For our fourth episode, we talk to Kayla Rae Whitaker, author of "The Animators." Kayla explains why and how she uses writing prompts while working on novels and shares a prompt that has helped her with character development. She also offers a revision prompt that can help writers of all genres see their work in new ways.
Show Notes
About Our GuestKayla Rae Whitaker’s work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Electric Literature, Buzzfeed, Guernica, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and New York University. Her debut novel, The Animators, was named one of the best debut novels of 2017 by Entertainment Weekly and one of the best books of 2017 by NPR, Kirkus Reviews, and BookPage.
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A JCPL librarian interviews published writers about their favorite writing prompts—exercises that can help inspire, focus, and improve your creative writing. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, a novelist, essayist, or poet, you’ll find ideas and advice to motivate you to keep writing. A partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.
Prompt to Page Ep 4
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Carrie: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Prompt to Page podcast, a partnership between the Jessamine County Public Library and the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. I'm your host, librarian and poet, Carrie Green. Each episode, we interview a published writer who shares their favorite writing prompt. Submit your response to the prompt for a chance to have it read on a future episode of the podcast.
Our guest today is Kayla Rae Whitaker. Kayla Rae Whitaker's work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Electric Literature, Buzzfeed, Guernica, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and New York University. Her debut novel The Animators was named one of the best debut novels of 2017 by Entertainment Weekly, and one of the best books of 2017 by NPR, Kirkus Reviews and Bookpage.
Welcome Kayla.
Kayla: Hi Carrie. [00:01:00] Thanks for having me.
Carrie: Well, thank you so much for joining us on Prompt to Page. We're excited to have
Kayla: you. Oh, I'm excited to be here. This is great.
Carrie: Yeah. So, um, you've held various jobs while also writing fiction. Do you have any advice for listeners who might be trying to maintain a creative practice while still working a day job?
Uh,
Kayla: you know, the, the best, the best trick that I have found to, to writing every day is, is just consistency. And it doesn't matter if it's only 20 minutes or if you actually have an hour at some time during your day to focus on your own work. If you can just get in a little bit, every single day, it's something that.
The work piles up and the word count goes up of course, little by [00:02:00] little, but also you stay in touch with what you're working on. You remain intimate with your work, with your story, with your novel, with your manuscript. And that's, I think the most important part that you don't lose touch with your creative work in the midst of responsibilities and obligations.
It's an obligation to
Carrie: yourself. Yeah. Do you do that? Like, do you have a particular routine? And in doing that? I do, uh,
Kayla: the easiest time of day for me to focus on my work has been the very early morning. And sometimes, I have 30 minutes, sometimes I have only 20. But, uh, I'm an English teacher. And so my day is very, very full.
And so getting my creative time out of the way, first thing when I wake up is--I can rely upon [00:03:00] that time. I'm the most focused during that time, but also I can navigate the rest of my day knowing that, okay, I, I did what I could. And that's all I can do. And that's, what's important. So I'm working on a new novel right now and the, the work may not be going as quickly as I would like.
I don't think it ever does for any, any writer ever. So, deadlines don't really adhere to, to craft. It does what it wants. It does what it wants. But knowing that that's how I start my day. That's it, it gets, it gets the job done.
Carrie: Yeah, I think, I think our last guest, Jayne Moore Waldrop said, said something similar about nothing ever being perfect for a writer and the writer life.
Kayla: Yeah. Your circumstances are never really going to allow for it. And from personal experience, if you actually do have [00:04:00] time to devote to it, like more than just an hour of your day, if it's at least partially your job, I'm not honestly sure the work comes any more quickly, to be honest with you. Yeah. So it's, uh, it's just doing what you can when you can, right.
Carrie: So what role have writing prompts played in your writing process? You know, has that role changed over time? Um, how often do you turn to them?
Kayla: I, I use writing prompts pretty frequently, frankly, and I'm always looking for new ones and I actually keep a list of my favorite writing prompts. Both for teaching purposes, but also for myself.
Just because there is no worse feeling than being adrift on a blank Word document, frankly. And so having something to fall back [00:05:00] on, having a list of prompts, however outlandish, you know, it's, it's a way to just guarantee, okay. You, this gives you a better chance of getting something down on the page.
You will never be exactly lost. If you have this sort of grab bag of ideas and just, you know, shots in the dark. Yeah. So that's, that's something that when I was very young, I think that was how I improved my writing skills, frankly. It, it gave me structure and guidance when I didn't have any otherwise.
Right. Yeah.
Carrie: And so I think maybe people might have this conception that as a novelist, you're not going to be using writing prompts. You're just going to like jump in to your novel or whatever. Can you explain how you use them in that respect?
Kayla: Sure. I mean, it's, it's always great [00:06:00] when you've spent enough time with a project so that you actually have lesson plans for yourself.
