This interview first appeared in my Substack newsletter on February 16, 2024.
Interview with K.M Weiland
The world has so many stories to tell – and I am thrilled to have Author/Writing Coach K.M. Weiland join us. She is an amazing writer and has one of the most valuable websites that equip all of us storytellers, Helping Writers Become Authors. Really, it is a must visit site – and consistently is listed in Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers year after year.
A bit about Katie, from her own website:
K.M. Weiland is the award-winning and internationally published author of the acclaimed writing guides Structuring Your Novel, Creating Character Arcs, and Writing Archetypal Character Arcs (among others) as well as the gaslamp fantasy Wayfarer, the historical/dieselpunk adventure Storming, the portal fantasy Dreamlander, and the medieval epic Behold the Dawn. When she’s not making things up, she’s busy teaching story theory and technique on her award-winning blog. She makes her home in western Nebraska. For more information about her fiction, click here.
I love this interview – and I think there is something in her answers that we can all relate to. I would like to hear your thoughts on it, too.
Interview
It has been since 2018 since Wayfarer debuted – are you working on a new book, or are you focusing on mentoring writers/teaching craft at the moment?
After Wayfarer came out, I experienced several years of significant burnout and writer’s block with my fiction. I’m back to writing now, working on a dark fantasy fairy tale about a dying princess and an immortal knight, called Wildblood. I’m having a lot of fun with it, but I’m also taking it slow and have no projected publication date.
What was it like to have Wayfarer produced into a full-cast audiobook? How much say did you have in selecting the cast and music?
It was amazing! I’m not generally someone who enjoys fictional audiobooks (I always get cringey over narrators doing voices), and I hate hearing my own stuff read aloud. I wasn’t involved in production choices at all, but the results were so incredible that it was absolutely enchanting to hear it brought to life. It felt like getting to experience my story being adapted for a movie!
As a writing mentor, what do you believe is the biggest hurdle new authors struggle to overcome? (And why is it marketing?)
Marketing is certainly a challenge, but that’s more to do with the business side of things. I focus more on the writing itself in my teachings. Discouragement is certainly a big hurdle. Writing is such a vulnerable action. It’s a high-level skillset, which means very few of us are truly any good at it when we start, and yet because we’re putting our hearts and souls out there, criticism can be particularly difficult. It can be easy for new writers to get discouraged. I always encourage people to get very clear on their own definitions of success rather than trying to live up to a generalized ideal of what it means to be a successful writer.
Of all your books on the craft of writing, which one do you believe has had the biggest impact on the writing world? (Helped the most writers)?
Creating Character Arcs, without doubt. I hear about it more than any other. It approaches character arc in a simple straightforward way that makes it easy to create a solid plot structure, a powerful character transformation, and an integral theme. Many people have also written to me that its principles have also helped them to understand their own lives better. I know it certainly did that for me!
And last, but always the most important: Why do writers (especially of fantasy books – including myself) include such detailed passages about food? (Other than because it’s fun to fantasize about food). – Bonus: What is one food that you believe should be included in every book – no matter what genre?
Haha. Arguably, it’s because fantasy writers are the most self-indulgent. 😉 (And I say that as one myself.) I have to admit I still have fond memories of all the cozy banquet descriptions in Redwall books from when I was growing up. So in honor of that, my one-food-that-must-be-included would have to be October Ale (said in a mole’s accent). 😉
Until next time, keep telling your stories! The world needs them.
Russell J. Fellows 
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