Not the Plot
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Not the Plot
KQ Watson - Writing on the darker side
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K. Q. Watson’s author bio is intriguing. She describes herself as a ‘one legged Canadian who likes The Dark Crystal more than she will ever like you’ and ‘the cyborg that you don’t take home to meet your parents’. She looks innocuous and gentle, but there are oodles of satanic death metal songs continually playing in her head. Sometimes, when she’s all alone, she thinks back to some of her favourite episodes of Intervention and the best scenes from The People Under the Stairs.
KQ says the characters in her head keep her sane and she writes because what else is she going to do? In this episode of Not the Plot, she chats with host Teena Raffa-Mulligan about writing from lived experience, trigger warnings and sensitivity readers, the validity of 'downer' endings, and how her writing group keeps her accountable.
Her top tip for authors:
Start writing. Make friends with your characters and get to know them.
Find out more about KQ Watson and her books:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/K.-Q.-Watson/author/B0DTHBSG56
TRIGGER WARNING: THIS EPISODE MENTIONS SUICIDE
Thank you for listening.
Find out more about Not the Plot host Teena Raffa-Mulligan at https://www.teenaraffamulligan.com or follow her FB author page https://www.facebook.com/TeenaRaffaMulligan You can also sign up for her occasional newsletter at http://bit.ly/2gqsJz3
Hello and welcome to Not the Plot. I'm Tina Rafa Mulligan, lifelong reader, writer, sometime artist, and daydream believer. If you're interested in conversations about living a creative life, this podcast is for you. I've always been interested in hearing the stories that take us off the page and behind the scenes. Let's find out what insights and advice today's guest has to share. KQ Watson's author bio is intriguing. She describes herself as a one-legged Canadian who likes the dark crystal more than she will ever like you, and the cyborg that you don't take home to meet your parents. She looks innocuous and gentle, but there are oodles of satanic death metal songs continually playing in her head. Sometimes, when she's all alone, she thinks back to some of her favourite episodes of Intervention and the best scenes from The People Under the Stairs. KQ says the characters in her head keep her sane, and she writes because what else is she going to do? Let's find out more about her. KQ, welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_01Hi, thank you for having me.
Teena Raffa-MulliganTell me how you came to write what you do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it just sort of started with characters and putting them in situations and finding ways to relate to them and uh fleshing out their stories and seeing, I guess, aspects of their personalities that I found interesting and uh wanted to flesh out more and putting them in scenarios and seeing how they grew.
Teena Raffa-MulliganHave you always written, or is this something fairly recent for you?
SPEAKER_01I I would say I I always wrote just in different capacities. Like I started out with fan fiction and went into more, you know, personal and original works. I I call it like I just never stopped playing Imaginary Friends. Only now I call it writing. So yeah, like I've always done it in different versions, I would say.
Teena Raffa-MulliganDo you have a particular writing process?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I would say um I I said computer write, but when I'm not writing, I'm usually like listening to music and imagining those character scenarios with kind of the musical backtrack. So like scenes in my books or my short stories, some of them are like in my head, they're kind of they have a little soundtrack to them. And I think also that like um that uh influences the flow of the actual prose and stuff and and the way the scene, you know, weaves. So uh if I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing, or listening to music and thinking about those scenarios. So that's really my process. Where do you draw your inspiration then? Well, music, uh, like I said, or seeing something, and this is gonna sound kind of arrogant, but thinking I can maybe do it not better, but in a different way. And also, like I I wear my influences on my sleeve, I reference things that did inspire me, like art um and music again, and just like a certain look of something. Like I really like, you know, gothic, like the look of gothic stuff and and like industrial, all that kind of thing. And I kind of try to at least nod to it in my stories. Not necessarily the prose, but like just uh hopefully evoking it into like what the reader would see in their mind.
Teena Raffa-MulliganSo you have the reader in mind when you're writing?