You could sit down on Tuesday morning and you know exactly what scene you have to work on and you know exactly what character interiority you need to write to build this particular story. That's a lovely late stage development. Early on in the formation of a story, especially that first draft where you're just, you're feeling around in the room for a light switch.
I think that character development, writing prompts in particular, can help you to become more familiar with your characters and who they are, what their fears are, what they want, and that almost always leads to plot. If you, the character comes first, the story comes after. And, and I find myself using, using writing prompts, even kind of
at late stages, you know, draft four [00:07:00] draft five of a book. So the one I'm actually going to talk about today, I, I used last week and yeah, yeah. I am on a, what is it? Draft four of a book. I've spent a few years with it now. So it's getting close to done, but I still used a writing prompt just because. Yeah.
It's like, okay, I need to check in with this character. So what can I, what can I do about that? I use, I use a well-loved writing prompt.
Carrie: Let's hear the prompt.
Kayla: Okay. This one is, I love it. And, and I, I just, I've discovered it. Uh, maybe a year or two ago. And it was a student in one of my workshops actually recommended this craft book to me.
It's called Story Genius. The writer's name is Lisa Cron, C R O N. And it's a book about writing fiction and it's a book about kind of following your instincts as far as [00:08:00] storytelling is concerned. And, uh, the book suggested, this exercise called the third rail exercise, where basically you pose the question, what is my character's third rail?
What is the thing that just lights up electric inside them, that they, what powers them. And it's essentially a desire for something. It's a sense of want. And it's that sense of want that is so down deep in the characters gut, that it is almost electric. It's something that it almost feels as if it could be fatal to touch this sort of vein of electricity.
Something that they desire in their inner most hearts. And you know, that's, I know that that's, uh, that's kind of a well-worn phrase that, you know, you have to make your characters want something in fiction, but I mean, that's true. It, [00:09:00] it drives plot. It drives story because desire makes people do things and do things that are interesting and sometimes hazardous and reveal the best about themselves and the worst about themselves.
So, what is this character's third rail? And sometimes, I know for this, this latest draft, this is my main character. I felt like I knew her fairly well, but there were some scenes where it just, that sense that I have had of her thoughts and her desires, the elements that sort of power point of view, I think, and they make a story
interesting. It just wasn't there. And so I sat down and I wrote about her third rail. I wrote about all of the desires that she has, that she's afraid to talk about. And. And it was, it was really, uh, it, it was helpful. It led me in a good [00:10:00] direction. And I, I got about a thousand words written, based just on that.
And it kind of, it, it gave me this new window into the scene that I've been writing that hadn't really been working before. And so that is, that is one of my favorite writing exercises at the moment. And it's, uh, it's a gem it's really good. Uh, I like it a lot
Carrie: Yeah, it sounds like it was really fruitful for you. So were you writing, were you using the prompt to write more like analytically about the character, or were you trying to create a scene or a situation for the character?
How are you writing, you know, writing about the third rail?
Kayla: You know, it almost always starts out as a sort of analysis. Um, like just from this, this kind of clinical standpoint, this is what this character wants. But if I keep writing, usually that analysis will spiral its way down to memory or to event.
[00:11:00] And I'm not sure why this happens. Whatever the reason, for it. It's the reason why I think I write fiction generally that that's just where my mind tends to go when I'm writing about a character and writing about their traits and what they want and what they tend to do, how it affects their behavior, where they're going after something that they want.
I'm not sure where that comes from. Honestly, I think it probably just comes from practice and spending a certain number of years just doing this. I don't know. Do you, do you feel like the longer you write, the more your personal habits. If I use this window to get into, you know, my story or my poem, it will pretty reliably, reliably, lead me along this course of development.
Do you feel that way? It's a good
Carrie: question. I know for me, yes, there are certain prompts [00:12:00] and often for me, it's more like, Like writing about of a piece of art or writing about, um, you know, some little historical fact that I learned, that will sort of reliably, like, you don't know where the prompt is going to take you, but it's going to take you somewhere.
But I think I'm also still learning and, you know, I think trying new prompts can surprise you.
Kayla: Yeah, it's being pushed out of that comfort zone, you know, and that's something that, it's the nice thing about being a writer. You know, the older you get, the better you can get. And there are precious few practices in life where that is actually true.
But with writing, it doesn't matter if your knees give out, it doesn't matter if you have a funny elbow that clicks, um, you can still kind of, you can still develop those tactics.[00:13:00] So, oh, I've got another one. Can I, can I suggest another one? Absolutely. This is one that I give this prompt to my students a lot as assignments and to, to mixed results.
Uh, you either love it or hate it. But it's it's a revision tactic. And so once you have those scenes, once you've used the third rail to, to tap into something interesting, and you're, you're drafting just for sound and you're drafting for language isolate a piece of prose. And then go through and just see what kind of sentence structure you're using if you know, simple compound complex compound complex.
