Kimberly Tate's Blog

Colonized, my first novel, is now published and available for purchase on Amazon, here! I’m so excited to be able to share this news, and I’m thrilled to think back on how this all started and see where I am now.

When I was seven, I decided that I wanted to be a writer. I remember sitting in the backseat of my family’s Suburban on a road trip, sunlight flashing through the windows over the tops of trees and fields, illuminating the pages of the Andrew Clements book I was reading: The School Story. In the book, a sixth-grader writes a novel and gets it published. I remember how my heart swelled, how my mind took the idea and ran wild- if she can, why can’t I? 

I remember the first time I wrote a “book.” My best friend and I sat in my kitchen, and orange-gold afternoon sunlight drifted in the giant window behind me. We were in second grade, and we wrote stories together about a girl and her magical pets. Over the next few months, we created a whole series, brainstorming together. I wrote, and she illustrated, and while I laugh at our “books” now, we were so proud of our accomplishments. We thought we would publish those stories; we thought they’d be big.

I pulled a book from the shelf of the public library one day in third grade, a fantasy book. On the back cover was a giant black and white photograph of the book’s author. She was twelve.

If she can, why can’t I?

We used to have author talks once a year at my elementary school. The speakers were usually author-illustrators of picture books, but their speeches always inspired me. I wanted to be at the front of that room, telling kids the story of my story. I got to ask one of the authors a question once, so I asked what advice he had for young writers. I copied his response down into a tiny notebook I carried exactly for that occasion, and I read his words over and over when I got home- just write. Well, I could do that.

I went through stories and stories, draft after draft. My eighth grade year, I started a new project, which I titled Colonized. I didn’t know what to expect from the new story, but I just decided to write and see what happened. I cried when I finished.

And now, I’ve finally published a book. Now, Colonized is out there for anyone to buy- and in fact, my first sale was from someone in Great Britain, and I don’t know a single person there.

The day my copies came in, I couldn’t stop smiling. The writing I’d done had all been online; the hands that typed the words inside my novel had never touched them. Suddenly, my book was tangible, and real. I had done it. I was published.

I accomplished a goal I set when I was seven, and I couldn’t be more excited.

As I’ve been revising Colonized lately, I’ve noticed how strange it is to look back at my characters’ beginnings now that I know where they end up. When I start my books, I rarely know my characters, but by the end, while I still couldn’t give you a clear definition of exactly what each one is like, I feel like I understand them. It’s like making friends with someone– they might be funny, smart, beautiful, and the worst driver on the planet, but just listing those qualities doesn’t tell you who they really are. That knowledge is something acquired over time, and it’s the same with the characters you write as with the people you meet.

But have you ever seen pictures of you and that friend from kindergarten and felt slightly confused? You know them now, and you remember what they were like back then, but looking at the picture reminds you of who they were in a different sense.

That’s what revising’s like. I know who my characters become, and I’m looking back at who they were. It’s hard trying to reconcile the two, especially because something shifted in my writing style between books one and two, but I’m working on it.

The exciting thing, though, is that having written the sequel, I know my characters so much better than I would have if I revised right after writing Colonized. My side characters were so underdeveloped in the first draft, but after Pioneered, I know what role each of them plays, so I’m more able to customize them to fit that in the first book. I originally had my two main characters interacting with two others who ended up being less important; I swapped those two side characters for two who matter more to the overall story.

It is always easier to start when you know where to finish.

I run cross country at my high school. At my first meet, my teammates and I decided to walk the course before the race. We didn’t take a map and got terribly lost, so when I actually ran, I had no idea where I was going. The race felt a lot longer than just a few miles because I didn’t know where to finish. But at a later meet, we walked the course correctly, and the race felt a lot shorter as a result. I knew where I was going, so I knew where I was and how to get there.

That’s what revising Colonized feels like. I can rearrange scenes, manipulate characters, and tweak the world and story to lead to the end. I know where I’m going, so I can make my story work so I can get there.

My book and my characters already seem a lot better because of it.

Whether you’re writing or editing, this pep talk is for you.

Maybe you’ve got the whole day. Maybe you’ve just got an hour or so,  but you’ve decided to write. And maybe you’re staring at your computer screen or at your notebook and you’re just so stuck trying to start.

That’s okay. Starting’s hard. There are a lot of things you want to do when you write, and you just want the words to come out perfectly. It’s frustrating when they don’t. But just remember– just because you’re struggling to start doesn’t mean you aren’t a good writer, or that your story isn’t a good one.

