An Interview with KiKi Walter
This article was first published on Coffee Times Substack
Hey guys! Hope you’ve all had a great weekend so far, and are ready for another interview!
This week we’re introducing KiKi Walter who runs two publications, The Memoirist, and QuickTalk on Medium.
It’s really cool to have someone who publishes memoirs amidst the swarm of personal essay writers on Medium. Not to mention an exclusive ‘Dear KiKi’ advice column. Let’s dive in and check out the mind and writer behind these amazing pubs!
Dear KiKi, I see that you run a column under your publication, QuickTalk, under the same name. I thought this was interesting. What inspired you to start an advice column for your readers?
Great question! While writing memoir is my sweet spot, I also consider myself a humorist. I’m naturally goofy and quirky, so sinking my teeth into other creative writing outlets keeps things fun for me. Growing up, I was a huge fan of Dear Abby and Ann Landers (strange, I know) and always thought there was something naturally comical about advice columns tackling real-life issues.
When I started Dear KiKi, I wasn’t sure how it would evolve, but I thought it would be a unique addition to the Medium platform.
Why do you choose to give advice on such a range of topics, rather than focusing on niches? Are there certain topics that are more popular than others?
I chose to have Dear KiKi be open to a wide array of topics for the sole reason of not wanting to take it too seriously and corner myself into a specific niche. The writing topics are always popular, but if I just tackled writing, I’d just be another writer shilling out writing advice. The relational topics also tend to do pretty well. My most popular Dear KiKi post was “Dear KiKi: How Do I Tell My Sister and Her Family We Don’t Want Them at Our House on Christmas Day?” — totally cracks me up.
What are the challenges you face when writing such content?
My biggest challenge in crafting the Dear KiKi posts is creating the content itself. I’ve only had a few people actually submit questions to me, so I craft most of the questions myself. Sometimes I can get stuck coming up with new topics.
I’ve thrown it to my Twitter posse for ideas, but they have more fun responding to me with GIFs and inappropriate questions. Likewise, even though I try to keep Dear KiKi light and fun, I also try to be serious and thoughtful in my responses.
As for writing memoirs, these sometimes include very personal stories. It’s not easy to be vulnerable, but sometimes it makes the stories we write so much more personal. How do you personally decide when to filter and when to be vulnerable?
Old age! But seriously. When I was younger, I did filter a bit more. I would either not write about a topic at all if I felt uncomfortable or vulnerable or I would tend to not be completely honest with myself and sometimes write things in a way that would make others happy. The problem with that is, your readers aren’t stupid. They can feel if you are open or not.
I suppose today if there was something that made me really uncomfortable and I couldn’t be honest about it in my writing–then I wouldn’t write about it at all. It would just be an untouchable topic. Also, personally, self-deprecation goes a long way–nobody wants to read about how great you think you are.
Do you have any advice for writers who wish to write advice columns?
My advice for writers who have an interest in writing an advice column is this advice (ha!): unless you are an expert in a specific area, don’t get super serious with it. Be playful. Have fun. And don’t compete with me! I’ll have to send Gaurav Jain after you.
I see that you’re a professional content director and writer while also running your two publications and blog on Medium. Are there any other writing projects that you wish to tackle someday?
My goal has always been to publish a real live boy! I mean memoir. A real live memoir. My editorial team has taken it upon themselves to be my cheerleaders. I guess I better get on it before they send Gaurav Jain after me.
How do you handle readers who don’t agree with your advice? Is there a secret to help appeal more to your readers, and do you mind sharing these tips with us?
I’ve only come across this once or twice and it was so passive I wasn’t sure if they were disagreeing with me or not. Regardless, I understood when I created Dear KiKi that I was opening myself up to disagreements and differences of opinion, so I try to be humble and gracious when someone offers another way of looking at things. This is also why I look to readers to also offer their thoughts. I like to open up a dialogue rather than shut everyone out and set myself up as a know-it-all. If I was, I could have saved myself from a lot of crap over the years!
Secrets to appealing more to your readers? I think it goes back to self-deprecation, not taking yourself too seriously, being understanding of others, not taking the platform too seriously, and having fun. If you are sincerely having fun–your readers are going to have fun, and they will come back for more. Also? My personal writing style? Write as if you are having a friendly one-on-one conversation with your reader. My written words are pretty much exactly how I speak. Talk. Speak. Whatevs.
Is there anything we have yet to know about you?
All you need to know is that I am part David Sedaris and part Dorothy Parker peppered with a dash of Tina Fey. Everything else, you’ll have to read about in my upcoming memoir, coming soon to a bookstore near you.
I love how open and humorous KiKi has been with her responses!
Once again, I would like to thank KiKi Walter for her responses. It’s been a pleasure to work on this interview with her, and even more insightful to get into the mind of a writer running two very unique publications!
