most part, I have rarely encountered pure villains in my ordinary life. Sometimes people are broken or narcissistic or sheltered, but not evil at their hearts. Flawed people. And, yes, some are more flawed than others. I hope to keep playing with this idea in my future work.
Steph: I’m excellent at the discipline required to finish a novel. I’m rarely distracted by my messy house or social media. I’m trying to improve on my descriptive language. That’s always been a struggle for me, coming up with ways to prettily and efficiently describe.
Jill: I think I’m pretty good at worldbuilding–at creating a place that feels real, sometimes eerily so. I’m always looking to improve my plot structure and pacing. My books often take a while to get going. Perhaps it’s the epic fantasy genre, I don’t know. But I’d love to change that.
Shan: I love these answers! I identify with both Steph and Kim regarding empathy and discipline. I know what it takes to get a novel done and I’m not afraid to sit down and do it. The empathy thing can definitely get in the way, but is also so crucial. I think my biggest strength comes in a similar vein to that. I have no qualms crawling into a character’s head and working to see the world as they see it. It can be exhausting at times, but it’s a real strength.
Like Jill, my greatest weakness is probably structure. My own writing process is so valuable to the creative flow in my head, but it can work against me at times in the structure department. I’m actively working to improve here.