Video Transcript (computer generated - may contain errors)

Sara Gentry: Welcome. Writers. Today I have Kim Reynolds with me. Welcome, Kim. I am so happy to have Kim here with us, because I know her to be perhaps one of the most well read individuals that I know. She's so thoughtful in her approach with reading and writing, and so we've got a great conversation here. But let me introduce the writers to you. Kim is passionate about fiction and storytelling, and has been all of her life. Bookgiddy isn't just her Instagram username. It's her way of being in the world. Kim has been a newspaper editor, ghost writer, and blogger. Her fiction and essays have appeared in newspapers and anthologies, and she has studied creativity coaching with Dr. Eric Maisel, and is an author, accelerator, certified fiction book coach working with someone as they uncover their best writing and storytelling skills is a privilege she never takes lightly, and in the years I have known Kim - I mean, I can't attest to the newspaper and the the ghostwriting, I didn't know you in those years - but all the other stuff I have absolutely seen Kim excel in everything so welcome. Kim.

Kim Reynolds: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me here.

Sara Gentry: And the reason why I thought Kim might be able to help us out here today, writers is, she has this lovely resource that is called the Writer's Compass, and it's just a beautiful approach to being a writer in the world. It's not necessarily specific to any type of writer or any type of genre or anything like that. It's more, perhaps, about the writing life. And so I invited Kim here to tell us a little bit about this compass, so could you give us, maybe, like a quick overview of what the writer's compass is?

Kim Reynolds: Well, the 4 points of the writer's compass are the notebook, scenes, emotional ending and writing craft. But the reason I wanted to create the writer's compass was, because, you know, there's that [...] quote where he says there's 3 rules for writing a novel, and nobody knows what they are. And I thought, you know, I sort of interpret that as like you have to go on your own journey. You have to figure it out yourself, and I think that's true. But I think you know today what we would say is there's a hundred rules for writing your novel, and everybody and their brother is going to tell you what they are, you know, because there's just, I think anyone who's starting today to write a novel for the 1st time, but any novel, but especially someone starting for the 1st time. It can be so overwhelming. There's so many softwares, there's so many books, there's so many, you know, there's book coaches. There's so many things that can just make you think can freeze you and not know where to start. So I wanted to create something that was just right back to the essentials, something that Jane Austen could have used. You know. I mean, she didn't have a she was, she wrote to Pride and Prejudice like 100 years before the typewriter even existed. Right? So I wanted something that was just the essential things that you'd have to take on your journey, your your compass. You know that when you head out that writing door the 3, the 4 essential things that you need to get you going, and these are the things I came up with.

Sara Gentry: I love that because a compass kind of gives us a general direction of where we're trying to go without like in 300 yards, turn.

Kim Reynolds: Exactly. Exactly. It's yeah. It's not a map, you know it's not. It's just you have to orient yourself. And yeah, it's it's and it can be used by people who consider them plotters themselves plotters or people who are pantsers. It doesn't matter. It's not about the process. Yeah, that's individual for every writer. But these are just sort of the essentials that'll keep you on your path. I believe.

Sara Gentry: I love that. Okay? So you mentioned, we've got the 4, the 4 points, and those are lining up with our our north, east, south, west. Super clever so would you mind sharing, maybe just like a little bit a little bit more like should we start with North? Is that.

Kim Reynolds: Yes, yes, and I think because yes, so North is your novel notebook, and I think that this notebook will be your North. It is going to be your everything when you're writing your novel. We can't keep everything in our heads. It's you know, it's plot lines, ideas, title ideas all these things. So if you have a notebook for your novel. You can use it for so many things. It can be where you journal how you felt about your writing that day, I mean, Steinbeck has actually a couple of published books that are the journals of him writing east of Eden, and grapes of wrath. So he was even using this compass point himself. So it's a place where you can brainstorm titles. You can. You can work on your scenes. It's just a place that's not your manuscript, where you're keeping all your ideas and thoughts about your writing. So that's why I consider it your North. It's what like for my novel I'm working on. I've got one with cute little 70 stickers on it, because my novel takes place in 1,976. So, but any ideas I have I carry it around. I have it in my bag when I go out, I have it at my nightstand. It's just a place to work on backstory, just everything, everything you can think of, all in one spot. Yeah.

Sara Gentry: And I happen to be someone who loves handwriting, especially when I'm in a more of a brainstorming kind of space. But I suppose there are some writers who maybe prefer to be more digital. So I mean, could the notebook be like an app, or whatever that we can.

Kim Reynolds: Absolutely. Yes, because I'm not. I'm not pushing any one method on you. I personally do like handwriting. I think there's something that really connects you to your thoughts, and it's it's just more well, I guess it's not more portable, because you can have all these apps on your phones and on tablets that you can bring. So yeah, if you wanted to use something like evernote, or whatever all the other ones are.

