Vintage | Phoenix Interviews (𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐃)

SavvyDunn

Tori, from CLN, had the honor of interviewing an amazing author, SavvyDunn She is a Wattpad Star and is the author of several books on Wattpad including Highland Wedding, Highland Fling, High Heels, and Pink Glitter, and several others.

What inspired you to first start writing?

I've always loved writing. My writing 'career' began with a poem written when I was seven years old that won me a prize at school. Thankfully for the world, my later poetry efforts were written in the pre-internet days so never saw the light of day... But I love writing because I think words are one of the most powerful tools for creativity we have at our disposal.

I definitely agree with you. Words tend to bring a certain beauty to everything they're applied to!

You've written many books during your time on Wattpad, where do all of these ideas come from?

Inspiration is a funny ol' thing and it comes in diverse ways. The idea for one story, Artists Town, came to me when my husband booked us a B&B in a small village in the north of Scotland. We researched the place and discovered years ago, a man had bought up a lot of businesses and properties there using money he stole from the Metropolitan Police (you couldn't make it up), which got me thinking. With the vampire story I wrote, Beautiful Biters, I tried to come up with some 'fresh' ideas about vampires, such as I bet they really, really miss food. I know I would. Blood's a real dull diet, is it not?!

Oh, yes, I can't imagine ever only drinking one thing for my whole life. It sounds very distasteful.

I'm sure you've dipped your feet in many different genres. Are there any you find yourself drifting back to regularly?

Probably romcoms/light-hearted first person stuff as I think that's probably the 'voice' I do best. I'd love to be able to write crime/thrillers (the real page-turner stuff) but it's not in my skill set.

As someone who wrote a crime novel, I must say it's not as difficult as it seems! I'm sure you'd do great with the right practice.

Are any of your characters inspired by real people? Do you have any special stories behind them?

Did you?! Respect. Most of my characters will have little bits of real people in them--tributes to my family, for example. They might say or do something one of them has done. And in Artists Town, my main character's father was inspired by the real life man who defrauded the Met as mentioned above.

It sounds like you bring in quite a bit of your personal life into your stories. I always find that these stories are the most enjoyable to read!

Do you remember the publication of your first book? Could you share your experience with us if you do?

Not too much that I inadvertently hurt or offend someone, I hope! But sometimes people say something irresistible and you just know you will have to put it in a book... Yes, it wasn't on this platform but somewhere else and it felt like an anti-climax. Having said that, I still get a bit nervous because writing exposes us at our most vulnerable so you're always taking a huge risk putting yourself 'out there'.

Oh, yes I understand. Posting a new story can often be very anxiety inducing.

Have you ever refrained from publishing a new story because of this?

Yes. I wrote a story a few years ago where one of the characters had dementia and I was worried I didn't do the character and the people around her justice so I've never done anything with it. And I also began a story about the injustices that happened to one of my neighbours whose son was killed in a particularly nasty hit and run and realised it was unethical to keep writing it. Sometimes, I write stuff that has adult content and I do have a fairly young adult base I don't want to offend. If they've read my romcoms, I steer clear of the X-rated stuff in that so I don't want them to be shocked if they read something they weren't expecting. I try to label my stories with cinema/TV ratings so people have an idea of what might be in them.