How Kerry Kletter Sits Down & Writes
Kerry Kletter's adult debut 'East Coast Girls' is gorgeous, powerful, and will keep you turning the page until the very end.
Childhood friends Hannah, Maya, Blue and Renee share a bond that feels more like family. Growing up, they had difficult home lives, and the summers they spent together in Montauk were the happiest memories they ever made. Then, the summer after graduation, one terrible night changed everything.
Twelve years have passed since that fateful incident, and their sisterhood has drifted apart, each woman haunted by her own lost innocence. But just as they reunite in Montauk for one last summer, hoping to find happiness once more, tragedy strikes again. This time it’ll test them like never before, forcing them to confront decisions they’ve each had to live with and old secrets that refuse to stay buried.
East Coast Girls is perfect for fans of Elin Hilderbrand, Jennifer Weiner, and J Courtney Sullivan.
We got to pick Kerry’s brain about her writing process, finding story inspiration from her own life, and about the benefits of developing a growth mentality as a writer.
Q: Where do you like to write the most?
In my apartment, in my bed, with lots of snacks nearby.
Q: When do you like to write the most?
I don’t have a specific time of day that I love to write but I enjoy writing the most right after I finish a really good book. Great writing inspires me and makes me want to do better so that’s when I feel the most compelled.
Q: When it comes to drafting, do you prefer writing on a computer or freehand?
I do everything on my laptop.
Q: Are you more of a plotter or pantser?
A little bit of both. I start with a general sense of the story—who the main character is, what they want, what or who is in their way. But I like to be surprised by what the main character learns over the course of the story.
Q: Stephen King has a great line in ‘On Writing’ that says “the scariest moment is always right before you start. After that, things can only get better.” That scary pre-start moment often inspires procrastination in writers. Suddenly, you have to clean your entire house, do the laundry and play Candy Crush for an hour before you can actually start writing. Is there anything you need to do before you can actually sit down and work?
Literally everything you just said-ha! Plus the latest news and the last twenty updates on Twitter. Without fail, the minute I get around to actually starting I think, “I love this. Why did I just spend two hours avoiding it?” The mind is weird.
Q: Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what music? Is your choice of music inspired by the project you’re working on?
No, I am inspired more by silence than music. I need to get really quiet to hear what my subconscious wants to tell me. But I envy writers who can write to music!
Q: Some writers believe you have to write every single day. Is that true of your process? How often do you write/how long for each session?
It’s mostly true of my process but I don’t agree that it’s something everyone needs to do. I try to write an hour a day but only because it regulates me emotionally to do it that way. Everyone has their own process and should honor that.
Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d give an aspiring author?
Develop a growth mentality. Learn to see criticism as a gift to make you better. When I was younger, I thought any criticism meant I wasn’t good. It made me want to give up. Now I understand how necessary it is and it excites me because it means I get the chance to do better. I think it’s much easier to be a writer if you can get to that place. No one gets it right the first time. It’s a process.
Q: Where do you normally find story inspiration?
My own life. Usually it comes out of a question I’m trying to answer, some aspect of life I’m trying to understand. I give the question to the character and then the two of us try to figure out the answer along the way. For instance, I would say East Coast Girls was driven by the question: How do we go on in a world where bad things can happen? How do we love without fear when loss is an inevitable part of life?
Q: Where did the idea for East Coast Girls come from?
The questions I raised above first and foremost. But I was also inspired by my own lifelong friend group who I consider my family. The story itself is fictional but the love is not. Ultimately, I hope that love is what comes through in the story. Love and grace and compassion for our flawed humanity.
Q: In East Coast Girls, there are four distinct characters, how did you go about differentiating their voices?Did you employ any devices for making sure the characters were uniquely different?
I would say it was easy to differentiate their voices once I identified the different coping mechanisms each character employed after the traumatic event they shared. Who turned to denial, who became more fearful, who more angry? Once I knew the answer to those questions, the rest of their personalities filled in pretty easily.
Q: East Coast Girls deals with a lot of trauma and the lasting impact of grief. How did you make sure to let some light into the story?
Infuse it with love, find the humor. Love and humor are always our greatest warriors against darkness.
Q: Your first novel, The First Time She Drowned, was written for a YA audience. How was the writing experience for East Coast Girls different from the first book?
It honestly wasn’t. I just write the book that’s in me at the time and hope the audience is there no matter the age.
Q: What are you reading right now?
I’m reading Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal and I’m doing a reread of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and the Six for an Instagram instalive book club I do once a week with authors Jennifer Niven and Jeff Zentner. I’m @kkletter over there and on Twitter if anyone wants to follow and tune in!
Pick up your copy of East Coast Girls at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, or Indiebound. Enjoy!
Sit Down and Write is brought to you by Emily Lee and Cassie Stossel.