365 Interviews

Interview 18: hepburnettes

1. Can you tell me a bit about yourself?
My name's Noelle, I'm currently in my first year of university as a lit major, and I live somewhere in Asia.

2. What inspired you to write?
Honestly? Nothing really inspired me. I guess it was just the fact that I had a lot of ideas in my head, I needed to get them out somewhere, so I started writing, and things just picked up from there.

3. Do you have a specific writing style? 
Not at all. My writing style varies a lot, depending on which novel I work on. I think for the time being it's more of reflective and slow-paced, but I'm hoping I'll be able to improve and come up with a style that's better and more unique.

4. How did you come up with the titles of your stories?
I adore titles, so I literally spend ages thinking of a good one. I have a lot of one-word titles, like Notorious, but they don't stand out as much. More often than not, the title's based on what the book's about – eg, Cherry Knots is literally about tying cherry knots and learning how to kiss. Breakup Formula was just something I came up with after looking at a tumblr gif. I get inspiration from weird places.

5. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Yes, of course. For Cherry Knots, it's basically about how you needn't be afraid of your past, because that's what shapes you to become who you are. For Notorious – bullying is plain wrong, whether you're the heartless bully, or you're the bullied taking revenge on those who've caused you hurt. Either way, hurting people is just wrong. And for Breakup Formula, it's about how you're never going to forget the person whose hurt you, but you can forgive them.

6. How much of the book is realistic?
Cherry Knots isn't realistic at all. Notorious is based on my experiences of how I've seen people get bullied and not done anything to help them. And Breakup Formula is based on my past relationship – I'm literally writing out all the pain and hurt I've felt from it, so certain bits are really personal to me.

7. Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
Matt from Cherry Knots is actually based on my roommate, who shares the same handicap as him.

8. Imagine your characters are on survivor.  Who will they vote out of the book? 
Haha totally Eloise. She's just not emotionally and mentally strong enough, she shouldn't even be on Survivor to begin with.

9. What job did you want to be as a kid? 
A fashion designer.

10. What is your main goal with writing books? 
I just want someone to be able to identify with what I'm writing. So long as that one person can feel what my character is feeling, then I think I've pretty much achieved my goal.

11. Do you ever experience writer’s block?
All the time. It's every writer's nightmare, I do believe.

12. Do you work with an outline, or just write?
I used to work with outlines, but that was when I wrote novels. Since I'm writing short stories these days, I just sit down for about 2 hours a week and write a chapter.

13. Imagine your main character dies on page one.  Everything else remains the same.  Describe the new plot to your book.
If Kira from Breakup Formula dies, then Joey would just continue to wallow in self-pity. It'd be a story about a boy who would never be able to find the confidence to love again, or to get over his heartbreak, because he was really affected by his breakup with Fiona.

14. What do you do when you are not writing? 
I swim a lot too, play music, hang out with friends or go to the movies with them, and I adore just lazing around and doing absolutely nothing too.

15. Do you see writing as a career or a hobby?
I see it as me being a journalist, or an editor. But not as a published author, because that's just insane. So yes, I'm totally content with it being a hobby right now.

16. Will you have a new story coming out soon? If so can you tell us about it?
I'm working on two stories at the moment, but when I'm done with those, I'll be working on a new one. It's called Anchor, and it's incredibly slow and sad, about a boy getting over his brother's death and a girl helping him do it.

17. What was the hardest part of writing your book? 
Well, I've got a huge issue with Notorious, because I'm writing about an insanely sensitive topic – bullying. And given that the female protagonist falls in love with Callum, the bully, it's kind of difficult to portray him in a good light without skimming over the fact that he is, after all, someone who hurts people. I honestly have no idea how to set right the wrong that he's done all this while.

18. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
Perseverance, definitely. No matter how tangled up or confusing my writing may be, I think it requires a lot of patience on my part to sort it out.

19. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
My readers are my greatest motivation, and I absolutely adore them. Without them, I'd be nowhere near where I am right now, so I owe it all to them and I honestly can't thank them enough.

20. Do you have any advice for other writers?
Don't ever, ever give up. Popularity isn't everything, and while getting many votes and comments is lovely, everyone needs to start off somewhere. It saddens me whenever I see a really talented author give up because wattpad doesn't acknowledge talent when they see one. Everyone starts with really few votes, like five per chapter, and maybe no comments. But don't give up, keep writing and you'll slowly get the readership you deserve.
thank you so much for the interview love, really appreciate it :)