Sara Gentry: Yeah, yeah.

Kim Reynolds: I don't know. There's so many. Yeah, no, absolutely. This can be digital or or analog, whatever works for that writer. Yeah.

Sara Gentry: Okay, awesome. So then we're moving east.

Kim Reynolds: The emotional ending I had. It was a little bit of a stretch trying to make it fit the E because I made it work so the emotional ending is, where is your novel heading like what it is when you're writing. One of the basic things I think you need to know is what the point of your story is. What message are you trying to send? Not a moral, you know, but just the the story, I think from Jennie Nash's book. She says every book at its heart is an argument for something, a belief, a way of life, a vision for the future, and I think that's what I think is important for a writer to figure out in their notebook before they start before they start writing, just to have a general, a general idea. It's not the final scene. I'm not saying you have to know the final scene, but the final emotional takeaway for the writer, and I think that helps you while you're writing. Your scenes be consistent with what you're doing, because otherwise, especially if you're a pantser, you know if you don't have that kind of idea of where you're heading with your store, you can end up in a lot of tangents.

Sara Gentry: Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Because, you know, if I'm writing a romance, I know that I want the reader to feel happy and have that kind of feeling. But if I'm writing, maybe a thriller, maybe I want the reader to have this adrenaline rush or something by ending it.

Kim Reynolds: You want to kind of understand that before. Yeah, before you get going. Yeah.

Sara Gentry: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I happen to be someone who needs to know the end.

Kim Reynolds: And that's fine, and that's fine. Cause this doesn't. That's what you have your North for. You have your north. Write your ending in there, you know. That's what I'm saying. It's for pantsers or plotters. It's whatever works, it's as robust as you want. I think every writer ends up doing the same thing. Every writer has to create those scenes, whether you like to create them before you get to them, or, if you like to make them up as you get to that spot, your notebook can still be very useful to you for flushing them out and asking yourself questions, and you know and doing that. So it doesn't matter when in the process you do it. You're ultimately going to write those scenes.

Sara Gentry: Yeah. Oh, my goodness, that's so well said, plotters and pantsers are doing the same thing. We're just doing them in different order.

Kim Reynolds: Exactly, because that's the only way you're going to write the book is just write those words down. But yeah.

Sara Gentry: Yeah, yeah, okay, that's awesome. Alright. So where do we go with S.

Kim Reynolds: Well, let's go with scenes. Cause I think, yeah, I know. Yeah. So I'm going down. And well, they're the building blocks of the whole book. Right? I mean, you need scenes are the show in the show. Don't tell, right? So you want to keep track of those scenes. So I think the notebook as much as I love it, isn't as great for this, because if you write a list, you can't really move them around. So I like for the scenes, I think you should keep a scene list where you're writing. What happens in the scene, why it happens, and then what it make, what happens, because of that, so you want to have all your scenes relating one to the other. You don't want it. Just a haphazard story, with a lot of different things happening. So to keep track of them you can go old school with note cards and post it notes on your wall and move them around as you want to. You can use one of those softwares like a scrivener or plotter. Again, it's whatever works for that writer. But somewhere where you keep a list of all the scenes, what's happening. So you can. You can go back and reference it. It lets you see the forest and the trees. You can go back and say, Okay, this happened. And then I have this happen. Okay, well, that doesn't really flow. So I need another scene to fit in there. It just helps you put the puzzle pieces together of your novel, because it's all golden scenes.

Sara Gentry: Yep, and just to make sure, because we might have some newer writers here with us. What are we considering a scene?

Kim Reynolds: What are we considering a scene? Well, it's the moment it's when something's happening, and it's unfolding for the reader, as it's happening. It's not being told to them. It's not saying, you know. Yesterday I went to the store and bought some shoes. It's I see the person I see the character walk in the store, and I see what they see. I see the story, and full I see them see the shoes and their feelings about seeing those shoes, and it's all happening in front of me.

Sara Gentry: Yeah. Yeah. And since you and I are both Author Accelerator certified coaches, we are also well familiar with the need for change to be happening. 

Sara Gentry: Definitely. Writers don't include any scenes that don’t change anything.

Kim Reynolds: Later, and you could take that scene out, and nothing would change in your story then. It probably doesn't belong in there as fun as the scene was, you know, because that'll happen, especially to Pantsers. Right? You'll go off on a tangent, and and that can be a great thing. You can open up a whole new idea and a whole new thread for the story. But sometimes it's just something that was fun to write, but really is distracting from the main story you're telling. So then you can remove that scene, and that's when you have all your scene lists. You can see that, too. You can go. Oh, well, that didn't really matter. And you know, it's just. It's just a way of keeping track of everything. Every scene by the beginning of the scene to the end of the scene is almost like a mini arc, the same as the novel. You want some. They want them coming in with some intention and some sort of change. By the end of the scene.