SPEAKER_01When I'm constructing a scene, yes, not necessarily when it's like the story, I write the story for me and my characters. But when I need to communicate how to visualize something, I try to make it so acutely the writer can, you know, visualize it and not and not be confused or unclear. I mean, because you know, writing is communication and you want to communicate what you have in mind.
Teena Raffa-MulliganI've been thinking about that lately, actually, how important clarity is and it's not about really getting lost in the words. You've you've got to be able to convey something that your reader is going to understand and create in their own mind.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and like and and we all pull from different like influences. Like uh, I might see something and relate it to like one of my favorite comic books, or but you might not know what I'm talking about, and you might relate it to something completely different, like a vacation you went on, you know, like so we all have our different little spots of of reference.
Teena Raffa-MulliganWe do, and we can't take ourselves out of what we write completely, I don't feel.
SPEAKER_01No, no, we we can't.
Teena Raffa-MulliganDid you imagine that this would be the life you were leading?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I think it just sort of happened. I self-published my novel, and like if I had my way, it would it would have been like I mean, I guess self-publishing, you literally do have it your way, but uh, but uh I I do I did do the whole querying thing for many, many years with no success. The ideal would have been to like be traditionally published and have that authentication, I guess would be the word. But also, like, you know, I very much believe that self-publishing is completely valid and it's just another route to take. And and there are some amazing books that have been self-published. So I'm not knocking it at all. I wouldn't be here without without it. But it it's not exactly the route I saw myself taking.
Teena Raffa-MulliganNo, uh, I'm with you there. Uh, I mean, I've been writing for a very long time, and initially I never even considered self-publishing at all. It was going to be the traditional route, and I was going to be this writer who made a complete living from writing novels. And sometimes life has different plans for us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh my first, my first short story, it was uh published twice uh in magazines, like in on online magazines, and it was pro raids, so like it was an authentically published uh story. So, yes, technically I am a professionally published author, which is fun and I like that title.
Teena Raffa-MulliganBut I don't know why it is, but for some reason we feel that we have to be authenticated for what we do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I think because I mean, indie publishing, self-publishing, whichever term you want to use, is not as new as it was, like, you know, 20 years ago, but it is still, you know, comparatively new. So I think traditionally, traditional publishing still has that air of of authenticity and the right way and the way you're supposed to do it. So I think that's why like titles and stuff like professionally published author still hold some weight.
Teena Raffa-MulliganYes. I I think there's there's been a change in terms of the stigma attached to putting out your own work. Yeah. And I see it now more as offering us opportunities that we didn't have before to share our work with a wider audience. So, yes, there's there's still an opportunity to try traditional publishing, but you can also look at other options and find what suits you best, or you can do a combination of both, which a lot of us do. How important has it been for you to be connected to other creative people?
SPEAKER_01Um, I think, well, it's uh outlet, surely. I I take part uh twice a week in a writing group, uh, and we like critique each other. And it it's like from a creative standpoint, it it holds you accountable. So, like for like the writing group, you make sure you have something to read each week. Um, so that's you know, that means you're writing, and you get to bounce ideas off of people who understand in some form, like you know, at least, at least like it might be like the entertainment value of the story or story structure or uh the tropes of the genre, you know, so you have a bunch of different, you know, points of view. And and even if they're not like if they're not writers, but if they're like actors or or something else, they also have a uh a different point of view that is useful and valid. And then also for my writing group, I I have said this to them, they know this, that I use them as test monkeys. And if the majority of them have a problem with something uh in the book, then I know that it's a problem. And to you know, consider it, consider that feedback and rework it and stuff like that. But if one person has a problem, then it's probably not a huge problem. Exactly.
Teena Raffa-MulliganYeah. What about social media? Does that play a key role in your writing life?
