365 Interviews

Interview 152: @BlackNether12

1. Can you tell me about yourself? Not much to tell. I was born in Arizona to a PhD Physicist and his wife, both strong Christians and active anti-governmentalists, who believed with all their might that the world was in big trouble with the government going the way it was. When I was 2 years old we moved to a small Central American country (Belize), where we stayed for 3 years. After that my mother and father divorced (my mom went back to the states and our dad took custody of us and stayed in Belize). When I was 6 a friend of our family moved in with us -a high class french traveller who spoke 8 languages and could cook like only a frenchwoman could- and with her we moved to Nicaragua for two years. Nicaragua ended up being a bit much to handle with all the Spanish speakers and only one really effective translater (I learned a lot of Spanish there, but never could communicate well). So we moved back to Belize. The years after were rather hectic, with us going up to the US to visit relatives a number of times, and the relationship between our father, our new step mother, our mother, and us 5 brothers being very tense. When I was 10 our father caught cancer, and if he hadn't been so against the system he might have gone to the doctors and gotten it taken care of right away. Instead he waited a year, sick, and failing. Tensions were short during these months, with my eldest brothers being in their late teens and very repellious and independent (one of them ended up leaving rather angrily to work for our grandfather in Pheonix). Our stepmother constantly threatened to leave our dad and our mom screamed in the background (we could hear her quite well it seemed, even though she was thousands of miles away). Unfortunately all our problems were solved for us! My father died of a heart attack shortly after surgery in Guatemala. I never saw him again. All our relatives came down to the funeral. It was agreed that me and my younger brother would go back up to the United States under the custody of our aunt -even in direct defiance of our fathers will, which stated that he wanted our second eldes brother (a very responsible 18 year old) to take care of us. Our stepmother went her own way, and our mother fumed in the background at the unfairness of the situation. To put it kindly however, things didn't work out. After many uninteresting situations, I found myself back in Belize, being raised by my older brother. I still live in Belize, on the land left to me by my father, working as a freelancer (in many areas); but hoping to one day get published!2. What inspired you to write? To tell the truth it was my brother. When we were little (5/6 and 7/8) I would tell him stories. We moved around a lot then and I ended up never growing tired of telling those stories; over time the ideas grew in my mind, and when I was 11 I started writing them down. These ideas turned into the written pieces I have today.3. If you could have one of your characters come to life who would it be and why? What would you do with them? I wouldn't want any of my characters to come to life. Thinking like that is very well when you are ... younger ... but you must keep in perspective. However; in the spirit I would say I'd want Tauren Netharu. I seriuosly feel like a good talk could get me to know him better XD.4. Where do the your ideas come from? They come from everywhere. My life. My family. My work. My friends. The movies I watch. The books I read. You even! I put my heart into my writing, and little accellerations can make big dents in the long run.5. Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you? Working 'SOTP' ('where the idea takes you' method) is suicide for any writer. It may sound good and you may want to argue with me, but any good writer can tell you I'm right. I personally just try to visualize an ending and a few story disasters before I start writing; it's enough to keep me in line. Full on planning just kills my enthusiasm though, and enthusiasm is critical for managing flowstates (Check ).6. How do you think you've evolved creatively? Since I started writing? I'd say that I've evolved a lot, though not all that much more than anyone else in any other field would have. Creativity is really a limitless number, you simply need CRAFT to be able to measure it. My craft has evolved a lot.7.What is the hardest thing about writing? Obtaining confidence in your own eyes. As simple as that.8. Would you call yourself a wattpad celebrity? Why so or why not? Definitely not. Why not? Well A: I don't want to be and don't try to be, and B: Wattpad celebrities are required to write a genre of fiction that I find very difficult to read (much less write).9. Are you working on any new story you can tell me about? Besides The Soul Forge? No, not really. I have a couple of ideas that I might pull together sometime here, but I'm still working on them.10. What is your favorite quote? "All choose steel in our own eyes; but tread softly, friend, for you tread on my dreams." -- It's from a movie, but I can't remember it's name at the moment.11. What is your favorite film and why? The movie at the top of my 'favorites' list changes with my mood; but most of the time I enjoy movies like Lord of the Rings, the new Spiderman, and War of the Arrows.12. Where can you see yourself in 5 years time? Writing wise? I plan to be published by then for sure. My skills are developing quickly, and I am confident that with enough drafting I could publish my works and do well enough. But you can never guarantee what will happen in your life; I may have a new passion by then! As of now writing is just a hobby and not a full time job, so ... anthything could happen.13. Imagine your main character dies on page one. Everything else remains the same. Describe the new plot to your book. Erh. With this there is no real option; the main character ceases to be the main character. My readers will never relate to or sympathize with him, and someone else will step up to the plate. But this is necessarily hypothetical, because if nothing else changed the story would have no meaning, of course.14. What advice would you give to your younger self?Do some planning before you jump in. My problem when I was younger was that I while I loved to write and struggled valiantly, my plots were knots of half-dried sphagetti. If I'd just thought of what I wanted the end of my story to be, I would have done infinitely better.15. Which famous person, living or dead would you like to meet and why? Brandon Sanderson. Despite some criticism I have for his style of writing, he is still the ultimate story world craftsman. What I wouldn't give to get some face to face advice from him! (Mind, I'm a Christian so of course my ideal would be to go back to Jesus' time and meet him, but keeping with the writing theme I stick with Sanderson).16. If you could have been the original author of any book, what would it have been and why? My own of course. The events of a writers life create who they are, and who they are directly influences what their stories turn out to be. I could never be the original author of any book but my own.17. What was the easiest part of writing? The easiest part? Okay, respectfully speaking to all good readers; look up 'Flowstates' on Wikipedia (It'll come up as just 'Flow') and learn what they are. Flowstate is easy to achieve for me, and in it I have no qualms as to what's hard and what's easy. Because everything's easy. What turns out best in my first drafts though? I can't tell you that, personally; it's up for readers to judge. I am very satisfied with my descriptions though.18.Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it? I started writing The Soul Forge when I was eleven, and it has been my ultimate project ever since. Mind; I don't have a lot to show for it, but the background story world information I have gathered is extensive. My book is my writing; it is everything. What I know now about fiction is from writing my book.19.Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers? Yes: If you're reading this you are one of two kinds of Wattpad members. If you are a reader, then please, please, please; remember, when you're reading a writers work and you enjoy the piece, please tell them so. Writing is a craft and an art, writers appreciate appreciation more than you can imagine! Writers! Same goes for you; but for you I have to beg that you attempt in the future to give a piece of your knowledge to fellow writers. Readers can show appreciation or contempt (or give suggestions) if they choose to, but you have the ability to do more! Give feedback, give appreciation, but give suggestions that build as well!20. Do you have any advice for other writers? (Cancelling this question as the answer is written out above in ).