Episode 38 with guest author - Kylie Orr

Ask the Author Podcast Transcript

Episode 38, 27 February 2024 \ Subscribe

Ready for the best piece of writing advice ever? Jodi Gibson, author of REINVENTING EMILY BROWN shares a tip that will transform your craft.

Intro

In the intro, Jodi Gibson talks about her new format of a monthly published author to answer your questions! Her very first guest is domestic noir author, Kylie Orr.

Show Notes

• About this week’s guest, Kylie Orr.
• What's the most surprising thing you've discovered about being an author?
• What's your best piece of practical advice to get published that you would offer an aspiring author?
• Do you suffer from imposter syndrome and what do you do to move past it?

Episode Transcript

One episode per month, I'm excited to bring in a guest author to answer not one, not two, but three quickfire questions from listeners. I love hearing different perspectives from different writers, which I'm sure you do too, so each author is going to add their own spin, their own twist on some of the common and interesting topics on writing and publishing. So, without further ado, let's get cracking and I'll introduce you to our very first guest author.

Kylie Orr is the author of dark and twisty contemporary fiction. Her debut novel, Someone Else's Child, was longlisted in the Ritual Prize and published by Harper Collins in 2022. Her second novel, The Eleventh Floor, hit shelves in February 2024. Through her books, Kylie delves into the complex stories of everyday people and their secret lives behind closed doors. Kylie lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her four children and just the one husband. Now I'll just give you a brief rundown of Kylie's latest novel, The Eleventh Floor, which I have read and it is an absolute page turner. This is the blurb for The Eleventh Floor.

Will one mother's lie cost another woman her life? Sleep deprived, struggling and at breaking point? First time, mom Gracie Michaels books one night alone at the Maxwell Hotel a king-size bed all to herself, no demands, With time to recharge. She'll be able to return to her family more like the unflappable mother she pretends to be. Instead, she wakes in a room she doesn't recognise after an encounter with a man who is not her husband. Then she sees something she wishes she didn't. Being drawn into a crime was not something Gracie had planned for her hotel stay. But when a distraught family appeals for information and a police investigation heats up, she is trapped in a maze of lies. To speak out jeopardises her marriage, but her silence threatens her son, her sanity and her safety. Will Gracie destroy her own family by telling the truth or devastate someone else's by keeping her secrets? So there you have it. That is Kylie's latest novel, the Eleventh Floor.

If you love psychological fiction, psychological thrillers, domestic noir, all that kind of thing, you will absolutely love this book. So I suggest go out and grab it. Okay, I guess we better have Kylie answer some questions. Okay, Kylie, are you ready? I am going to hit you with the first question from one of our listeners.

I am ready, Shoot me. Okay, number one.

What's the most surprising thing you've discovered about being an author?

0:04:21 - Kylie Orr

Just one, one surprising thing. Can it be more than one?

0:04:24 - Jodi Gibson

It can be a couple. Go for it.

0:04:28 - Kylie Orr

I would say the people. Actually I don't know what I was expecting, but the writing community in Australia is incredible. They're very supportive, they're like just a big warm grie-pug. I think I've described it as before Even if you're with a different publisher or everyone has different levels of success or exposure or whatever, and I just find that when I go to events that everyone's very welcoming and encouraging and yeah, that has been a great gift. And surprise. Perhaps the other surprise is just not really understanding how any of this works. Like I kind of thought I'd have a better grasp on it. But a lot of things about publishing is quite mysterious and I think because I have a background in HR, I don't know I was very into process and procedure and inducting new stuff and all of that stuff. So I found it a little bit confusing when I first started and I'm still learning lots of things about the industry. But, yeah, good surprises mostly.

0:05:35 - Jodi Gibson

That's good to hear. Okay, question number two:

What's your best piece of practical advice to get published that you would offer an aspiring author?

0:05:51 - Kylie Orr

I would say write the book.

