{"id":1193,"date":"2018-12-27T22:01:37","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T22:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.writingroutines.com\/?p=1193"},"modified":"2018-12-27T22:01:37","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T22:01:37","slug":"kwan-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.writingroutines.com\/kwan-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Bestselling Author K’wan On Proving People Wrong And Living His Mother’s Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who:<\/strong>\u00a0K’wan<\/p>\n

Claim To Fame:\u00a0<\/strong>K’wan is a multiple literary award winner and bestselling author of over a dozen titles which include: Gangsta<\/a><\/em>, Road Dawgz<\/em><\/a>, Street Dreams<\/em><\/a>, and Hood Rat<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0K’wan has been featured in: Vibe<\/em>, The Library Journal<\/em>, Entertainment Weekly<\/em>, The New York Press<\/em>, and Time Magazine<\/em>. K’wan was also the recipient of the 2012 and 13 Street Lit Book Award Medals (SLBAM) in adult fiction for Eviction Notice<\/em><\/a> and Animal<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Where To Find K’wan:<\/strong>\u00a0Amazon<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n

Praise For K’wan:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cOne of hip-hop fiction’s hottest authors<\/em>…fans will appreciate many of the qualities that make K’wan a writer to check for: gritty settings, memorable dialogue, <\/em>and authentic action.\u201d<\/em> \u2014KING magazine<\/p>\n

\n

When do you like to write? Are you regimented about your writing routine<\/a>?<\/h3>\n

I wouldn\u2019t say I have a set routine. Generally, I write whenever the itch hits me. For the most part I write early in the day or late at night when the house is quiet. However, my laptop is always on and ready to go. Sometimes I\u2019ll sit in front of it for hours and won\u2019t churn out more than a paragraph or two. Then there are those times when I catch lightning in a bottle and before you know it hours have passed and I\u2019ve written a few thousand words.<\/p>\n

Is there anything you do to get started<\/a> in the morning? Like, how do you signal to yourself ‘The writing day has begun’ or do you?<\/h3>\n

My brain kind of flips the switch on its own and let\u2019s me know when its time to get to it. I\u2019ll usually warm up by responding to emails or social media messages just to work the kinks from my fingers and jump start my body. It’s kind of like letting your car warm up before you drive.<\/p>\n

Can you write anywhere (airplanes, coffee shops, etc) or do you prefer to write from home or the same place every time?<\/h3>\n

I can write pretty much anywhere. Doesn\u2019t matter so long as I have a window near me. Looking out the window is like collecting data for me and it helps with the process.<\/p>\n

What’s a successful day of writing for you look like?<\/h3>\n

A successful day of writing for me is when my wife or my daughters hinting to me that I\u2019ve been inside my head for too long. This usually happens when I lock myself away in my office and just go without taking a break to bathe or eat.<\/p>\n

How do you know that what you’re writing isn’t working? Are there signs you look at to tell you that you’re going in the wrong direction?<\/h3>\n

Signs that I\u2019m not going in the right direction is when my train of thought is easily broken. When I\u2019m in the zone there isn\u2019t too much that can bring me out of it. When I\u2019m not in the zone I\u2019m easily distracted. When I can be distracted that tells me that I\u2019m not married to whatever I was writing and need to revisit it.<\/p>\n

When did your aspirations to become a writer begin, and at what age did you start writing in hopes of making a living out of it?<\/h3>\n

I didn\u2019t actually want to be a writer until my third book\u2014Street Dreams<\/a>\u2014<\/em>was published. My first book was written at a very low point in my life. My mom was dying of cancer and to cope I would pour my grief onto the pages of a story I didn\u2019t even realize I was writing. This was my first novel \u201cGangsta.\u201d My first book \u201cRoad Dawgz\u201d was written on a dare. My publisher at the time told me that people were calling me a one-hit-wonder. She dared me to prove them wrong and so I did. Around the time my third book was finished I had fallen madly in love with the craft of storytelling. I started to believe I could make a living out of it when I was able to stop hustling and was able to pay my bills writing books. It was an alien feeling to me, not having to do things I wasn\u2019t supposed to in order to survive. This is when I gave myself to writing wholeheartedly.<\/p>\n

You’re always writing and have published so much. What’s your secret<\/a> to keeping that momentum?<\/h3>\n

My secret? My mother. She was the writer, not me. My gift manifested when she got sick. It was her dream to be published but she died before it could happen and I picked up the torch. This was a blessing to me and I feel like I owe it to her to keep pushing myself to be one of the greatest writers of this generation. To live your dream is one thing\u2026to live someone else\u2019s dream is something else altogether.<\/p>\n

What books or writers<\/a> have most influenced the way you think and the way you write?<\/h3>\n

Growing up I read a lot of Anne Rice<\/a>. I loved her Vampire Chronicles<\/em> and would read them over and over, and envision myself in her stories. I also took quite a bit from Donald Goines<\/a> and Iceberg Slim<\/a>. They taught me not to be ashamed of writing about where I come from. Walter Mosley<\/a> is also a favorite. From him, I learned how to properly set a scene.<\/p>\n

What’s the best piece of writing advice<\/a> you’ve ever gotten?<\/h3>\n

The best piece of writing advice I\u2019ve ever gotten was that I should stop writing. In the beginning people would tell me that my words had no value, that my books would never sell. I\u2019m one of those people that if you tell me that I can\u2019t do something I have to go out of my way to prove to you that I can. To date, I\u2019ve written over forty stories and collectively sold somewhere in the neighborhood of one million books. I think its safe to say that I\u2019ve proven the early doubters wrong.<\/p>\n

____________<\/p>\n

Ready to create a writing routine of your\u00a0own?<\/h3>\n

Sign up now and receive our free guide\u00a0\u201c12 Essential Writing Routines To Help You To Craft Your Own<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Learn from the routines of superstar authors\u00a0Stephen King, Gertrude Stein, John Grisham, Ernest Hemingway, Neil Gaiman, and many more.<\/em><\/p>\n

Get the free guide\u00a0here!<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who:\u00a0K’wan Claim To Fame:\u00a0K’wan is a multiple literary award winner and bestselling author of over a dozen titles which include: Gangsta, Road Dawgz, Street Dreams, and Hood Rat.\u00a0K’wan has been featured in: Vibe, The Library Journal, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Press, and Time Magazine. K’wan was also the recipient of the 2012 and 13 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBestselling Author K'wan On Proving People Wrong And Living His Mother's Dream - Writing Routines<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.writingroutines.com\/kwan-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bestselling Author K'wan On Proving People Wrong And Living His Mother's Dream - Writing Routines\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Who:\u00a0K’wan Claim To Fame:\u00a0K’wan is a multiple literary award winner and bestselling author of over a dozen titles which include: Gangsta, Road Dawgz, Street Dreams, and Hood Rat.\u00a0K’wan has been featured in: Vibe, The Library Journal, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Press, and Time Magazine. 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