So it's, it's a little bit of grade school grammar and and see what kind of sentence you're using. And more often than not everybody has a favorite kind of sentence structure. It's a trick. Yeah. Everybody has sentence ticks. Yeah. Uh, I love a good [00:14:00] run-on sentence and that's just, that's how I, I write in first draft.
And so making yourself adhere to a certain number of like two simple sentences, two compound sentences, two compound-complex sentences, forcing yourself to vary your sentence structure. It, it does something to what you write. And it's across the board. It's creative writing, it's business writing, it's even, you know, an email, just making yourself vary your sentence structure.
It, it adds that kind of, you know, that kind of music to your syntax. I guess that's one that I really like. Yeah. Have, have you had many folks suggest like revision exercises, revision prompts?
Carrie: No. Um, no, I think that's the first, so I think that's a, that's a great introduction to that concept. Yeah. That's definitely something that I have have used, too.
And partly [00:15:00] it came from like being in a workshop and someone pointing out, you use this sentence structure a lot. But you know, once you recognize that you can go back and look at it yourself. And catch them and see what you could do to vary them.
Kayla: It's really revealing, right? Uh, and I feel like poets have a really refined sense for syntax and for sound and sometimes fiction writers.
We tend to overlook that because we're, you know, looking at story, we're looking at tension and conflict, which, you know, poetry does as well. But it's something that we, we skip over in our work. Uh, so it's good to go back and kind of say, okay, let's, let's take a closer look. Let's isolate this sentence and see how it stands on its own.
Carrie: Yeah, that's great. Well, do you have any final tips you want to give to our listeners either about [00:16:00] writing prompts or about writing in general?
Kayla: Do it because it feels good. It's I think that's, that's the main reason why anyone should write if there's ever a point at which it does not feel good, put it away, just put it away.
Life's too short, do it because it feels good. And because it links you to other people because it links you to the world, you know, do it because it, it leads to nice conversations like this. This is really lovely. I'm so glad that we can do this.
Carrie: Yes, absolutely. Me too. I'm going to, I'm going to keep that in mind.
I think it's really easy to, you know, get overwhelmed by sort of external validation or things like that. And, um, and we should keep enjoyment and connection in mind.
Kayla: Can we trade. Do you [00:17:00] have a prompt that you really liked that I can, I can add to my Word doc?
Carrie: Well, um, so I actually just did a workshop at the Carnegie Center and, it was based on
a quote that I had read by Twyla Tharp. I'm not going to remember the exact wording of the quote, but it was something like, um, people naturally find comfort in looking at the world through either close up, a middle distance or, or, you know, a far distance. And they, it's kind of in your DNA. So. My prompt was also a revision prompt.
And it was to look at your, you know, we were specifically talking about poems, but it could be fiction or whatever, and see, you know, what focal lengths you're using, in your work. And then try to just try to [00:18:00] mix it up a little bit and try to write. Try to experiment with writing and different focal lengths
I'm maybe going deeper into the one that you're comfortable
Kayla: with.
I really like that. Yeah, that's great. And it works across the board. Right. I mean it works with nonfiction, fiction. That's that's great. Thank you. That's a great prompt. Do you, do you have a focal, uh, do you have a point of view that you tend to use more than others?
Is there a place where you go naturally?
Carrie: Yeah, I think my natural place is close up. Um, and, um, I've wondered is that because I'm near-sighted?
What about you? You know,
Kayla: I think when I start writing a story would, when you start writing character, You start with the shorter [00:19:00] focal length, like it's, it's close up, close up and then as you write scene, you're forced to zoom out in a way. Um, it just, because at some point you have to start paying attention to that story arc and it, it forces you to just go, just take distance completely.
And, uh, Yeah. So I think it, I think it varies, but I'm with you. I, I think whenever I start looking, I look really closely.
Carrie: Well, there we go. We got three prompts in this episode of Prompt to Page. So please listeners feel free to try one or all of those prompts. And then, let us see what you've been working on. We want to see your responses to the prompts and thank you so much, Kayla, for, for joining us today and for talking about
Kayla: it with me here, Thanks, Carrie, it's been a pleasure.
Carrie: Thanks for listening to the Prompt to Page podcast. To submit your responses to Kayla's prompt, visit us@jesspublib.org/ prompt- to-page. We also welcome you to join the Jessamine County Public Library's, Prompt to Page writing group, which will meet on Zoom on Tuesday, December 14th at 6:00 PM.
Register on our website. To learn more about the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, visit Carnegiecenterlex.org. Our music is by Archipelago, an all instrumental musical collaboration between three Lexington based university professors. Find out more about Archipelago: Songs from Quarantine volumes one and two at the links on our podcast website.
