Recently, one of my good Wattpad and internet friend, republished one of her works after rewriting with the necessary polishing and editing. Upon congratulating her, the idea of getting to know the literary side of my friend reacted in my head faster than the ion bond of Sodium and Chlorine.

(Yes, Chemistry is stressing me out recently.)

Since there was this good idea waiting to blossom, I reached out to my friend, Geraldine Nyika. And with the help of emailing like it's the 1990s and through the unexplored wonders of Google Docs, our interview/questionnaire could finally be completed.

The questionnaire of 5 and 20 questions are filled with things that I have always wanted to ask fellow writers about and topics that I find interesting.

In this week's Drafting Davies, Geraldine and I tackle the overrated-underrated genres, walk down the 'Best drafting' memory lane, try to predict the future of LGBT in the literary world and find out the one book character that Geraldine would enjoy romancing.

Without further ado, here's the unedited conversation we had.

1. What turned you on towards writing in the first place?

A: Well it was a combination of my dad's influence (He is an avid writer/reader), reading a lot of books from a very young age and a ploy to try to impress my crush at the time who was obsessed with reading my short stories. 

*Laughing out loud*. 

There was no happy ending to our love story unfortunately.

*sigh*.

2 Was writing something that you always liked or did you come to love it, at some point in your life?

A: I always liked writing from the get go. It was mostly because English was my strongest subject and composition being my fav aspect.

3. The real life person who influences your work the most.

A: Me, probably. I can't express myself eloquently enough when I'm speaking to someone in person or I always have to end up censoring myself or hiding my own opinion because the ramifications would just be catastrophic so that influences me to write. My works are so in tangent with my moods.

4. Overrated and underrated genres?

A: I think the most overrated genre has to be romance. I don't mind well written romance stories with actual realism infused in the plots, but the whole bad boy meets nerdy girl storyline is starting to bore me now. Unfortunately it seems that's all authors want to write about now.

In my opinion, one of the most underrated genres has to be historical fiction. There are so many great books in that genre that don't get the hype they deserve and it's a shame too considering they are gems.

5. Best memory about drafting.

A: That has to be my first story that I wrote when I was like 12 or so on my dad's computer. My dad was working abroad at the time and we would go and visit him on holidays. He would take us to see these great places and I would write mini stories about those days on my dad's laptop and he would read them out loud to the whole family. I would have the whole family in stitches from the way I twisted things to fit my POV and it was just hella satisfying.

6. You were to be famous for your book in one genre, what would that genre be?

A: Ooh, OK. That's hard. I would want to be famous in genre that makes a difference so probably LGBT+ but in my continent Africa. I would love to my literary work to be part of a revolutionary movement. That would be cool.

7. What would be the most ideal scenery to draft, for you?

A: I like the darkness when it comes to drafting or doing anything that challenges me intellectually, so my ideal drafting place would be a little alcove of a room that's full of book shelves, submerged in as little light as possible. I would want the room to smell like books too.

8. How does the LGBT genre fit into the actual literary world? And, should it deserve standalone genre rather than mix itself with the Romance and Teen Fic?

A: The literary world is just a transition of real life situations that are exaggerated and manipulated to be entertaining. The fact is the LGBT community is part of real life hence it should be transitioned into literary works more often. And you are absolutely right, I do feel like the LGBT+ does deserve its own genre to help readers identify the books easier and to also give validation to the LGBT+ community. LGBT+ deserve more than to be subgenres, at least in my opinion.

9. Should Fanfic be considered as an actual genre, in real life? And if so, then why? Since, in the real world, people are more aware about crafting or manipulating other's intellectual property?

A: I don't think that fan fiction can be a real genre due to intellectual property and copyright infringement. Fanfic's are like covers of music, you can twist the original and make it your own but it is not. Credit is due to the author for their work; coming up with story ideas and cohesive plots is not easy so no one should take that away from an author. You can base your idea off the original works though, case in point, 50 shades of Grey.

10. Would you buy Fanfic in real life?

A: If it was really good, well written and given the go ahead by the original author then heck yeah I would. As an avid reader all I want is a good story with a great plot, amazing character and style development so if that all comes into play in the form of a fanfic, I would buy it.

11. The best book (Fiction/ Non-fiction) you read about homosexuality? Not a Wattpad book.

A: That would be the first gay book I first read by Amy Lane, Chase in the Shadow. I picked it up by accident at the library but once I started reading I couldn't put it down. It portrays the struggles that a young man has to go through to finally accept himself, when no one else would. It was shockingly real, brutal and a wakeup call to someone like me that grew up in a very homophobic environment.

12. Do you prefer listening to music whilst writing?

A: Oh yeah! Mostly classical so I can hear myself think. I love music and I listen to music whilst I do everything so of course I write listening to music too.

13. Best dystopian novel. In real life.

A: That's gotta be my girl, Katniss!!! The hunger games made me want to fight everyone. 

*Laughing out loud*.

Unfortunately I could only use my brothers as punching bags.

"If anyone wants to call social services for sibling abuse, now's the time."

14. Best book to movie adaptation.

A: Besides the obvious, that being Harry Potter, The hobbit and The hunger games, I gotta give it to my mans Percy Jackson. It also helps that the main actor also acted in another fav book-movie adaption of mine, perks of being a wallflower!

