Featured Writer: Kelly Watt
On creating space to write and writing advice.
Welcome to Women Writing! In this week’s feature, Kelly discuss some of the worst advice she’s received as a writer and how it led her to rewrite her book for a different genre. Have you received any advice that hasn’t worked for you? Share your worst advice in the comments below. We’d love to compare notes!
About the author…
Kelly Watt’s latest book is a collection of poetry and prose, titled: The Weeping Degree: How Astrology Saved Me From Suicide, published by Wild Rising Press, Colorado, August 2024. The book became an international Amazon bestseller, August 2024. It was also a finalist in The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards, U.K. where it received a five-star review. Four of the poems were published in the spring issue of HA&L: Hamilton Arts and Letters Magazine (2024.) Watt’s short work has been published internationally and is a frequent flyer on CBC contest lists. She has published two other books: the gothic novel Mad Dog, Doubleday Canada (2001) HSE U.S. (2019), and the mini travel book Camino Meditations, HSE, U.S. (2014). She has lived in five countries but makes her home with her partner in the Ontario countryside, where she is surrounded by coyotes, hawks, the wind in the walnut trees, and the surreal silence of pond goldfish.
On a writing routine …
I write every morning usually five days a week, sometimes Saturdays, and if interrupted by appointments, I just write whenever I can during the day.
On writing spaces …
I have an office, my biggest office ever, in a weirdly shaped room off the laundry room in my house in the country. I write/edit/read there every morning at an L-shaped desk. I have my stepfather's old roll top desk in that room too, and I use it for other things. Writing poetry long hand, for example. It looks onto the chicken coop and isn’t as comfortable to work at for long periods of time. Sometimes I edit a manuscript there, just to sit somewhere new. I find changing locations really helpful, especially if I’m bored or stuck. I also travel a lot so while travelling, I have to change it up. Last winter I was in San Miguel de Allende for the writers' conference in February and I stayed with friends for free, but had to move twice. Neither place had a dedicated desk. So, I erected a pull-out table in one. And in the other apartment, I wrote at one corner of the kitchen table and ate at another. I try to be flexible. My office at home is dark and cozy. I have several lamps, and even a salt lamp behind my computer. Also, a photograph of Einstein. I keep an old phrenology head on my desk and have mounted an old blackboard from a school portable on the wall across from me. I scribble plot lines in chalk and keep a list of upcoming places for submissions or contests there. I put up inspiring quotes in different colours. Right now, I have two pertinent quotes: Write the book you want to write (or read), and, trust the process.
On writing communities …
I don’t have a critique writing group at present and I miss it. I do belong to a group of writing friends however, called the WWRITERS—Women Writers Recklessly in Transit. They met on the Go Train on their way to meetings at The Writers’ Union and formed a group. They kindly let me join them a few years ago and I think I’m the last official member. We attend each other’s launches and local literary events in and around Hamilton and Toronto. Two of the members, writer and reviewer, Ruth Edgett and novelist Janet Turpin-Myers helped me with my last book launch. I’m grateful for their support and friendship. Community is important, writing is such a lonely vocation, and I’ve been a longtime member of TWUC partly for that reason. (Also, because they advocate on our behalf on things like copyright!!!) I’m grateful for the writing buddies that I have. We hold elaborate lunches quarterly at each other’s houses, sometimes read our stuff out loud, sometimes just talk and share about the publishing business. I also try to dedicate time on Instagram and follow other writers and poetry groups, which is my online community.
“The best piece of writing advice I’ve ever received was from one of my teachers, Barbara Turner-Vesselago, which was to always write fearward. In other words, write the things you are afraid to write about. Don’t censor yourself.”
On challenges …
Yes, there are always challenges to writing and they have been different at different points in my life. Initially, it was having to juggle stepchildren and a job. Now, I work part time, so I have more time to devote to writing but my husband has his office at home, so I don’t have the privacy I used to. Also, now I’m juggling several projects, promotion, editing and creation, so I have to be much more organized than I used to be with my time.
On the best writing advice …
The best piece of writing advice I’ve ever received was from one of my teachers, Barbara Turner-Vesselago, which was to always write fearward. In other words, write the things you are afraid to write about. Don’t censor yourself. I often find myself avoiding, editing, skirting difficult chapters or situations or issues that I or my characters are facing—we’re talking pain, embarrassment, mistakes, shame, violence, incongruent inappropriate behaviour or feelings—but these all make great writing. This advice reminds me to do the opposite—to lean into what scares me. I always do my best writing when I surrender to this axiom and write with selfless courage. Because I’ve had some dark and violent experiences in childhood, sometimes I’ve been afraid to write about such things or hesitated to share what I’ve written for fear of traumatizing the other women in the class or retreat. But often the outcome of sharing is surprising. When I approached another teacher with this concern, many years ago, she told me not to hold back. She explained that when we write our deepest darkest truths, it actually gives others permission to do the same.
