Live Q&A
Written Author Interview
- Tell me about yourself. What do you like to do outside of writing. What is a day in the life like for you?
My name is Nichole M Willden. I was a teacher for 20 years in private and then public education. Outside of writing, I enjoy playing games, reading, crocheting, and teaching my dog new tricks. Her name is Potion, because I also enjoy Minecraft and was once a massive fan of the Wizarding World.
I write full-time right now. So my day looks like a lot of procrastinating, glaring into the ether, researching random facts, and looking up the exact right word in a thesaurus. Or, if I’m lucky, the muses are whispering, and I write 150K words in three weeks (true story), but am unable to do anything else.
2. What inspired your first novel? What was the thing that got you into writing in the first place?
All my books are inspired by the deep-buried emotion of trauma. Emotion leads my writing process. My unofficial first novel was about an orphan girl searching for belonging. I finished it when I was 12-years-old. My first published novel was about a society built on the enslavement of half the population—where I carefully constructed my story to force readers to accept the slavery and even approve of it, and then followed up with a sequel where my goal was to make them rethink that stance and remember that slavery is harmful. I’m currently revising these books for re-release in upcoming years.
My most popular work, The Guild, is about a secret society—a non-religious cult hidden in plain sight. That was inspired by my own experiences in a cult. In fact, all my stories are about enslavement, indoctrination, and resilience. I like to write about turbulent, emotional topics. For this reason, it is often difficult to pinpoint an exact villain in my stories, because my books explore the gray shades of humanity.
What got me into writing—beside my lived trauma—was my 4th Grade teacher. She recognized and fostered that talent in me. She was the first person to tell me “You’re a writer.” Her belief in me is what got me started. She’s also the reason I became a teacher.
3. How do you come up with characters? Are they spontaneous or meticulously planned?
I like to believe my characters exist somewhere in the vast multiverse, and that I somehow tap into their emotional existence when I write. Emotion is the first step for me. I feel them first—their struggles, their hopes, their goals. Then, I find a name that suits them. (Thank you forever, Sherrilyn Kenyon, for The Character Naming Sourcebook!) At that point, the character begins to come clear for me. The way they look is the last and most difficult part for me, because I know them so intimately on an emotional level, that it feels
almost trite to describe their appearances. But since my readers deserve to get a picture in their heads, I do try. However, fair warning, you are much more likely to know my characters’ souls than their height and build.
4. What are some of your favorite genres to read? Are there any books you’d recommend to first time readers or people looking for something new?
I love to read! I am a mood reader, and not a great respecter of genres. I am a big fan of genre-blended, emotionally-charged books. I love Andy Weir’s upmarket Sci-Fi, because his characters are multifaceted. I have always been a fan of the complex societies by Anne McCaffrey, particularly in her Fantasy books on Pern. I recently read Yellowface by R. F. Kuang and still can’t get it out of my mind. It was contemporary but genre-defying. I also read the novel-in-verse Starfish by Lisa Fipps, and I wish I could shout about it from the rooftops; it was so good!
My most rewarding recent reads have been by indie authors. The View From Here by Leon Stevens was an endlessly fascinating Sci-Fi! And I would recommend anything by Anna Cackler. I read The Glass Wheel fairytale retelling by her. It was beautiful and tragic. I loved it. If you’re looking for something new, I recommend looking into the indie authors. They are writing about the topics that traditional publishers don’t dare to touch.
5. What’s the most difficult thing about being a writer?
Marketing. And if any author tells you something different, they’re lying. LOL
6. What is your process to completing a novel from outline to final product?
I don’t outline. I taught outlining very faithfully to my students, because it is a very helpful tool for a lot of writers. But it doesn’t work for me. My process only allows the story to be told once. If I outline it, I won’t be able to write it. If I tell someone about it, I won’t be able to write it. I learned that—unfortunately—the hard way.
My process begins with emotion. I feel the rage, or anxiety, or passion of the plot first. Then, I start writing, using that emotion to drive me. Characters present themselves to me, and I put them on the page. Conflicts create themselves as I write in a straight line from beginning to end. No jumping around for me. I’m a flashlight in the dark.
