KP Spotlight – R.M. Archer

It's been a while, the stage has been empty, but today we are turning the lights back on baby!

Just in case you don't know what KP Spotlight is, it's where Kingdom Pen (who is me in this case) interviews a KeePer who has been a regular article writer for Kingdom Pen.

We get to shine the spotlight on them for 15 questions and learn more about their writing and who they are.

For the latest addition of KP Spotlight, we get to interview the talented R.M. Archer. 

She has written many awesome articles the last few months, that have covered topics from writing short stories to encouraging writers about their doubts of their writing.

I had a lovely time interviewing Ms. Archer, and I hope you have a lovely time reading it!

Ready? Time for the questions!

Kingdom Pen: Tell me a little bit about yourself. What are three interesting facts?

R.M. Archer: Oh no. I have to be interesting? XD I kid, lol. But let’s see…

 1. I’m a mythology nerd and I have an elaborate theory about the inspiration of the phoenix myth. 

2. During one of my thirteen years in choir, my choir had the opportunity to sing backup for Celtic Woman.

3. My family owns about 5,000 books. (I’ll be proud of myself if I can read 2,000 of those. XD)

Kingdom Pen: What inspired you to start writing?

R.M. Archer: I’ve always loved reading, and I decided early on that it would be fun to start writing books like the ones I liked to read. Of course, initially this meant 6-year-old me trying to write a mystery story in the vein of Nancy Drew and The Boxcar Children, and the result was horrifying. But hey, everyone’s got to start somewhere. Things improved drastically once I started writing fantasy instead, lol.

Kingdom Pen: Do you have any dreams as a writer?

R.M. Archer: Nope. Not a one. 😉 Truly, I’d like to see my stories in different formats. I have one series I’d love to see turned into a TV show, another series I’d love to see adapted for comic books, a standalone I think would be cool as a manga… It would be super cool to see the worlds I’ve created (and am still creating) brought to life in different ways.

Kingdom Pen: In one of the articles you’ve published on KP, you talk about how writing short stories are beneficial for novelists. What are some significant ways short stories have impacted your novels?

R.M. Archer: A lot of the points in that article (if not all of them) were pulled from personal experience, so reading that post provides the fullest answer to this question. But I think the most prominent impacts for me have been exploration and sharing. I’ve used short stories to explore my larger worlds for myself, as well as to share those worlds with others while my novels are still in the works. My generic “Short Story Collection vol. 1” is a great example, since it contains introductions to my sci-fi world and important arcs taking place there, as well as a story I used to explore a piece of my favorite fantasy world.

I tend to produce novels slowly, so I really appreciate being able to use short stories to share at least a snapshot of what I have in my head.

Kingdom Pen: I saw  that you run your very own website called Scribes & Archers. What inspired you to start it, and do you have any goals you wish to accomplish with it?

R.M. Archer: Ooh, yes. I actually started blogging because my mom blogs. She’s blogged for years, and when I was about twelve I decided I wanted to try it. It was a little tiny thing called “Alpine Writer” at the time, and my writing was atrocious, but it was a great opportunity for me to grow and develop my writing skill while helping writers and sharing my fiction with readers.

In the past couple years, I’ve realized that my passion really lies in helping authors learn to build worlds that reflect consistent worldview values, so I mostly write worldbuilding-related content these days. 

My goal with the site, to this day, is to help writers and share my books with readers. 🙂

Kingdom Pen: On your site I also noticed that you  have written and published many books. What advice would you have for someone writing their first?

R.M. Archer: Good question. Probably just “have fun.” Your first book (even your first several books) should be a project you enjoy and write for yourself while you figure out what’s important to you in writing. Don’t worry about publishing. Don’t worry about pleasing readers. Just write and see what happens.

Over time, you can worry more about those other things. You’ll get more intentional about your genre and themes and worldbuilding. Finishing will be more important. And all of those are good things! But you have to start by exploring and figuring out what you like about writing, what you don’t like, what you do and don’t want to write, what your writing style is, etc. 

You have to start by loving what you do, so that when expectations start to stifle your creativity you can drop them and go back to a time when you wrote simply because you loved it. So, for now at least… just write because you love it. Write because it’s fun. Write because you want to.

Kingdom Pen: What is your favorite thing about writing?

R.M. Archer: Either worldbuilding or editing. Worldbuilding allows me to create whole cultures that weren’t there before, with vibrant beliefs and practices and atmospheres. It lets me take my knowledge of people and culture from the real world and put it under a microscope by way of imaginary trappings that emphasize a particular belief or concept, all while enjoying the fun of creating! I find it hits the perfect blend of fun and purpose.

And editing is where you take a rough draft, something full of potential but unpolished, and you rearrange it and polish it so that potential can shine. You take the story you wrote and you turn it into the story that was originally in your head—or, sometimes, something better than the story that was in your head! Sometimes adjustments surprise you and you end up shifting the story in a way that you wouldn’t have expected, but a way that’s perfect for the story you’re trying to tell. (And as a professional editor, I not only get to do this for myself, but I also get to help other authors do it for their stories!)

Kingdom Pen: What is your biggest fear/struggle as a writer?