In fact, your idea is brilliant. You’re the only one in the world with the ability to write this story– did you ever think about that? You are the only one who’s ever had this idea. Maybe it’s similar to some other book, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still original. Your story may have been written before, but never by you. You bring your own experiences, your own stories, your own style, and no one else can write your story exactly as you can. You have something worthwhile to say; say it.

Your story is good and deserves to be told. It may not be perfect right now, but it’s not like anything we write is ever perfect. We’re human and make mistakes, so of course that tendency reflects in what we produce as well. Don’t fight that. Just write, and if something isn’t working out, you can always fix it later. But just because there’s a mistake doesn’t mean it’s bad. Just because some of your dialogue flows awkwardly doesn’t mean that you can’t write relationships; just because your action scenes don’t seem fast-paced enough doesn’t mean they’re not still thrilling. You see things that the reader can’t– they are along for the ride, anticipating your next move but still bound by it. You see your story not just for what it is but for all the infinite possibilities of what it could be. It’s overwhelming to have so many options– but just pick. You’re defining your course, your story, and in that you make it yours.

Your characters are a reflection of you and your life, but they’re also their own people. Write them without worrying about how they seem. Try too hard and you’ll sabotage them; just write and you’ll give them space to breathe and live on their own. Your plot doesn’t have to be perfectly defined right now. Plot stems from characters and their agency. Give them that freedom to choose and you’ll end up with a story. Just write and see where it goes. You’ll get where you need to go.

If you’re reading over what you’ve written and it seems boring, it’s probably because you just wrote it. This story has lived with you for a while, so of course it will seem overdone and plain. But someone else won’t see it that way.

And think about this– someday, you’ll be someone’s favorite author. They’ll love your book. Your characters will motivate them to live a more exciting life. Your story will provide hours of entertainment for any number of people.

You’re a good writer, even if you’re just starting out– half of being a good writer is just writing. You just have to sit down and type out some words. Anyone can do that, but not everyone does, and you do. That’s what makes you a writer.

Your book isn’t going to be like your favorite book, but that doesn’t mean it’s not as good. Don’t keep anything in mind while you write, because if you’re trying to imitate something or someone else, your own creativity can’t shine through. You’re bringing something new to the world as you write, something that’s never been heard before. You use the same 26 letters as everyone else, but your combination of words has never been written. Isn’t it amazing that with all that’s been done there’s still more to do? And your job is to do it.

So write! Express your story. Have some fun. Don’t criticize it just yet (or at all) because it’s good and deserves to be written. You’re going to do great.

Have a fantastic writing day.

One of the strangest things about writing is research. Whenever I go on Pinterest, I see screenshots of Tumblr conversations where writers complain about how weird their search histories must look. They’re always funny to read, but they’re definitely relatable, because when you’re writing, you end up searching a lot of strange things. For instance, there was a time where I could list the types of rice that never expired and the types that didn’t, because some of my characters had to raid a Wal-Mart that closed half a century earlier. (If you were wondering, I think it’s white, arborio, basmati, and jasmine. Brown rice expires though.)

My school district recently became 1:1, so every student is given a school laptop. Because of this, they lectured a lot about “digital citizenship” and how careful you have to be with your digital footprint. I was thinking about this while I was researching today, because what would someone think about me if they just saw my random writing searches with no explanation? I was reluctant to even search online at all because of this.

But finally I caved and Googled what the best way to pick someone up was.

The first search was a mistake– I ended up with pickup lines, directions for the best way to rendezvous at LAX, and YouTube videos about how to lift drunk friends from the floor. Not what I was looking for. But the second search was better, and the first result?

A bodybuilder forum about the best way to pick up your girlfriend.

I needed the information, so I clicked on it, and it was probably one of the strangest conversations I’ve ever read online. It was a group of these super built men talking about how they like to lift their girlfriends like they’re lifting weights and the best way to give them piggyback rides.

It was very, very weird, but I got what I came for, and then I got off.

But I just think it’s funny all the weird things you come across while writing! This one time I ended up on some medical forum trying to learn about CPR; another time I was on some apocalypse prepper site (that was for the rice.) I’ve been on sites that convert numbers to binary code, looked up pictures of what New York would look like underwater, and read about the legal rights of extraterrestrials. I think it’s so strange that these things even exist on the internet, and that somehow I found them. They all just seem so out there, the kind of things you’d discover after clicking all the hyperlinks you can find, but they come up first thing when you search.

I guess my searches are part of what makes it so weird.

I mean, I probably sound like such a strange person because of this! I always think those Pinterest Tumblr people seem like they’re trying so hard to push the fact that they’re a writer and that this is what writers do, but it really is! It’s just so, so weird what you end up Googling when you write.

It’s so weird.