SPEAKER_01More so in the um publicity. So everyone knows about Amazon, and most people know about Kindle Unlimited, where you can like uh subscribe to Kindle Unlimited and then basically take the books out kind of like a library. And my book is not in that because the discovery is too big. The likelihood of someone finding my book through like Kindle is very, very small. So what I did was I went wide. So I'm also on Kobo and other sites, and there's and by the way, I don't know if I should say this, but Kobo is doing a deal right now that it's like 99 cents for their version of Kindle Unlimited. But the thing with Kobo is they don't have the exclusivity. So me, I can be in their their like borrowing program, and I don't have to stay exclusively with Kobo. So, you know, maybe if you're looking to move away from Amazon, now might be a good time. Um but uh but what I was gonna say is there's another site that I'm part of called Itch. And what they do is they bundle a bunch of different authors' stories, and we all like promote it together, and we all get a cut of everything that sells. So the books are usually on discount. If there's like 30 books for 20 bucks, yeah, that's not a lot of money. But if like 500 people buy that, then it's you know more money. And I've done that. I've been in two bundles this month, Victor this month, last month, this month, because it's uh disability pride month, and I'm disabled, and my main character is disabled, so you know, use what you have. Yes, social media is useful mostly for the advertisement and stuff, not so much the writing for me personally.
Teena Raffa-MulliganYou just said that you write about people with a disability because you have that lived experience. Do you feel that it's important for people writing about anyone with some kind of a different way of having to live their life to have that experience to write about it or to get in touch with so-called the what we call sensitive readers?
SPEAKER_01Ultimately, yes, but how do I say this nicely? There would be a lot of stories that we didn't have if they weren't written by able-bodied white men. Let's just put it that way. Yeah. Yeah. But but in my aforementioned writing group, I had two guys who were both writing characters who ultimately lost their legs, or at least a leg. And I, being a leg amputee, uh like so I would like sit there quietly while the rest of the group would like debate the uh you know, the logistics of their leg amputations, you know, their wounds and all that stuff. And like, okay, can I say something now? And like everyone would shut up because obviously I know what I'm talking about. And I would ask questions that they wouldn't even think of. Like, okay, you're on a slippery boat. Like, what is the tread on the guy's foot? Like, what is he wearing shoes? What kind of foot? Does he have one of those like little, you know, like like I call them leopard legs, that's not what they're called, but you know, those running legs that kind of look like question marks? You know, those those things. Um and and they're like, huh. And and like there's different ways of walking and moving and stuff depending on where you're amputated. Like, do you have a knee a knee? Do you have your thigh? Like, what is it just your ankle that's gone? Okay, well then, you know, not to sound, you know, I'm worse off than you, but like it is easier to walk when you have a knee. Um than if you don't. Of course. Yeah, yeah. Uh so uh yes, you should definitely seek out people with those lived experiences. I'm currently writing uh a story about witches, and one of them is uh is a voodoo priestess, and obviously I don't do voodoo, so I am planning on finding someone to talk to for the sake of authenticity and sensitivity. I don't want to, you know, inadvertently hurt anybody with something I'm writing, or even like be so wrong that it's funny, or you know, so I do plan uh when the draft is done to pursue that because I don't, it's not my my experiences, and I don't want to do anything wrong or ignorant.
Teena Raffa-MulliganSo yeah. Quite a lot of people are starting to put trigger warnings now at the front of books. It seems to be becoming uh a bit of a given that if you think there's something in your novel that might trigger someone for any particular reason, then they need to know this ahead of time so that they don't read the story. Do you have any feelings about that?
SPEAKER_01My book does have a trigger warning in the beginning, but I had fun with it. Uh so like like uh my my trigger warnings, uh they have all seven deadly sins. Uh they have things like uh corpse tea parties, uh, and then it has serious stuff like you know animal death and uh child death and stuff like that. And I did it for the sake of people who need them. I personally find them spoilery. Like I I have a difficult time wrapping my head around like, you know, you could say like like trigger warnings, sexual assault. And like if you how I have a difficult time figuring out how you can say that without triggering the person that needs that trigger warning? Does that make sense?