After my draft is finished, I go back and start a second pass. This one is critical, because it helps me bring my personal flair to words. It’s my big-picture revision: where I focus on the themes of my story, and try to make them clearer and more powerful. I cut out the philosophizing of the first draft, focus in on the emotional story, and delve into the complexities of character relationships. I do a lot of prettying up of language and imagery. I also love to play around with dialogue in this pass. My book grows a lot in this step. This is when my Alpha readers get their hands on my work.
My third pass is focused on tightening and cleaning. This is where I ruthlessly cut things that aren’t serving the theme or pacing of the book.
After this, I will give my work to an editor so we can work together to make the book and presentable and clean as possible. I love my editor. She works with me well, and I don’t fight with her as much as previous editors, so it’s a good match. She’s always on the lookout for plot-holes and areas to improve. After a few more editing passes, my manuscript is ready for beta readers and then a proofreader.
7. What’s the most unhinged thing you’ve written in your novel? Don’t worry, we don’t judge here.
Eeek! I have some unhinged things, as I write about trauma. In The Guild, especially, there is a lot of abuse. In my most recent installment, there’s an unhinged scene in which someone is fairly brutalized with a cattle whip. It’s called Purging in the book and is ick times ick. And that hardly scratches the surface of some of the things coming in future installments of The Guild story.
8. What’s one thing about being a writer that absolutely drives you up the wall?
The inconsistency of the muses. Writer’s Block is a big jerk who likes to sneak in, light up a cigarette, glare at me in his three-piece-suit, and then smirk when I give him attitude. (Yes, my Writer’s Block is a 1960’s ad-exec from Madison Avenue.) Other times, I am so involved in writing that I crank out 12K words a day. The inconsistency is exhausting.
9. What does being a successful writer look like for you? What type of life do you want to live as a writer?
I consider myself to be a successful writer. All I ever wanted, since I was a 4th-Grader, was to write books and have them devoured by people. I have a lovely, amazing reader fanbase. I am able to write whatever I want. The only additional thing I want is to be able to write in a house overlooking a pacific northwestern beach for part of the year. (The beach is my favorite place to be.) I am grateful that I have the opportunity to live the writer life I always wanted. It’s not easy but I will always be grateful!
10. Describe your writing journey. If you had to write a story centered around it, do you think you could pull it off?
My journey started in a cult when I was six-years-old. I was abused, neglected, and trafficked. That’s the dark part of my journey. When I was 10, a teacher saw a spark of genius in my writing, and encouraged me. I wrote her a book for Christmas, and she added it to her library like a real book. She also encouraged me to enter a writing contest, which I won. It gave me the idea that I maybe had a talent for writing.
When I was twelve, I finished my first novel. After that, I never stopped. I wrote notebooks full of stories. I wrote dozens of novels. When I was in my twenties, I wrote a series of books about slavery—calling upon my own enslavement as inspiration—and it was requested for publication. I did not like the publication process, and I eventually backed out and regained my manuscript rights. It took me more than ten years to try again.
This time, I had a partner who believed in the power of my work. My wife became my number one fan. She was especially moved by a series I was writing and hiding called The Guild. She did a bunch of research and hard work, took a lot of classes, learned a lot of skills, and eventually brought me the option of indie publishing The Guild. I let her hire cover artists and editors. I let her become my project manager, and eventually my agent. She is the reason The Guild ever saw the light of day. Confidence, The Guild Book Three releases January 2025.
When I stopped teaching, I started writing children’s books for reluctant readers. My wife then started an indie publishing company—Magical Page Publishing—to publish and market my children’s books. Zilch, Book three of the Fantasy series Zest comes out later this year, and Sadie Booth Student Sleuth, a new middle-grade mystery, comes out early 2025. My children’s books are steeped in social/emotional learning and are specifically designed to be high interest for 7-10 year olds, while being readable at a 2nd grade reading level. As my other books are written for an adult audience, I write children’s books under the pen name Ms. Willden. That’s what my students called me for 20 years.
My next release is on September 10, Obscured Passages by Nichole M Willden. It is a memoir written in verse about my time in the cult, and my resultant dissociative identity disorder. It is currently available for preorder.
I don’t know if I could write a story about my writing journey, as I consider every story I write—fiction or non—to be telling my life story in different ways. But I would certainly be willing to give it a try as I’m up for anything!
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