The advice I give myself is—don’t give up!
On the worst writing advice …
I’ve forgotten most of the bad advice, thank God. The longer I live the more I learn my own intuition is my best guide. Mostly the bad advice has been commercial advice that has steered me off course—you should write your book in this genre because it’s popular, or to this length, or incorporate this political correctness. The truth is publishing is full of trends, and fads, but they are always changing. Writing to trend always leads me astray. I have a novel that I’ve rewritten many times. I wrote it as an adult book about teenage misfits in India, then rewrote it as YA on the advice of others, only to be told that no one would publish YA in Canada anymore. Now I’m rewriting it as an adult book, basically taking it back to what it was, while YA is making a come back in Canada. Ultimately, I think you just have to write the book you would love to read, at any given age you might presently resonate with. I had a friend years ago who told me he was going to write a bestseller with another friend. They never finished the book. It wasn’t a form they enjoyed or read. Ideas have to come from within. Only if I’m wildly in love with a project can I summon the energy, drive, tenacity and mind-numbing hard work it takes to complete a manuscript and make it truly sing. I’m still editing that book about the teen misfits because I love it and believe in it. And if I’m not truly happy with what I’ve written, if I didn’t write it the way I really wanted it to be, I know I will always feel a little let down, a little sad for what it might have been.
On advice from personal experiences …
Study hard, take lots of retreats and classes, read a lot and write a lot. I think there’s a tendency to want the quick fix or immediate success in our digital world, but that is rare and just leads to burn out, imposter syndrome and defeat. It’s what my Buddhist teacher would have called supermarket mind. We think we can buy everything: success, happiness. Think of writing as a spiritual practice. It’s about learning to understand the magic of story, learning skills and widening your consciousness. Usually, it takes years to become a good writer, I think Margaret Atwood is correct on this. Ten years … so many words. But it’s a brilliant adventure and nothing you write is ever wasted. I also think you have to become your own writer and follow your own inner leanings and urgings, your own creative intuition, because it’s the only way something new can be created, something that is distinctly you.
On rekindling creativity …
I rarely feel depleted or like I need to rekindle my creativity, but artists’ dates are inspiring. Other people’s stories are inspiring. Listening, watching, reading and witnessing story in all its forms inspires me. Especially if I resonate with the themes. Movies, poems, novels, short stories. Also, going to hear live music or look at live art. Travel is inspiring and so is rest. Just lying fallow and reading splayed out on the couch is remarkably rejuvenating. Sometimes I think we’re unrealistic about our writing expectations. Nature has periods of blooming and periods of withering and rest. I find lying around reading is often the best thing I can do to recover from a big project. The completion of a novel or a draft. Or going on a holiday or a trip. Changing location. The geographical cure. Sometimes I go to the movies and sit in the dark all day. Occasional retreats can really recharge your batteries. I have a poetry teacher named Judyth Hill who is the queen of enthusiasm. Every once in a while, I take a one day zoom course with her. Not because I need too, but because she inspires me, her love of language, her quirky prompts, just surrendering to someone else’s lead can result in something new and surprising. Also, I love getting together with writing friends. It is so nourishing and fun to be among other lovely creative people. I have a friend who is a fellow writer, and we gift each other favourite books on our birthdays. Our birth dates are only a week apart, so we usually have lunch around that time, and gab and gab and gab about life and art. We complain about publishing. Kvetch about writing. We squander hours. And I always come away renewed every time. Even if I was on the brink of despair and giving up, I come away grateful for her friendship and in love with writing once more.
On a recent publication …
I’m currently alternating between writing a new novel, while editing an old one. In between I’m continuing to promote my collection of poetry and flash prose, The Weeping Degree: How Astrology Saved Me From Suicide. It’s about the herstory of a trauma as it transforms through time from a wound to a gift. The book reads like a novel, and the story begins in the gloom of foster care in a suburb in Ontario, and travels the globe, ending out in a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Nepal. It was described by one reviewer as “a little humour, a lot of brutal honesty.” The Weeping Degree was an Amazon bestseller last August and a finalist in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards (2024). It is currently on a podcast tour. Please check out my website and sign up for my newsletter to get fun mini reviews of books and podcasts and movies and also see where I’ll be reading and offering courses. Thanks for reading. And enjoy your writing!
Kelly’s online spaces …
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Happy writing!
I often get a lot out of these posts, but this one feels especially thoughtful and detailed.
Thank you so much for featuring Kelly Watt. Her insight was very thoughtful I really appreciate hearing her thoughts especially as a new writer of Historical Fiction.