Keith Soares writes stories about down to earth characters who may become accidental superheroes, find themselves in a post-apocalyptic landscape, or generally just need to survive the strange realities of their SFF world.
How long have you been writing and what got you started?
I’ve been writing in some fashion for most of my life. When I was about 12, a love of video games got me started writing my own, complete with interactive storylines and custom graphics. While the stories weren’t all that long back then, they could be complex, with many different intertwined pathways to choose from. Later on, I was lucky enough to do the same kind of interactive storytelling at work, developing games for clients like the Smithsonian, Random House, and PBS. Novels and short stories became my focus fairly recently, though. I started writing those in 2013 and fell in love with the process. Today, I feel lucky to say it’s my full-time job.
Are there any writing resources, such as books or websites, you’d like to recommend?
Since I’m self-published, I have to worry about the marketing side of being a writer, not just the craft. For marketing, I’ve scoured a lot of resources, but find value in Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing Formula (podcast and online courses), as well as the book Write, Publish, Repeat by Sean Platt, and Reader Magnets by Nick Stephenson. In terms of writing itself, of course there is the classic book The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, as well as other resources like The Kick Ass Writer by Chuck Wendig, and Take Off Your Pants by Libbie Hawker (it’s about planning your stories, I swear!). Plus I like to read as many great novels and shorts in sci-fi/fantasy that I can. I pay attention to things like the Hugo and Nebula award reading lists.
If you could go back and find yourself five years ago, what advice would you give yourself?
Set a routine for writing and do it every day. Not just because you need to be producing work, but also because the daily practice makes you a better writer. I can see tangible improvement in my work over time, and that comes from keeping up with it. Plus, when you write regularly, your mind stays in the story, rather than needing to be refreshed each time. That makes for more fluid writing with fewer continuity issues, which is really critical when writing novel-length work.
What tips do you have for finding time to write?
Do you favor the traditional route or self-publishing?
Other than short stories published through existing markets like Theme of Absence, all my work has been self-published. I’ve self-published, to date, six novels, four novellas, and one collection of shorts. That said, I have a completed manuscript that I plan to shop to agents in early 2020, so with luck I will end up being a hybrid author.
Are you an outliner or discovery writer? Or somewhere in between?
I’ve always been somewhere in between, but I am working on changing things. For all of my past work, I work from an idea with a pretty firm beginning, middle, and ending, and then I embellish along the way while writing. However, for my current work-in-progress, I am completely outlining the book, chapter by chapter, before writing. I want to test out the method because I think that it will make the actual writing process go faster. I am even going to have a very small reader group read my outline before I write, because I want to uncover potential issues before I’m 50,000 words into it.
How do you deal with rejections?
Having worked in graphic design for 20 years, I am all too familiar with the fact that any single person’s opinion can squash work you think is great. The same applies to writing – any single reviewer, whether they are an anonymous reader or the editor of a publication, can dislike your work, and sometimes people can be pretty harsh in their judgment. But I’ve seen time and time again that the same work will get a one-star rating from one person, and a five-star rating from another; a submitted story will be rejected by multiple publications, then find a beautiful home in another. I pay attention to rejections, because sometimes there are legitimate points to be learned, but I don’t let that stop me from trying again.
In your opinion, how important is a writing degree or MFA when it comes to achieving success in writing fiction?
I hope they’re not overly important… I don’t have either! However, I do spend time continuously educating myself on how to be a better writer, and I pay a lot of attention to editor feedback.
What are your writing goals for the next twelve months?
I have one novel in review with my editor, and I hope to shop that to agents in early 2020. Meanwhile, I have a brand new space opera series beginning with my current work-in-progress, and I want to write another two books in my existing urban fantasy series.
Is there anything you’d like to plug? Feel free to share a link.
All of my past work can be found via my website, as well as on Amazon. My two main book series to-date are The Oasis of Filth (post-apocalyptic), and the John Black series (YA superhero). In addition to those, I have book one of a third series, Lightning Hopkins (urban fantasy), and a collection of short stories called The Fingers of the Colossus.
