Interviewer: Anna

Client Username: MatthewXavierBlack

Book interviewed about: Two Worlds

1. When did you join wattpad and why? 

I opened my Wattpad account about two years ago. I had been an academic writer for years, but I wanted to try my hand at writing fiction. Wattpad seemed like a good place to get feedback for my work. 

2. What was your first story, and is it still published? Are you still working on it? 

My first attempt at novel-writing is a trilogy called the "Anunnaki Chronicles"-at least that's the plan! The first book, THEY WOULD BE GODS, is almost finished and what's done is currently posted to my account.

3. How many works do you have in drafts? Do you have a lots of ideas for stories or very few?

Let's see..I currently have 14 novels for which I've actually written at least a chapter. But there are about a dozen more stories for which I've jotted down notes of some sort. When I first started writing, I wondered how anyone could have more than one or two ideas for a novel at any time. Obviously, that's changed. I have lots of ideas now-so many that I have to tell myself to focus on one story at a time.

4. Do you plan on becoming a published author? With which story/stories? 

Ultimately, my plan is to become a published author. As for which stories? Any that I finish and people are willing to read.

5. What inspired you to write "Two Worlds"? Is there anyone it is dedicated to?

TWO WORLDS was inspired by multiple ideas merging into one. It began with a conversation I had with a close friend about travel to Mars and a "What if?" moment that came out of that conversation. Another piece of the story was my love for the character Sidney Carton in Charles Dickens' novel, "A Tale of Two Cities." I thought Carton was a wonderful gray character who deserved more of the spotlight, so I recreated him as the main character in my story. Lastly, a third piece of the story deals with the horrors of drug addiction. So many lives are lost to this silent epidemic..I wanted to tell a story that brought awareness to the issue, albeit indirectly since my novel is told in the near future.

6.How long have you been writing it? If it's completed, how long did it take or when did you finish it? 

TWO WORLDS is complete and took approximately a year to write. I finished in October 2020.

7. How did you handle writer's block? 

I have a variety of methods for helping me to write consistently, even when I feel like I've got nothing to say. The first is that I use Evernote to outline my stories. At first, I block out about twenty chapters with very minimal descriptions of what will happen in each chapter, knowing that all of it is subject to change when the novel is fully fleshed out. I also do a lot of research-character names, personality quirks, location descriptions, background data that I put into tables on Evernote. Before I actually draft, I go back to my "outline" and develop the section for the current chapter so that it's more detailed, and issues like character/place names are resolved before I draft. On days I'm struggling to draft, I usually work on these things, reminding myself that this is writing, too. On the other side of things, if I'm stuck writing a new chapter or section, I go over my previous draft and try to strengthen it.I find this helps me get back into the story and often helps me add new material. One other tool I use is a program called "Flowstate." It's a weird program, to be honest, and maybe not for everyone. But it puts the user on a timer.and if at any point the user stops interacting with the keyboard for more than five seconds, everything that was written is permanently lost. High-stakes stuff! But I find a fifteen-minute session on Flowstate helps me kick off each chapter with two or three hundred words. From there, I'm usually good to go!

8. How many hours do you usually spend writing a day? 

I try to spend two to three hours a day on my writing.

9. Who's your favourite character in your story and why?

 My favorite character is Sidney Carter, closely followed by Elsa LeFarge.

10. What's your favourite scene in your story and why?

There's a scene later in the story where LeFarge is feeding pigeons. Her dialogue is nasty, and it always makes me laugh because I'm not that sort of person in real life.