Teena Raffa-MulliganAh, yes, yes, it does.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like but if you need them and they help you, then who am I to you know make fun of you or stop that or willfully ignore that? Like it's a little thing that I can do to make someone else's life a little easier.
Teena Raffa-MulliganSo looking back on your creative life so far, what would you say has been the biggest challenge for you? Good question.
SPEAKER_01I'm kind of cynical. Um, no, I'm kind of cynical in the sense of like a lot of people will say, like, you know, you finished a book, that's a big achievement. And yes, it is, but I I feel like if you weren't sitting down and writing, you would be doing something else. So eventually the book either gets better or doesn't. So I'm not gonna say like just finishing a book, but um, I will say my novel went through like four different versions uh over a span of way too many years that I am comfortable sharing. Um so yeah, I guess like finishing the book, but again, like if I wasn't writing the book, I would be probably doing something else. That something else would probably be wasting my life with video games, but you know, it would be something because we all have a finite amount of time, but we fill that time in ways, and be that our interests or you know, our nine to five, or with family, or miserable and alone, we we fill that time, we find ways to fill it, and yeah, I would say I guess the most difficulty would be finishing the book, even though I snark at other people who say the same thing. So I'm a hypocrite.
Teena Raffa-MulliganAnd what would you say has been the best part of your creative life so far?
SPEAKER_01The accolades, no, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. So uh when I started the book, I was very, very sick, and uh it was kind of the only thing that like got me, you know, uh to keep trudging along. And so now it exists, and uh it's nice to know that I accomplished the thing that was keeping me going, which again, you know, is kind of hypocritical, but there you go. Uh I like that it exists in the world and other people can enjoy it. Or um what I say is um if you if you enjoy it, I'm glad. And if you don't enjoy it, I hope you enjoyed tearing it apart. Because I come I come from like the past like shows like MST3K. I don't know if anyone listening knows what that is, but they just you know sit and make fun of old bad movies. So it that's a that's a good way also to uh enjoy media. Uh it can be constructive and steam relenting, you know, like you could get you could blow off some steam that way. And if that helps people, that's fun too. My favorite thing is that it's like out there for people to enjoy in whatever capacity they want to or need to, and I just hope that they enjoy it in some way, be it good or bad.
Teena Raffa-MulliganSo, what do you read for enjoyment?
SPEAKER_01I'm very much a mood reader. I just read The Caretaker by Marcus. I don't know how to pronounce his last name, but he also wrote uh We Used to Live Here, which I didn't very much enjoy, but I really liked The Caretaker. I like uh autobiographies and memoirs, actually, a lot. Uh I liked uh Janet McCurdy's I'm Glad My Mom Died. That was, you know, like not, I mean it was good, but it wasn't, you know, a fun read. It was rather sad. And I uh read the the one by the daughter of Ruby Frankie, the the um YouTuber who was like uh very bad to her children. Let's just put it that way. Uh what else did I read? I read Pet Cemetery. I didn't really like it. I don't really like Stephen King. I reread the uh Go As Alice books. Goas Alice was um was better than I remembered. So that's good. I was I'm doing some rereads and uh that was something to reread. I read the testaments recently. Um I liked it. Yeah, so I I'm kind of all over the board.
Teena Raffa-MulliganIt's it's interesting, isn't it? You you mentioned uh mood reading, and I think how we're feeling at the time is a strong influence on what we choose to read. I know it is for me as well. So I I guess it's also subjective. One person can think a book's brilliant and another person can not have any connection to it at all. That's the same with our own writing. We try our best to find the readers who connect with our type of writing, and that can be the hardest part.
SPEAKER_01My outlook is that I'm not so special that I'm the only one that finds this interesting, you know? Uh someone else must find this interesting or neat or thought-provoking or whatever. I know that there's an audience for my writings. They just have to find me or it or, you know, the books, the stories. But I know that there's gotta be an audience out there.