Sara Gentry: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I think, like each of the genres to probably have their extras, like, I know. You know if you're if you're writing some kind of fantasy, it's like, but I love this fight scene. But it's like, does it actually matter to like this side fight happening over on the other side of the world? That doesn't matter. But it was so much fun to write.

Kim Reynolds: Yeah. Exactly. Take that. Yeah.

Sara Gentry: Yeah, okay. And that leaves us with W.

Kim Reynolds: Yes, writing craft. Now, this one people may think, well, how does this fit in this? As a necessity for writing a novel? I think. Okay? So the type of book I'm talking about here is craft books. So not books like Stephen King's book, or Anne Lamont's book that are full of inspiration. Those are great. I'm not saying don't read those, but that's not what I'm thinking is essential, and I'm also not talking about books like save the cat or one of the other structure books, because I don't think it's necessary for a writer to get all in their head while they're writing the 1st draft, saying like, Oh, it's page 3, and I was supposed to have the inside an incident 5 paragraphs ago, like, I think, that just messes up. The 1st draft is telling yourself the story right? So you want to get it down. You don't want to get all caught up in worrying about beats and things like that. Some writers may want to, and they can. I'm not saying you can't. I just don't think it's as important as just moving that story forward with your scenes and and all that stuff but writing craft books. Those sound boring, I say, books on grammar, but there's a lot of fun books on grammar out there for those of you who think that it's totally dry, or there's 1 i really love The Elements of Eloquence. It's a fun book, I think the more we read these things and not sit there and apply it to our draft. Just soak it in, build up your inner knowledge. It's like a musician. You're a musician, right? You want to. You want to do scales. You want to understand what a triad is. And you want, you know, you want to understand the fundamentals of music to really enjoy, to really compose it. So I think it's important to take 15 min. I like an hour a day because I love these books, but even 15 min a day, reading on a book about grammar, and just, you know, read about commas and stuff like that into some fun book and then move on. Don't then go panic about commas in your draft. Just take it all in, and I think every day reading some of our craft improves, improves your writing. I think it just does.

Sara Gentry: Yeah, I 100% agree. I think that there are some very brilliant people whose ideas can be, you know, just fantastic, but because they can't express them in a way that other people will be able to understand, those ideas kind of get ignored. So I think you know, communicating effectively with other people, is a big part of being a writer to get your ideas across.

Kim Reynolds: And I focus there on grammar books. I wanted to also include books about creating character books, about creating scenes. There's a lot of really good books on, on. I think I was. Do I have it here? No, yes, I do. Like this. I was reading this just yesterday. Make a Scene. And you know, like it. It's so. It's all about scene. But I'm not going to sit down and read this. I've scene intentions, and then sit down with my novel and do that. But I'm going to just be soaking it all in. I'm going to be understanding scenes at a deeper level, you know. And again, so it's not just inspirational, like, oh, write every day and do not all the fun stuff. It's the fundamental stuff. I think it's important to read those books.

Sara Gentry: Yeah. The building blocks.

Kim Reynolds: Yeah. The building blocks exactly.

Sara Gentry: Very cool. Okay? Well, writers, this Writer’s Compass tool is super fun, and Kim has. There's actually more to the compass which we won't go into here in the interest of time, but I definitely want to make sure that people can find you and connect with you. Where do you hang out these days?

Kim Reynolds: Well, I'm bookgiddy on Instagram. I'm on Facebook, but not very much. And my website is kimreynolds.ca.

Sara Gentry: Awesome, and writers, we will have links to all of that in the show notes, including a link where you can grab Kim's writer’s compass, because it's pretty extensive. It's like 7-8 pages long. Right? So yeah, yeah, it's a great resource. And as Kim has demonstrated here. It's applicable to all types of writers. All experience levels. You know, even if this is a novel event that we're doing here for this interview. But, it would work. If you're writing a memoir or a nonfiction instead, you know. So definitely check it out. And, Kim, I just want to thank you so much for your time and for sharing this resource with us.

Kim Reynolds: Thanks so much for having me. 

Sara Gentry: Fabulous conversation and writers definitely check out Kim on Instagram as well, because she usually is posting book recommendations, which are great. She has great book recommendations. So alright. Thank you so much, Kim.

Kim Reynolds: Thank you so much.

Sara Gentry: Alright writers. Thanks for joining us, and we will see you next time. Bye.