Hello and welcome to this Track of Words guest post, where today I’m joined by Kate Golden, author of the Dawn of Onyx series, whose second novel A Promise of Peridot is out now via Arcadia Books. I’m always fascinated to hear from anyone who works across multiple writing-related disciplines, and in this case Kate is both a fantasy novelist and a TV and film executive. I was delighted when Kate agreed to write this guest post about the realities of balancing those two aspects of her life, and the end result is a fascinating piece about creativity, passion and the craft of writing. Whether you’re a reader or a writer, and whatever genre(s) you read, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did!
Kate Golding: When I wrote my first novel, A Dawn of Onyx, I was in a unique position as far as authors go: I’d never studied writing, I’d never worked with a crit group or read Bird by Bird. What I had done however, was spend my entire career – nearly a full decade – working as a developmental executive in the film and tv industry. Now, that job is certainly not for the faint of heart. It’s not brain surgery – though some talent agents may tell you it’s just as difficult. Hint: it’s not – but it is demanding, 24/7, and sometimes callous and cruel.
The one saving grace of working in film, for me at least, had always been my undying love of storytelling. I’d grown up on everything from The Magic Treehouse series to Twilight, I’ve watched every Nancy Meyers movie and the entirety of Game of Thrones at least six times over. Every time my job swallowed up my weekends or I was forced to work with difficult people – of which there are plenty in every industry I’m sure, but no shortage of specifically in Hollywood – I reminded myself how lucky I was: every day I got to read screenplays and work with writers to develop their stories into films.
So, by the time I was drafting my own novel, I had an errant thought that maybe, possibly, writing wouldn’t be too hard. I’d read enough scripts to know the format for a decent three act structure, how to Save the Cat, or follow The Hero’s Journey. I knew if my finale wasn’t working it was usually a problem in my first thirty pages. Knew that my characters had to lead my plot and never the other way around. I was set! However…
All of that knowledge went out the window as soon as I wrote the first line of my book. Suddenly, my characters felt like the exception to every rule. My scenes could be long and not accomplish anything meaningful because they had my characters in them. That made sense, right? I could leave out crucial information when spelling it out would “ruin the flow of the scene,” and just infodump it later. Who would even notice?
The answer to that was me. I would notice. Developmental-executive-me, who had to read writer-me’s meandering, typo-riddled, structural nightmare of a first draft. At the time, I genuinely wondered if the manuscript had come into my company as a piece of material to evaluate, if I might have passed on my own writing.
I was at a real crossroads with my novel. It seemed that I could allow these two sides of myself – the editor and the writer – to destroy one another, constantly editing my own work so critically that I lost the joy of writing completely, or I could turn it into my superpower. The latter sounded significantly more fun.
I spent the next few months working under a self-inflicted mandate: write the book like a writer. Edit it like an editor. I threw all my sage film exec wisdom in a mental box and shoved it into the corner. I wrote purely based on passion and what excited me creatively. I got the words down on the page even when they fought me, kicking and screaming. I wrote when I knew my structure was off, because whatever was compelling me to keep typing deserved to be followed and explored. And then, when I’d given my newest draft a beat to breathe, I gathered editor-me from that previously shoved away mental box, and returned to my draft with the keen eye of a woman who had worked on stories for almost a decade. I made careful notes and revised and revised until the book before me looked less like a monstrosity and more like an actual novel.
At one point in time I’d come very close to giving up on writing all together. And after that, I’d worried I’d have to quit the job in the film industry I’d come to love. I know I’m not the only author with a “day-job” that they fear is taking away from the creative process. Or the only person whose harmless hobby has become an entire career overnight. But after completing A Dawn of Onyx, and now A Promise of Peridot as well, I can tell you that while it might not always be easy, you don’t have to give up one passion for another. Fusing the different facets of yourself together will only strengthen and specify your work.
A Promise of Peridot is published by Arcadia in hardback, audiobook and ebook.
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Kate Golden lives in Los Angeles where she works full time in the film industry developing stories with screenwriters and filmmakers. A Dawn of Onyx is her debut novel, and the first in the Sacred Stones trilogy. In her free time she is an avid book reader, movie fanatic, and functioning puzzle addict. An embarrassing LA cliché, she likes to hike, brunch, and go to the flea market with her fiancé and her puppy.
Find out more at Kate’s website, or follow her on Instagram @KateGoldenAuthor and on TikTok @Kate_Golden_Author.
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Thanks so much to Kate for this fascinating article! If you would like to check out more of Kate’s writing, her (bestselling, award-nominated!) debut novel A Dawn of Onyx is out now – a slow-burn, dark romantasy that’s been getting great reviews. Now is the perfect time to pick it up, just in time for book two to be released!
A Promise of Peridot is out now from Arcadia Books – check out the links below to pre-order* your copy:
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