R.M. Archer: “What if I’m not meant to write?” This can come through in a number of other questions (“What if I never finish the stories I want to finish?” “What if I’m only good at teaching and my own writing isn’t really that good?” “I can’t possibly write as much as so-and-so; how am I ever going to make it as an author?”). All based in faulty suppositions, of course. If I weren’t meant to write, God wouldn’t have placed these stories in me. Maybe I can’t finish every story or write as much as some other authors, but I can be faithful with the time and energy that God has given me (and even great authors like Tolkien and Lewis didn’t finish all the stories they thought up!). I learn through teaching, and by learning from other teachers also I can improve my writing and thus become a better writer and teacher.Doubts tend to come in two types: Those you can do something about, and those you can’t. Those you can do something about are great because you can make steps toward proving those doubts wrong! And those you can’t do anything about are in God’s hands, which is the safest place for them to be.

Does that make all the doubts go away? Absolutely not. XD We all still face them. They’re persistent buggers. But with practice, they do become easier to ignore.

Kingdom Pen: What story are you currently working on?

R.M. Archer: I’m in the process of publishing a fantasy novel titled Calligraphy Guild! It’s about time-changing ink, dragons, and a community of writers. It features lots of community themes (family, found family, general community), music, writing, hope, slow pacing, tea, characters I love… It’s my favorite project I’ve worked on thus far, and I’m super excited to share it. ^-^Honestly, though, I’m nearly finished with my part in that story (aside from post-release marketing), and I’m not sure what I’ll be working on next. There’s a big fantasy trilogy nagging at me, but I’m not sure if I’m ready for another large project yet, so I might focus instead on one of the short story collections rattling around in my brain.

Kingdom Pen: What is your writing process like?

R.M. Archer: It’s different for each book, lol. I often need some sort of plan, even if it’s just a vague idea of where the book is going. Sometimes I write a whole outline, sometimes I just have vague notes, sometimes I outline a few chapters ahead as I write, sometimes I outline until the last chapters and then procrastinate until I get there because I’m bad with endings. XDThen I write (usually straight through, but I’ve been known to skip around and write the scenes I find interesting first and then fill in the gaps with certain projects), and then usually I set aside the project for a bit before I edit. Some books require a longer gap than others. Calligraphy Guild had very few gaps between drafts; I have others I finished years ago that I’ve still hardly touched.

And then the editing stage has its own slew of variations… I find the whole process is just very unique to the project rather than the author, in my case, lol.

Kingdom Pen: What’s the most significant change in your first novel versus your latest?

R.M. Archer: My latest book is filled with things I love and find important. My first novel had some elements I loved and valued—family dynamics, for example—but it was mostly a composite of things I’d seen in other people’s stories, and it didn’t have a whole lot of purpose in itself. There wasn’t anything to really make it mine or to connect with (except for the fact that I wrote it). Calligraphy Guild has pieces of me scattered all over it, it explores concepts and themes that are important to me, it has character types and worldbuilding elements that I love… It’s a story that has purpose, it’s a story that only I could write, and I’m so glad that God gave it to me and carried me through everything it took to write it. It’s been amazing.

Kingdom Pen: What’s an underappreciated novel that you love?

R.M. Archer: This is sort of cheating because it’s not one novel, but I love C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy. I have seen more people reading it since I read it (just because now I notice, lol), but as a whole it seems to get overlooked in favor of the Narnia series or his non-fiction. I love his non-fiction and Narnia, too, but The Space Trilogy is amazing and deserves just as much attention, in my opinion.

Kingdom Pen: If you could spend a day with any author dead or alive, whom would you choose?

R.M. Archer: Man, just one? I had at least four pop to mind right away. XD Um… Hm… I think Nadine Brandes, since if I’m going to spend the day with one author it would probably be less awkward for it to be a woman, lol. But Andrew Peterson, Tolkien, Lewis, Faye Fite, Brandon Sanderson… It’s a hard choice. XD

Als
Kingdom Pen: Do you have something to say to the KeePers of Pen? Sage pieces of advice? Words of encouragement? Random tidbit?

R.M. Archer: Write the stories you’re passionate about. God has given those ideas to you for a reason. They might fall into popular genres/styles/etc. or they might not, but either way, they’re important. Trust God with them and see where He takes you. 🙂

Kingdom Pen: And finally, would you rather travel back in time to meet your ancestors or would you rather go to the future to meet your descendants?

R.M. Archer: I think if I were to meet my ancestors I’d come back frustrated by how dumb we’ve gotten as a culture, lol. Meeting my descendants would be kind of terrifying, since I’d see how my future parenting turned out, but I think it would ultimately be more encouraging. I look forward to raising children one day (and equipping them, ultimately, to raise their own children), and it would be encouraging to see the fruit of what will be.

Well, that's a wrap! Thank you again to R.M. Archer for answering all my questions.

Oh, and the last question in the interview is right back you, the reader!

Would rather travel back in time to meet your ancestors or if you'd rather go to the future to meet your descendants.

Also, if you have any questions of your own for Ms. Archer, feel free to leave them in the comments as well!