I don’t really have any advice about how to make your searches less weird, because usually you know what you’re searching for and you’re doing it for a reason. But I still just wonder what someone would think if they saw that I was on some bodybuilder forum. I guess just search what you need to, find the answer, and then go write.

So that’s my random research story! Have any of you had any funny experiences with this? Let me know in the comments!

[image error]It’s summer break, but like during the school year, I’ve been very busy. I have a summer job, and so it’s been difficult to find time to write, and especially difficult to find the motivation to do so. I haven’t written in a little while for this reason (and I definitely need to!) but at the start of the summer, I actually wrote a lot. And this had a lot to do with one of my friends who also writes.

My friend is currently working on a story on Wattpad. It’s very well written, and you can tell she enjoys writing it. It’s set in World War II, and on the way to work in the mornings, we’d listen to some CDs she had of WWII-era music. This led to conversations about her book, and this made me think about mine. Whenever she would talk about her project, it inspired me to write, too.

We worked together for a few weeks, and we would carpool to work and then home afterwards. It was just the two of us in the car, and we talked all the time, especially about writing. This constant exposure to writing made me want to write all the time. I’d get home and go write, or I’d write on my break. It was incredibly helpful just being with a friend who wanted to talk about writing.

Writing friends can also help you brainstorm, like when my other friend helped me figure out the plot for my newest project. We spent a few hours talking about my idea, and this also led to a conversation about the story she’s working on, too. Sometimes just talking about writing is enough to make you want to write.

I’ve also had friends volunteer to help me edit my books, and I’ve worked on editing theirs. Both people benefit, and it’s fun to have a part in helping shape their final versions of their stories.

Whenever I need someone to talk to about writing– if I’m stuck, or something great has happened– I text or call one of them. After I sent my first queries a while ago, I called one of my friends and freaked out over the phone, because it was such a big deal and I was incredibly nervous.

It’s so important to have friends who write, because they inspire you to write as well!

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I find music to be an extremely helpful writing resource, but I also find it impossible to write while listening to music. Editing, yes, but writing? I just get too distracted! For brainstorming, though, music is a great tool and very inspirational. I found some good songs that have helped me brainstorm and thought I’d share them!

For me at least, the songs have to be more poetic in nature, or tell a story of some sort. It’s best when I don’t know exactly what the story is, because then it could be anything. 

Recently I started listening to this one band called Sleeping at Last. Their songs are perfect for brainstorming. My favorite albums by them are Atlas: Space and Atlas: Darkness. The music is really good and the lyrics are amazing. I highly recommend listening to them for inspiration! 

Some other songs I like for writing:

All Too Well by Taylor Swift 
Broken Frame by Alex & Sierra
Ceasefire by for KING & COUNTRY
One by U2
Paralyzed by Against the Current (a lot of their songs are good for writing actually)
People Like Us by Kelly Clarkson
Shatter Me by Lindsey Stirling
Viva la Vida by Coldplay
100 Years by Five for Fighting

Bastille and Imagine Dragons are also great bands to listen to for writing inspiration. 

All of these songs just really make me think about my stories, and they’re fun to listen to as well!

I had a book idea about a year or two ago, but I was so busy with Pioneered that I didn’t start writing it. I’ve kept thinking about it, though, and I had a lot of time to develop it. Now that I’m finished writing Pioneered, I have some time to get started on it. 

I went over to one of my friends’ houses and she helped me plan. She drew a picture of my character for me, since she can draw and I can’t. I also have a really hard time visualizing characters- I don’t really see a movie in my head when I read or write like some people do. It’s a little different for me- it’s blurry, like I’m seeing everything occur underwater, but I understand it perfectly. Reading is more about feelings to me- what the character feels like, in the way that you know the meaning of a word without really being able to define it. Her drawing helped me visualize my character a bit. 

I also lacked a plot. When I have ideas, I usually just get premise, and that’s it. I have no idea what the actual story is going to be. In a lot of my books, I just kind of went along with it and figured out the plot along the way. It’s a bit more like real life that way- but it doesn’t have the structural component of a story, and as I’ve been querying for Colonized I’ve found that a bit difficult. So for this new idea, I was determined to have a plot in mind before I started writing, and talking to my friend helped me figure that out. She gave me a lot of ideas that I know I’m going to end up using, and she helped me solidify my pre-existing ideas. My story still has the same premise it did before, but the ideas have changed a bit, and I have a plot in mind. 

Writing friends are a must-have.

The problem, though, was actually starting the book. I should have started right when I got home from my friend’s house- right when I was excited about all these new ideas. But I had a bunch of exams coming up, so I postponed it for a few weeks.

