Author Interview - Emma

Today I've got a special thing for you. Instead of listening to me ramble on about what you should be doing to your story, characters, or story world, let me introduce to you a different blogger, author, and fellow OYANer, Emma!

Hi Emma, and welcome to Story Forger! Tell us a tidbit or two about yourself, if you don’t mind.

Hi Aidan. Thanks for having me. 

So, I'm Emma, and I'm a teen writer of prose and poetry both. I'm also a One YearAdventure Novel student, and that is something that has definitely influenced my writing. Right now I'm working on my poetry book, Flutterfly, which is coming out next month. I'm quite excited for that.

How/when did you start writing? Why? 

I started writing little short stories in elementary school. Not that I can vouch for any quality of excellence there..As I got older, writing became more neccesary, as an outlet and means of expression. I started OYAN when I was 12 and joined the forum when I was 13, and from there, my writing definitely morphed. 

What are you currently writing? What is it about?

I actually have a few WIPs. My first is a verse novel about ballet culture. My second is a speculative fiction about a falsely utopian society based around contrasting ideas of mandatory euthanias, depression, overdiagnosis and human nature. Whooo. And I'm involved in a couple collective novels. 

Did anything inspire this project? If so, what was it?

I've just been trying a lot to find the beauty in everything- rough calluses and gorgeous sunrises alike. I am driven by need to hold onto these things, I think, because that's where I find life is most current, vibrant and real. (And yes. I know I'm wonderfully, awfully sappy. Thanks for noticing.) 

 

What does your writing process look like?

Sit down in my bed and grab my laptop. Go on Pinterest. Go on writing forums. Catch up on blog posts. Realize I spent all my allotted free time up already and proceed to bang head against wall. 

*cough* Not really.

For poetry, I try to catch myself in the heat of the moment, in really vivid emotions- and then I make myself stop, scribble down a couple verses or two. It'll probably be pretty bad, but later, when I am editing in a crisper mindset, I'll have that raw emotion already there to turn into something more clean. 

The more I write it in the midst of strong emotion, the easier it is to write it /not/ in those fits of passion. 

For prose, I just force myself to do it, honestly. You have to. You can't always wait for the mood to come, or nothing will get done. I go into a closed off room, turn a playlist on quietly, set a timer and just write. 

What sort of things do you do besides writing?

I enjoy politics, so I'm involved a lot with TeenPact. I love to read, immensely so. And the plague of the teenage world, I do school! Hurrah! 

Who is your favorite fictional character (feel free to list a top three or something)? 

Oh gracious. You do understand this is like trying to make me choose between children, right?

This is a hard question to answer because like...Moriarty is not an admirable character, but he is one brilliantly done. So that leads to the question of, characters that I like as people? Or characters that I like because the author did an amazing job on them? 

(I am starting to say both on way to many Moriarty-eske characters and am unsure how to feel about this.) 

Anyway. Let's see. In no order, Jo March. Lovely girl. Surprisingly relatable. Bean, from Ender's Shadow. I would say Ender, and a couple of days my mind will probably change again, but at the moment, Bean. And lastly, Clarisse, from Fahreinheit 451. 

Do you have any advice for the readers (now is your chance to impress on our young minds your opinions?)

Stop being hypocritical in your reading. If you say a book is stupid, don't buy it, give it name recognition value, check it out at the library, and give it away to a friend. That's defeating the purpose. That might sound obvious, but apparently it's not. 

Read for fun, then read for knowledge and enrichment, and learn how to make that fun.

And let's see...

OH WAIT did you mean people who are reading this post or people who like to read

because I totally took it as the latter. 

Erm. 

Well, for the latter, here's my life tips for the day!

First off, be intentional in whatever you do. 

Second off, be nice to people; it's free for you and invaluable for some of them. 

AND ALSO you should definitely get my book when it comes out. Mmhmm. Great life tip right there, for sure. Yup. Of course. 

Finally, what day of the month is your favorite, what color would you assign it, and how many woodchucks do you suppose it has as pets? 

Is this a question about synesthesia, a parody of a nightvale quote, or purposefully random question in order to make us look like sympathetic and approach human beings? 

But if you must know.

The 8th. Teal blue, the dark kind. 

And how many woodchucks? Easy. 42. 

42 is the answer to everything.

Thank you for stopping by today! Remember to take some of the complimentary coffee and donuts before you… Oh, it seems we don’t actually have coffee and donuts. Ahem. Well, before you leave, is there any way the readers can connect with you and/or your writings?

The donuts, I think I could live without; I'm not terribly disappointed. But coffee? You don't have /coffee?/ What cruel alternate dimension is this? 

Well, at least now readers know a reason behind the randomness of my brain today (coffee deprivation, you see.) 

So yes, I'd love to hear from readers. You can find me lots of places, the links of which I will put below. 

You can send me a message on any of those sites and I'll get back to you as soon as unhumanely possible. (Because I am not human, I am Spock. A poetic, sentimental Spock.)

flutterflybook.wordpress.com

My blog.

the-lilac-ampersand.tumblr.com

My poetry.

pinterest.com/lilacampersand

full of storyboards and 'please don't judge my stab wound infographics I'm a writer' posts.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/47945715-emma

And all the books. Because books are important. 

And you can email me at lilacampersand@gmail.com

 

Thanks again for having me! Love your blog. Keep it up. 

Emma out. 

[special note: if you (a writer/blogger/what have you) wish to be interviewed, shoot me an [in]formally worded email at forgingstories@gmail.com]