15. Which writer you would like to have a drink with in a pub?

A: Amy Lane, without a doubt. The emotion she brings out in her readers is something I have always tried to emulate in my books and failed countless times. Everyone that has reads her books, be it about straight or gay relationships, are moved to tears. I finished one series of hers and I cried my eyes out though it had a somewhat happy ending. I would love to know how she goes about that.

16. If you could be part of any Writing Generation of history, such as The Beat Generation of 1950s, the post modernistic Generation, The Lost Generation during and after The Great War and Victorian Era?

A: Everyone is kind of obsessed with the Victorian era so no to that, I don't want to be mainstream. The postmodernist generation never really interested me. The lost generation literature is quite impactful and I love the autobiographies so the lost generation for the win!

17. Views on current modern literature.

A: We need to step up our game because in all honesty, as much as I love the modern books I have read so far, none can compare or even come close to the good ole classics.

18. Views on New Age genre.

A: The genre has interesting books but nothing that I take seriously. I read the books so as not to be completely ignorant or when I want something to think about. Its a genre that I don't pay close attention to.

19. Views on writing and editing in the bounds of limited word count.

A: I can't work like that because the reason that I write is to express myself. If you give me a word count like I am taking a test in high school that will reflect in my work. Of course I'm aware that when publishing towards certain audiences you have be aware of their attention span but in a situation like that give me a flexible parameter to work with. Don't reject my work just because I went 200 words over the limit, reject it if the 200 extra words served no purpose and there was no point made in those 200 extra words. I usually avoid writing with a limited word count, I am not at good that.

20. Views on Literary Realism.

A: That's one thing I look for in a story, it doesn't matter if it's a dystopia or whatever, and realism does have to be injected in there. It's something that I feel modern age books are no longer paying attention to and I usually can't identify with book characters because of that. I will read the book even if it does not have realism in it if I'm interested enough, but it won't make much of an impact on me.

21. Movies and books that inspired you to write.

A: Amy lane's books, the harry potter series; Dante and Ari discover the secrets of the universe, Diary of a Young girl, Sherlock, Oliver twist, New revelations (not the bible Lola). Movies bore me, especially if they are not based off a book.

22. A message you would like to give to your old writer self.

A: Child you should continue with that holiday diary, you can make a lot of money from that! And also to not be ashamed of being a book nerd. I think I tried so hard not to be seen reading a lot or writing because it was not cool at that time. Now I wished I had used all that time to write all I wanted to write because now I hardly have the time to do so.

23. Future ambition and goals in Writing.

A: Publishing a book of course, LGBT based first then maybe a dystopian series based on my culture. It's going to be epic, watch this space y'all. I also want to be an editor but after l retire. 

*Laughing out loud*.

24. Your best writing schedule.

A: Friday, Saturday and Sunday at midnight because I'm a night owl. I'm usually at home at weekends only.

25. Imagination or Observation. Which do you use more in writing?

A: I get more from imagination. I can just go wild with something and I can lose myself in creating this imaginary thing or world and it's so satisfying for me. With observation I feel like it's too much mind games you know and I'm bad at mind games.

"Moving onto the next question. What--"

"Wait. You can't do that."

"What? Why?"

"It's called 5 & 20 questions. Not 8 & 20 questions."

"Can't we just do that, anyway? It's the first time and I prepared a lot of questions and--I got a little carried away."

An unsatisfied editor slaps the book shut and walks off stage. 

26. Changes you'd like to see in Wattpad.

A: Their algorithms. It hard for new writers to showcase their work or get recognition because Wattpad's algorithms are based on quantity I.e. how many votes, stars and views you have. Even their Watty competition, those that have managed to somehow garner a large following are the ones that win. Great books on Wattpad are so hard to find because of that.

27. One book character (Real life books) that you'd want to be romantically involved with.

A: Just one!? Bruh . . . Okay, at the moment, Zane Garret from the book 'Cut and Run' by Abigail Roux. Ask me again tomorrow and my answer will be different.

*Laughing out loud*.

28. A book's fantasy world that you'd like to live in.

A: Sherlock's world, without a doubt. I would love love LOVE to have him insult my less than average intellect. It's a life's dream of mine.

DAS ENDE!

Post questionnaire question, just to check my credentials.   

 Q: Was this fun or mildly intrusive? And if it was fun, which I hope it is, would you recommend a friend to have this type of conversation?  

A: Yeah it was super fun. I haven't a girl that doesn't like talking about herself to some extent. 

*Laughing out loud.* 

I would recommend it a friend, I don't know if they would do it though.

***

Huge thanks to Geraldine, also know as Gerry (@And25) for taking the time to bear with this set of questions. 

Why don't check her books out, where you'll find the recent re-installment of 'The Westbury Faery' along with a few fan-fictions.

Here's a link for Geraldine's WP page so that you won't have to rely on Wattpad's search engine:

https://aztruyen.top/tac-gia/AndThen25

In the future, we are interested in reaching out to other friends and authors on Wattpad and learn more about them through this type of quirky, hard hitting and humorous intrusion.

Enjoyed this kind of conversation?

Vote and leave down your thoughts about the questions and your replies to some of the more important topics such as romancing literary characters. 

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