Last night, I decided to start.

I always forget how strange it is to start a new book. There’s so much possibility on that blank page, but it’s kind of threatening in that way. You can literally write anything.

And what I realized while I wrote the first five paragraph of my story was that I don’t know my character yet. I know her story- I know what her life’s going to look like for the next 70,000 words. I know where she’s from and where she’s going. I know all the trouble she’s going to face, and I know the revelations she’s going to have along the way. I know her family members and her history and her fourth grade best friend, but I don’t know her. 

The voice was the strange part. I started writing, and she sounded completely different than any character I’d written before. I guess I just wasn’t expecting that, and it surprised me. I don’t consciously control my writing style- I just write. So it was weird to find myself writing in this character’s voice, and to realize that I don’t know what she sounds like. I don’t know how she describes things yet. I know her future and her past, but I don’t know her mind. 

I think there’s something amazing and so fun in the fact that the author gets to discover their character along the way, just as the reader does. 

I love having friends who write. We don’t always write similar things- one of my friends is querying for fantasy right now, one is working on a sci-fi book of sorts, one writes poetry, and one is in the middle of writing this really amazing Marvel fanfiction. They’re all amazing writers and have wonderful writing styles, so I enjoy reading their works no matter what genre they are. And I enjoy talking about writing with them maybe even more.

I had no idea how many other teen writers there were until I started talking about writing, but it was crazy once I knew! I’ve had “writing days” with them where we literally just biked to the library and wrote, or we’ve talked about character development and writer’s block for hours, on top of all the other fun stuff we do. My “writer friends” aren’t just writers- they are my friends as well, and writing isn’t what defines any of us. It’s just one thing we all love doing, among many other things.

It’s wonderful being able to get advice from them, and sometimes I give advice, even though I’m fairly inexperienced and clueless. And one of my friends gave me some really good advice the other day. I was telling her about how I had really bad writer’s block, how I was bored with my story and just wanted to be done writing it. I’m getting close to the end of Pioneered and had recently had an idea for a new story, and I wasn’t quite sure how Pioneered was going to wrap up. I just wanted it to be over!

What my friend told me was, write what you love. If you don’t like your current book, hurry up and get done with it. Take a weekend, stay up until 1 am, get it over with. Or take a break and write something else. Or find a way to love it.

So I decided to just try to finish, and I ended up finding a way to love what I was writing in the moment as well.

I wrote a really crappy chapter. It was boring and it wasn’t going anywhere. My issue was that Pioneered switches between my two main characters, Jace and Twix. It was Jace’s chapter, but he wasn’t really up to anything. Colonized was a little different, because the two characters were always together, so I could pick up the end of the chapter with the next character with no problem. But the geographic separation of the two in Pioneered meant that I couldn’t do that. I essentially had two storylines going on, and while I really just wanted to write one of them, I was stuck writing the other as well.

But I decided to go ahead and write Jace’s chapter and change up my plans a little bit, and I ended up really liking the chapter I wrote. And its conclusion made me happy. There’s still unresolved stuff, so I probably have about two or three more chapters to go, but I’m at a word count that I’m pleased with, and I’m getting so close to finishing. I wrote what I loved, and that made it easier to continue writing what I love.

Sometimes, when you feel stuck, you just have to change something. You just have to take a chance and see where it goes. Sometimes plans change, and that can be the really exciting part of writing. I don’t always know where my story is going to end up when I start writing, so I get to experience that uncertainty just as my readers will, just as my characters do.

I had block because I was trying to write something I didn’t care about. But writing should be fun. It’s something I choose to do, not something I have to do. That was the mindset I needed to change, and writing something I loved help me to do that.

[image error]I hadn’t heard the term filler chapter until I was maybe twelve, and I while I’d struggled with those chapters in the past, I hadn’t had a name for them. My first serious book that I tried to write (okay, “serious”,) was about this girl who went in her mess of a closet and found a door that led to another world. I had a ridiculous amount of trouble trying to write this book, because I kept getting stuck. I knew how I wanted the book to start, and I knew how I wanted it to end, but I couldn’t get through the middle. It was filler, and I didn’t know it yet.

It took me three weeks to write the latest chapter of Pioneered. I started it over winter break and then had very little time to write during school. What’s more, I didn’t know what I wanted to have happen in that chapter. I knew how it had to end, and where it needed to start- but not what would be in the middle.

It was filler.

I’m not incredibly proud of this chapter. Nothing important happened; the dialogue was pointless; it dragged on and on until finally it ended. There was some good thought and I did enjoy the end, but before that, I struggled to get through it. And over and over, I just wanted to delete it and start over. But I didn’t.

