Kenzie Reed's Blog
August 11, 2022
My creative process is like...
Herding cats, basically.
I'm averaging a book every five to six months, which feels like forever.
I really try to write faster because I have so many stories crowding around in my brain, waiting to be told.
It's just that for me to write a book of the quality that I'll be happy with, it needs multiple drafts, and while I'm writing those drafts, new characters pop up and take on lives of their own and develop crushes on each other and run off and get married. Villains became allies. Allies are secretly villains.
While I'm in the middle of all this it feels like I'm writing absolute drek and I'll never create anything good again. At this point I often go back to my published books and read a few chapters and think, hmm, I actually like what I've written. I may not be the worst writer in history, after all.
But after enough rewrites I finally get to the point where I'm really, genuinely happy with what I've written. Then, and only then, do I publish.
And that is how I write. And that's why it takes me so long.
Thank you for attending my TED talk.
I'm averaging a book every five to six months, which feels like forever.
I really try to write faster because I have so many stories crowding around in my brain, waiting to be told.
It's just that for me to write a book of the quality that I'll be happy with, it needs multiple drafts, and while I'm writing those drafts, new characters pop up and take on lives of their own and develop crushes on each other and run off and get married. Villains became allies. Allies are secretly villains.
While I'm in the middle of all this it feels like I'm writing absolute drek and I'll never create anything good again. At this point I often go back to my published books and read a few chapters and think, hmm, I actually like what I've written. I may not be the worst writer in history, after all.
But after enough rewrites I finally get to the point where I'm really, genuinely happy with what I've written. Then, and only then, do I publish.
And that is how I write. And that's why it takes me so long.
Thank you for attending my TED talk.
April 20, 2021
On reading my own reviews...
I just want to say how much I appreciate readers taking the time to leave a review. I learn from all of them, even from the reviewers who didn't love some or all of what I wrote.
I know Goodreads is for the readers, not the authors, but I do come here to see what's resonating with my readers, what gives them all the feels, what makes them laugh and cry, which heroes give them the swoonies, what they feel is lacking, what leaves them cold, where I may have made an error, etc.
There's always room for improvement. I've been in this business for years and I still come here to learn and to grow.
Also to find new books, which is why Goodreads can be a danger to my wallet and my bookshelf.
All right, back to rough-drafting.
Thanks again for being readers and reviewers!
I know Goodreads is for the readers, not the authors, but I do come here to see what's resonating with my readers, what gives them all the feels, what makes them laugh and cry, which heroes give them the swoonies, what they feel is lacking, what leaves them cold, where I may have made an error, etc.
There's always room for improvement. I've been in this business for years and I still come here to learn and to grow.
Also to find new books, which is why Goodreads can be a danger to my wallet and my bookshelf.
All right, back to rough-drafting.
Thanks again for being readers and reviewers!