Teena Raffa-MulliganDefinitely, because there's a big wide world of readers out there, even though there are so many distractions now. What do you hope that readers of your books will take away from them?
SPEAKER_01Well, my stuff is pretty dark. Um, there's not a huge amount of hope in my stories, but I guess what I would hope that they would take away from it is like, yeah, everything sucks, but it's gonna be okay because there's nothing you can do about it. Uh, we're stuck here, and we have our choices of how we're gonna adjust to where we are. Like uh all of us recently lived through some pretty big stuff, and uh I it is what it is. You you you're here, I'm here, uh we're all gonna die eventually, so we just have to sort of make our way. And I hope some people find that calming or comforting or accepting or something, because I do know I come from a culture of like you can choose things like like for example suicide, um the saying like it's a permanent solution to a temporary problem, and they're all temporary problems. I don't agree with that. I I think there are some things that are not a temporary problem, like I don't want to give anyone ideas, but so there are some things that are not temporary problems, uh like my leg's not gonna grow back, you know, stuff like that, and I and I feel like there are things where um choosing to check out is a valid uh solution. So I think in that aspect, that's why all my books kind of end on a downer ending, but it's okay for there to be a downer ending. Not everything is sunshines and rainbows. And I think that uh just knowing that there's some someone else out there who is okay with that kind of thing is in itself comforting, and maybe a reason to keep, you know, seeing where everything ends up. Yeah, let's put it that way. I'm sorry, that got dark. I know that you you're you're more you know uplifting than I am.
Teena Raffa-MulliganOh, look, I I think life experience has a lot to do with it, and I also think that we come in with different kinds of temperaments, and I've always just said I've been lucky enough to come in with a a bit of an optimistic personality, but that doesn't mean that you don't have times when life's a challenge or when you necessarily think that everything's sunshine and roses, because it it certainly isn't, and for a lot of people it's definitely not. There are also all sorts of challenges in life, and some of them you can see on the outside, and some of them you can only you can't see at all because they're on a person's inner inner life. So yeah, all I can say is I find life interesting, and life is definitely interesting. I hope I continue to find it interesting, and who knows what's ahead. None of us know what's ahead.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, that's exciting.
Teena Raffa-MulliganYeah, which which it is, and I look at it as being an experience that we're very privileged to have.
SPEAKER_01And you never you never know like what's gonna perk you up. Like I I'm watching a show, the revival of a show. I'm not gonna say what show, but I'm revived, um watching a revival of a show, and they brought in characters from like the past of the show, and I was so happy. I was like, I was so happy to see them, and like and like I mentioned in my bio, The Dark Crystal, uh, a few years ago they did a uh a prequel series on Netflix, and it was so good, and I liked it so much. So, like the world is amazing, you know, like you never know what really cool thing is gonna happen.
Teena Raffa-MulliganNo, you don't, and I I figure there's always something that will take you by surprise and lift your spirit. Totally. So I look for well, I don't actively look for those moments, they just come. So when you least expect them. Do you have a final tip that you would like to offer anybody who is planning to write and haven't got started yet?
SPEAKER_01Just start. And I I know that sounds like not the easiest, but you you don't know uh what you're gonna get. And and also like make friends with your characters, have conversations with them, get to know them. Uh sometimes they will tell you things that you weren't expecting at the most inopportune times. Um uh so yeah, get to know your characters and just start writing because uh the more you write, the more that will be written, and uh eventually, hopefully, you'll have a book or story or whatever. Whatever you need to write, it's in you, and you should get it out, or else you might go insane.
Teena Raffa-MulliganAnd on that, I'll say thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I hope I don't scare anybody too bad.
Teena Raffa-MulliganThank you for listening to this episode of Not the Plot. I hope you've enjoyed the conversation and will join me again as I find out the inside stories on the creative lives of writers and artists. Until then, I'm Tina Rafa Mulligan saying goodbye for now and happy creating.