Karen, one of the Phoenix interviewers from CLN, had a great opportunity to interview AbbieButtonbee, who has been writing amazing books about dealing and coping with various physical and mental health issues and making it an open discussion for everyone.

Hello! I'm Karen from the Crazy Late Nighters Community and you have been nominated by LINALOUICE for an interview in our book, Vintage. Can you tell us your name or pen name and pronoun that you would like to go by for this interview?

To answer your first question: call me Abbie; that's my actual nick. And my pronoun is 'She'.

Abbie is a beautiful nickname! When did you first start writing and what inspired you to write?

Thank you! My writing journey started with a poem when I was 7. Most of my family on my Dad's side are involved with some sort of art and we used to have these literary gatherings. Watching them I wanted to join in too and started writing tiny poems. That was the start of my writing endeavours.

As for stories, I wrote my first fanfic back in 2015. Since then, I've been writing them on and off, for different fandoms. Writing is therapeutic to me.

The literary gatherings sound like an amazing bonding activity with your family. It's great to hear that they make an impact in your life for wanting to write.

As a writer, what makes your writing different from others who write similar things as you?

I honestly don't think I'm any different than the rest. As writers, we all share the same passion. And as to what sets my writing apart, my wonderful readers would be more eligible to answer that. Can the amount of tears and snots my stories collect be the criterion for this comparison? Hehe.

By glancing at your works, I can tell your fans must really love you. You have two stories with over 40K reads and another with over 100K. That's amazing.

I'm guessing if your stories cause tears and snot, then you must show a lot of emotions in your writing. How do you put such emotions into your writing?

Thank you. The credits go to all those lovely potatoes who stopped by and decided to give the stories a go!

My stories are, indeed, heavy with emotions. All my mediocre writing talent is concentrated on portraying different human emotions. In real life, I like to observe people: how they express themselves, how they react to others and so on. Sort of character analysis, you know? And while writing I try to put myself into all the characters' shoes and react to the situations, I try to feel their sorrows, their elations. My experience merging with imaginations brings the characters into life and fortunately, the readers like how they turn out to be.

My main objective in writing is to create something with which at least some people can relate to on a personal level. To give representation to the underrepresented. If you go through them, you'll see many of my stories have the main characters with some sort of physical or psychological limitations. I want to voice all of us that feel discriminated or differentiated by the society or in general. That's the motivation behind my writing.

It's wonderful that you try to make it where your readers can relate to your stories, and that you are representing the underrepresented. You've written several books on Wattpad. Which is your favorite and why?

That is tough to decide. I'm very emotionally involved with all my stories. Holding a piece of my soul, they are like my Horcruxes (Potterhead warning)! However, writing 'Blind' was challenging to me. In the story, one of the main characters is visually impaired. As someone blessed with sight, it was difficult for me to portray his emotions and how he perceives the world that revolves around speed and sight.

That being said, the one I'm currently writing (for which I was nominated here) Thread That Binds Us- it's rapidly becoming the story to which I can relate to on a deeper, personal level. I suffer from most of the psychological issues depicted there. The process is proving to be a self rediscovery, even though it's not a bio-fic.

I love Harry Potter too. Both of the stories that you mentioned sound like great reads. You say 'Blind' was a challenge to write. How did you come up with the idea for it and did you do research on the subject?

I was writing a story about Autism when the idea struck. I was thinking how more difficult the situation must be for blind autistic people and the seed was planted at that moment.

And yes, I do research when need be. As a writer, I feel, I have a responsibility to create something well planned and thoughtful because there is always a chance of someone being influenced or inspired by my words (however mediocre I might be) and I never want to misguide or misinform them. For me, it is a must to be at least partially informed about the subject I'm writing on. Sometimes, I do what I term as 'method writing' where I try to feel the emotions my characters are feeling. While writing 'Blind' I used to blindfold myself for hours and do my daily indoor activities. But it's not always helpful. My anxiety was triggered numerous times writing Thread That Binds Us, applying the same method.