That's always a start. Anything beyond that, it's the start and the end. I mean, if you don't have a manuscript to pitch, then you will not get published. I think too many people talk about wanting to write a book or having half a manuscript or this great idea that they've got, but none of that matters if you do not have a full draft. So my advice would be keep writing and write all the way to the end, and then you can worry about all the other steps later, about whether you decide to pay an independent editor to look at it, whether you get beta readers and all of those other things. They come much later To me. You know, bum in the chair, hands on the keyboard, get that story down. As messy and chaotic and ugly as that first draft is, you have to do that first. And yes, there's a whole lot of qualities you need to survive in this industry determination, tenacity, stamina, et cetera. But without a draft, none of that matters. So my advice would be write it all the way to the end.

0:06:58 - Jodi Gibson

Get that draft down. Yeah, exactly Okay. And your third and final question:

Do you suffer from imposter syndrome and what do you do to move past it?

0:07:12 - Kylie Orr

I mean, does everyone suffer from imposter syndrome? I feel like that's just a standard.

Maybe it's a big issue 100% Women, I would say, than men Like my observation is, women tend to doubt themselves more often. Yeah, absolutely. I suffer from imposter syndrome. I mean, I've now got two published books and still feel a little bit weird about saying that I'm a published author. It sounds sometimes when I'm in a room with other authors and they're on their eighth or tenth book, I feel like, oh, maybe I shouldn't be here, maybe I shouldn't be commenting on process and the industry and all of that stuff. But ultimately I have to tell myself that I do have a right to be here and I believe in my stories. So I guess the belief in the story is enough to push me through the imposter syndrome. It is hard to ignore. I'm not saying that I don't suffer from it, but I try not to let it get in the way.

0:08:16 - Jodi Gibson

So during your writing process, do you find you suffer from that sort of self-doubt that it's going to be any good, or is it just after it's done you're worrying about it then, or is it just all the way through?

0:08:27 - Kylie Orr

All the way through. It comes and goes. Sometimes I write a paragraph that just comes out and I'm like, oh my god, that's brilliant. I don't think I'll ever be able to do that again. And then you're on to the next scene and it's terrible and you can't get the words to flow and you write something good needs to happen here, because you don't even know what the scene is supposed to do.

I think what I've learned, as cliched as it is, is to just trust the process. So my writing, I hope, has improved, but I think my writing instinct has solidified. So when I was writing the first book, I had no idea what I was doing and it went through many, many, many drafts and I was so nervous about whether it was actually a decent book or not. The second book, I'm confident the Eleventh Floor is a better book and my process was quicker. And now I'm on to writing my third. I know that if I write something bad, like a terrible paragraph, and the words aren't all right, I can fix it later. So I don't obsess and fixate over those things, because I know it can be changed, whereas now my instinct is to get the story down.

0:09:44 - Jodi Gibson

Yeah, perfect, and I think that every author goes through that. And the more you write, like you said with your answer to the last question, just get that draft written, because the more you write, the better you get it at being able to trust that process.

0:09:59 - Kylie Orr

Absolutely so. Once the book goes out into the world, it's not mine anymore, it's the readers, and I can't control how they respond to it. Like you, can hope that it hits in the right places, but everyone's different. Everyone brings their own experience and their own baggage and their own knowledge to a book when they read it. And there's no way I can sit next to a reader and say no, no, no, I didn't mean it that way or no, this is how you're supposed to interpret it. I can't do any of that, so you have to just trust that. People read books for different reasons and some will like it and some will hate it and some will be indifferent, and that's something I've had to learn, to let go.

0:10:39 - Jodi Gibson

Yeah great piece of advice. Ok, thank you so much, kylie, for joining me today. On Ask the Author, it was an absolute pleasure.

0:10:47 - Kylie Orr

Thank you so much for having me, and that was so quick, nice and quick. That's how we like it here, so thank you. It's not as if I'm holding a basket of washing time. No, no, I'll have to make it longer next time. Yes, so I have four kids. I've had a lot of washing of all.

0:11:06 - Jodi Gibson

OK, thanks so much, kylie, and all the best with your latest novel, the 11th Floor.

0:11:10 - Kylie Orr

Thanks, Jodi Bye.

In Summary

So there we go, our very first guest author for the podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode and remember you can look forward to one of these every month going forward. Kylie's details, including her website, social media and book links, will be in the show notes, and if you'd like to have your question featured and perhaps answered by myself or one of my guest authors, please drop me a message on Instagram at JF Gibson Writer, or through my contact form on my website, www.jfgibson.com.au