See, I made a mistake a few weeks ago of trying to get critiques on a book while I was writing a different one. That was a terrible idea, and I should have known better, because I’ve made that same mistake maybe five or separate times and have regretted it each one. Once you get critiques, once you start looking at even one work for things you need to change, you can’t stop. You’re writing, and you realize, that’s a horrible sentence. Or you have a critique about your dialogue (which was kind of really awful) for another book, and you find that in this draft, every bit of dialogue you write is also kind of really awful, and you just want to fix it right then and there. You’re stuck thinking critically about your work, and you can’t even write because of it!

That’s why I’m against editing while I write. Some writers will do this- they’ll type up a chapter and spend a week or so fixing it before moving on to the next one. And while this would definitely save me the headache of trying to fix a lot of stuff at once (more on revisions another day), I find that I can’t write when I’m thinking too hard about the way my writing sounds.

And then I get blocked.

So I took three weeks to write 2,100 words.

Usually I can do that in a day, if I have the time.

I often have this trouble at the start of a chapter- it’s hard to get started, and it all sounds terrible until you get in the rhythm of writing. In fifth grade, when I was still trying to write my book about the closet, I complained about block to a friend’s mom, who is a writer. I used to keep a little notebook with me, and whenever I met an author, I’d ask them for advice. I’d write down their responses in this little Vera Bradley notebook I got as a party favor in fourth grade, and I’d smile for having this collction of tips. My friend’s mom told me, “If you have writer’s block, just sit yourself down and make yourself write a hundred words.”

Just a hundred words. That’s it. And those first few words are going to be rough, but then you’ve started, and the next hundred won’t be so bad. It’s like riding a bike- you wobble a bit when you first get on, but then your momentum propels you forward.

This chapter wasn’t great, especially not at the start, but it picked up towards the end. And the next one will be better. I can fix those wobbly words later- the important thing was getting on the bike.

And now I can ride.

It started snowing on Friday when I was in fourth period, and by sixth, the snow was still falling- big, fat flakes blowing by on the wind, collecting on the ground. My chemistry classroom overlooks a courtyard in the middle of my school, and my friends and I gathered at the window to watch the snow fall. We get snow maybe once a year in the part of Texas where I live, so there’s always a collective feeling of excitement and awe among my classmates when it starts to fall. It’s a magical, surreal moment, and we all get to experience it together.

The bell rang, we went to our seats, and our teacher gave us our assignment. It was a worksheet that we could do with a friend if we wanted, so I moved my desk next to one of my friends. She was listening to music, and I got my phone and earbuds to do the same. I opened my phone up to turn on Pandora and saw a few email notifications. Frowning, I opened my email. PSAT scores released a few days before that, so most people in my class have been getting college emails pretty frequently. I was expecting that there would be more. I can’t stand the red bubbles showing notifications, so I was just going to click on the emails to get them to go away and read them later.

I stopped.

There was an email in my writing account.

Internally, I groaned. It was definitely Twitter. I got a writing Twitter at some point last year, and I honestly never use it, but it sends me emails nonstop. And even though I’ve tried to unsuscribe from the emails about five times, they still send! It annoys me to no end. So I was just going to go delete it.

But instead of seeing recommendations of people to follow or highlights I just had to see, the subject line said Query.

My heart stopped.

I opened the email.

It was a response.

A response.

Quickly, I skimmed through. At the bottom of the first paragraph, I saw that it was a rejection.

I think I was more nervous than surprised. My heart wouldn’t stop racing, the nerves accelerating after I’d found out the results. And my hands were shaking. I pushed my phone to my friend to see.

I didn’t get much of my worksheet done that class.

I just couldn’t get over the fact that I actually got a response. Yes, it was a no- but I’d honestly expected that. I was amazed that the agent took the time to reply! If you don’t know much about querying yet, usually what they’ll do is tell you, either on the agency’s website or in an auto-reply email, that if you don’t recieve a response in 6-8 weeks, they’ve decided not to request more. Most agents just get a lot of emails and simply can’t respond to all of them. But this agent wrote out a response to me! And it was very kind, too. She told me that she was impressed by my “drive and professionalism,” especially since I’m a teen writer, and encouraged me to keep querying. She said she wasn’t taking on too many new projects right now, but that I should keep trying to get my work published.

It was very nice of her to say that, and it made me really happy. I wasn’t upset about the rejection- quite the opposite. This proved that an agent had found my book interesting, and though she didn’t want to take on my project, she thought that it had the potential for someone else to.

She thought I had potential.

So in chemistry class on a snowy Friday, I got my first response from an agent, and I started to dream.