I don't think I even have words to describe how I am feeling right now. As a parent with a child who is being tested for Autism, I am beyond amazed at the lengths you go through to write topics that many won't touch. You are doing something truly amazing by bringing light to these subjects that many people still don't fully know about.

How do you come up with your characters and do they have traits from you or people in your life?

Your words touched my heart, truly. Thank you so much for appreciating my efforts. And you're a brave momma to a great kid. Give my love to them.

I write fanfictions, even though all my plots are independent and the characters hardly have traits that they share with their real life selves. Many have asked me why I don't write original fictions. The thing is, my stories and characters are original, only their faces and names are not. I guess, having definitive faces helps me with assigning characteristics. Sometimes I infuse traits of real people into my characters. Mine or my friends' and so on.

Thank you so much and I will give him your love. I do agree with you that it's easier to make a character when you can visualize them. If you could describe your writing style in 5 words, what would they be?

I didn't know how to answer it, so I had to ask my friend for help, who's also a reader. In her words- passionate, angsty, emotional, relatable on a deeper level and socially aware. She also added, sleep deprived but we're not gonna talk about that!

(Thanks, Butty! ಥ‿ಥ)

That is an amazing way to describe your writing style and I can definitely relate to being sleep deprived. ha ha. A struggle for most writers is writer's block. Have you had it and if so, how did you overcome it?

Oh god! I have experienced it so many times and for such a long stretch that I'm dead scared of it. One time it lasted for almost a year! Things get very difficult for me during such phases. My writing is spontaneous. When I'm in the mood I can write 10k words at one go. But when the writer's block drops, I find it hard to squeeze out even a hundred words. Usually I wait it out or read my old stories (and cringe away at every mistake I come across) to trigger my writing spree.

Wow! A year? I am glad you came back to writing. That's also incredible that you can write 10k words in one go. I wish I could write like that. What are your strengths and weaknesses in writing?

Thank you! I'm glad too. I love writing. I don't know if it can be considered strength or not but depicting emotion is my forté. I am at ease when I describe all the different moods and expressions of the characters, the little details and shifts in their behaviour.

I have so many flaws! One of which is I'm terrible at writing case fics. I once wrote a thriller and the process almost brought me to tears. Never again! Another one is preposition. My native tongue is a post positional language. So, sometimes I mess up the prepositions. Grammatical errors in a story is one of my pet peeves.

Being able to write emotions the way you do is such a great strength. How did you discover Wattpad and do you use any other platform(s) for your writing?

Thank you. I'm glad you think so. I discovered Wattpad back in 2017. I had just joined a fandom and wanted to write something. A friend of mine suggested Wattpad as that particular fandom was mostly active here. The first platform I used was Archive Of Our Own (AO3), then published some on fanfiction(dot)net. That's all.

So you've been on Wattpad for about three years. I'm sure your readers are glad that you discovered Wattpad. If your life was turned into a book, what would be the title and why?

We are all unfinished books, are we not? Being written constantly, from all kinds of genres. I haven't thought about what my autobiography would be called but probably something like, "Take A Sad Song And Make It Better". Not terribly original, eh? Hahaha. You see, my life is a series of trauma interrupted by some wonderful memories which help me to keep living.

You are very right. We all are unfinished books waiting to see what happens next. Like most authors, I would guess you have a favorite author too. If you could meet your favorite author, who would it be and why?

There are so many of them. From English group alone, I'd like to meet Sir George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, Dan Brown and many more. But if I have to choose, it would be Sir Arthur Conan Doyle because I want to know what made him hate his greatest creation of all times.

Those are all great authors, and your reason for wanting to meet Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a good one. What do you hope to accomplish with your writing, and where do you see yourself in five year with it?

I don't write for popularity. I don't ask people to read my stories. Writing is happiness to me. I do it for myself and in hope that through my words I would be able to help at least some people. When my readers tell me how they can relate to my characters and draw inspiration from them- that's my biggest reward.

It's great to hear that you write for yourself instead of popularity. It's even better that it gives you happiness.

Speaking of readers, LINALOUICE nominated you. She nominated you because "The dialogues are to die for. Her fiction has taught me life lessons which I couldn't learn in real life. Truly marvelous."

I know we briefly mentioned it earlier in the interview, but she has a question for you. "How did you gasp such deep understanding of mental health issues? It is very thought provoking."

LINALOUICE is a bowl of pure joy! She is kind and warm and insightful and very encouraging. Thanks, love, for nominating me!

And to answer her: the mental health issues that I have addressed in the story, "Thread That Binds Us'' are mostly the ones I myself suffer from. Due to the personal experience, it gives me an advantage to have some sort of in-depth knowledge on the subject. That, along with my understanding of human psyche, has enabled me to paint the characters in various psychological shades. The purpose is to normalize talking about mental health issues; to remove the taboo. And I am glad to know that she has found it as thought provoking and educating. Not sure if I'm deserving of such huge compliments but I thank her from the core of my being.

Normalizing the talk of mental health issues is very important and I can't begin to tell you how much respect I have for you because you are trying to do that. It's something that someone can't fully understand if they don't have it and many people hide it due to the fact that they are scared of what others will think. So from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you for writing about this subject.

Continuing on with your readers, do you still get excited when they leave comments complimenting your works?

You explained it way better than I did. That's exactly the reason I'm trying to make a difference. To give voice to those who think they haven't gotten any.

Excited?? I'm CRAZY about comments! If you go through my 'Author's Notes', you'll see how much I love receiving comments. Not praises but thoughts. Hearing from the readers what they think or how they feel gives me another perspective of my plotline and characters. And they motivate me. When I'm down or not in the mood of writing, one comment from them about how they are waiting and BAM! My keyboard goes frantic! Everything is temporary but words are forever. I'm grateful for every vote and read but comments make me happy like nothing else!

I love that! "Everything is temporary but words are forever." You are so very right. Words hold such a great impact on us. As writers, we can learn just as much from our readers as they learn from our writing. What advice would you give to new writers who are just starting out?

Oh dear, I am not in the position of giving advice. I'm gonna say what I do. If you're serious and passionate about writing then first, get a good grasp over the language and draft a definitive plotline before you start. And the most important thing- FEEL what your characters are feeling. Don't be partial to any of them. And if you're a BL writer like I am, clear your browser history before you die.

I think the advice you gave is amazing and works not only for new writers but those who have been writing for a while already too. Just so our readers know, how many books have you written so far and is there any particular order they should read them in?

Before Wattpad I had probably written 10+ stories. Here on Wattpad, the listed number is 9, among which there is a short story collection that has 13 stories. So, 21 maybe? I'm horrible with numbers. And no, there's no particular order. Read whatever and however you seem fit. Even if you are not from the fandom, you won't have any problem understanding the plots. They are just BLs with known faces.

Those are a lot of stories and it's wonderful that anyone can read your stories without having to know the fandom. So, I have one final question before this interview ends. Although I really hate ending this interview. It has been one of my favorites and I am thrilled and blessed that I was able to interview you.

Is there anything that you would like to say to your fans and readers?

It's been an absolute pleasure to be interviewed by you. I was pretty nervous but you made it so smooth and easy for me to talk so openly. Thank you. You're a darling! (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤

And I haven't achieved anything to have fans and my readers probably know me better than some of my friends. However, to wrap everything up, I'd like to tell them that we all hold a universe inside us. Never think you're inadequate. Never belittle others. Our scars are the proof of our strength. Live and let live. Find a reason to smile everyday. Peace out! Don't stop potatoing! ( ˘ ³˘)♥

Thank you so much from myself and all of CLN for allowing me to interview you. You are an amazing person trying to make mental health issues an open subject to talk about.